A concern for hygiene and bathing appears in the 18th century, giving rise to the emergence of two spaces until then non-existent in the household : the toilet and the bathroom.

This hygienist tendency is confirmed in the 19th century by the appearance of treatises on health and hygiene praising the virtues of bathing, beneficial for one's health and skin. In this society strongly influenced by the rising bourgeoisie, hygiene is in fact the symbol of a pure soul and virtue.

Soap, which undergoes a significant improvement in quality with the discovery of artificial washing soda in 1791, then holds a considerable place in the perfumery. In 1880, the well-known Eugene Rimmel estimates the bathing-soap industry to be one of the leading branches.

From the Renaissance up to the 19th century dry perfume also used and in a variety of ways : powders for sachets, one's face, wigs, sold as loose goods in large bins decorated in a refined manner.

Perfumery is dealt a heavy blow by the French Revolution and its desire to banish every memory of Louis the XVI's court. Even the creation of such evocatively named perfumes as "parfum a la guillotine" or "parfum a la Nation" proves of no avail.

But, with the Directoire, a frenzy for luxury and pleasure overcomes society. With its extravagantly dressed Muscadins and their excessive fondness for musk ,civet , and mace, and its Merveilleuses' flashy display of wealth and Greek-inspired outfits, Paris becomes the fashion capital.

Under the Empire, while Josephine adopts exotic scents (vanilla, clove, cinnamon) Napoleon prefers l'Eau de Cologne rubdowns.

The Restoration is the period for romanticism and light, sweet fragrances, perfumed waters and ambiance perfumes, presented in precious flasks made of opaline, crystal overlay, or Cloisonne (enamel),...

Frequently subject to languor, women of fashion carry flasks of smelling salts and vinaigrettes containing powerful emanations in their necklaces, rings or slipped inside their muffs in case of fainting-fits.

It is in the Roman Empire that the use of sapo, a foamy paste made of goat fat and soapwort ashes, spreads.

It isn't until the Middle Ages however that alkaline based soap appears. Marseilles' renowned soap industry, created in the mid 15th century, expands significantly in the 17th century, with the decline of Italian factories.

Today, tallow or vegetable oils such as coprah (coco almond stripped of its shell) provide the basis for soap making.

Powder, a fine and impalpable substance, is one of the most ancient make-ups and is known since Herodotus' time (5th century b.c.).
In the 16th century, starch powder or tinted, scented flour is used to embellish hairstyles.
The 18th century remains the pinnacle of coquetry and ornament. Never have powders and make-ups been so heavily used. Women think only of ornamenting themselves, making themselves up, "plastering" themselves, and admiring themselves...As for the men, they powder themselves frosty with white.

At the end of the 18thcentury, Josephine de Beauharnais, the Creole, accustomed to the strong and spicy scents of her homeland, nicknamed "la folle de musc" (the musk nut), popularizes powders s perfumed with vanilla and amber...
These powders come in exquisitely crafted boxes made of only the noblest materials : tortoise shell, exotic woods, ivory, sharkskin, and chinese lacquer.
Under the second Empire, talcum powder and starch give way to rice powder, an impalpable, perfumed, velvety, colored substance whose thin veil softens and harmonizes one's facial features. It is thus that Baudelaire praises make-up as "flattering woman's poetic vision".
The production of powder by industrial means in the first half of the 19th century brings with it refillable cardboard boxes.

It is also at this time that the feminine cosmetics industry literally soars, creating lines of perfumes which use powder.
The packaging varies from Japanese-inspired designs to more passe designs using inlay or sharkskin motifs coming from the 18th century.

Constantly evolving technical processes allow for new powder box designs, including the use of metallic paper beginning in the 1920's.
After a long period of austerity due to the two world wars, during which producers play on the sizes, the printing quality, graphic purity or color harmony, a considerable transformation appears in the sixties with the introduction of plastic which will slowly replace cardboard.
The cosmetics market becomes global and ever more efficient technologies allow for quality controlled, ultra sophisticated products whose chemical properties are thought to provoke allergies.
The powder box's transformations over the centuries, in its use of tortoise shell, exotic wood, and ivory to cardboard and then plastic, as well as sumptuous multicolored labels, is a veritable cultural gage of artistic and sociological change.

Beginning in the 18th century, Jean-Marie Farina begins selling a fruit based alcohol solution in Cologne under the name of l'Eau Admirable, whose formula he obtained from his uncle, Jean-Paul Feminis, and whose therapeutic virtues are confirmed by Cologne College of Medicine.

This tonic preparation with its fresh and fruity scent is known as Eau de Cologne in France, and becomes immensely popular all throughout Europe.

In the early 19th century, another Jean-Marie Farina, heir to the founder of the legendary company and its formula, settles in Paris and becomes the official supplier the Emperor Napoleon I. In 1840, he sells his business to Leonce Collas who sells it again in 1862 to Messieurs Roger and Gallet who continue producing the legendary Eau de Cologne.

Opaline is a crystal colored by adding tin oxide and calcified bone which give it its milky quality imitating opal, an opaque or translucent stone much appreciated in the 19th century.

To obtain a crystal overlay, a thin coat of the color one wishes to give to the overlay is let slide over the flask, held at the end of a cane. The cutter's arts perfects it. As a matter of fact, its the pontil-cut on the flask's border which allows one to see the inside, and the successive layers.

Blowpipe : a long iron tube used both to handle the glass and to blow it.
Pontil : a solid tube of iron used to work the flask during the different stages of fabrication and to transport it.

Ceramic-crystal technique or millefiore glass consists in enclosing a porcelain cameo in a crystal flask; the first millefiore glass pieces date back to the 17th century.

Just as in the 1!th century, the use of pommanders and perfume diffusers is very widespread throughout the first half of the 19th century, the reign of bourgeois taste : decent, reasonable, without excess.