Saturday, Nov 10, 2007

Manama: Jawaher strutted up the red carpet in the spacious hall, her head high and her eyes focused on the bottles of perfume cluttered on the vanity table at the centre. The grand sale was an outstanding event, and, as usual, the vivacious 25-year-old woman was drawn in.

Jawaher, born to a family that appreciates fragrant scents has always been fascinated by perfumes. "Maybe it has to do with our Arab or Middle Eastern genes. I could not help breaking into a large smile last week when I read in a Western women's magazine that the latest trend in cosmetics is the 'natural' ingredient and that women can now freshen up their dried complexions with lotions made from honey, almond, beeswax, wheat germ, earth pigment," she said.

Natural environment

"I laughed because that is the way it has always been with women in the Middle East," said the American university business graduate, reaching the coveted table where she skilfully indulged in testing the various fragrances on her white skin.

Middle Eastern women's fascination with perfume could be the result of what the high humidity, the burning sunlight and the winds threatened to do to their complexion. Aromatic ointments and oils were crucial to protect skins and drown bitter smells, and women were certainly fortunate with a generous natural environment where jasmine, peppermint, citrus fruits, almonds and anise seeds, cedar, animal fats and vegetable oils were readily available to make the lotions and perfumes that would honour any modern vanity table.

Hweida Danouni, a banker whose obsession with perfume takes up a large chunk of her salary, said that she was keen on helping perpetuate the scents that women in the Middle East had for perfume.

"I became captured by the allure of perfume during my early days in high school. It has been a fragrant love story ... Perfume is something that makes me purer, more perfect. I am glad that I was raised in a region where perfumes are popular," she said, echoing the words of an Arab writer, who wrote that, "If I am told to transact in goods, I will choose perfumes. For if I miss the profit, I will not miss the smell."

For Hweida, the powerful Middle East culture, where women are known for wanting to please their men, stresses perfume as a mine of inspiration.

"Women are perpetually keen on being clean and on looking attractive ... overall, women in the Middle East have become real experts in repairing the onslaught of time on skins," she said.

But in the region where Hweida was born, perfume also enjoys a wide acclaim among men keen on enjoying the lavish scent and its subtle effects upon their psyche.

"Perfume is so deeply incorporated into our culture that wearing it is an integral part of life in the Middle East, and particularly the Gulf," said Abdullah Al Hajri, a delicate strain of perfume emanating from his white towb.

"For us, it is as important and precious as gold and always lingers in our spiritual as well as earthly ceremonies."

For Ebrahim Al Wazzan, a perfume is both a sign of grandeur and an appreciation of beauty.

Extravagance

"When you meet people or enter houses, the aromas of scents drifting in the air indicate their status. In the old sections of Muharraq, one of the oldest towns in Bahrain, as well as in the modern houses of Riffa perfumes are omnipresent," said the PR executive.

"Rooms are sprinkled with incense and frankincense is everywhere whenever a guest is coming to visit. The extravagance of perfume and scents is a deep-rooted practice that we love to uphold as a mark of esteem for our guests," said Shaikh Salman Bin Eisa Al Khalifa.

Helen Concepsion, a Filipina executive PR with Al Hawaj, Bahrain's largest perfume distributor, said that women's fascination with perfume never fluctuates.

"I have been working in this position for years and at no time, even during the difficult times suffered by the region, did the interest of women, and men for that matter, in perfume decrease," she said.

Gulf News 2007. All rights reserved.