“In India, perfume has always been a luxury, given the handcrafted nature of its composition, and, of course, the ingredients. We’ve seen perfumes mentioned in the Ramayana, the Mughals patronised perfumers during their reign and royal families across India were our loyal customers,” says Mukul Gundhi, seventh-generation owner of Gulab Singh Johri Mal, Delhi’s oldest perfume shop, that has been around for 206 years in the capital’s old quarter, Chandini Chowk. While the culture of attars and roohs may have declined in recent decades, what makes India’s perfume culture special is that it has seamlessly transitioned to a vibrant, thriving contemporary industry.
Indian Parfum Artists
On the scent trail, we found some familiar and many new names, each tellingThen there is Lucknow-based Isak Fragrances, which pays tribute to the and to the city of the Nawabs. Isak is an artisanal fragrance house, which focusses on handcrafted potions and traditional distillation methods to extract essences from ingredients. Of course, Naso Profumi, has now become an all-too familiar name to contend with. Announcing itself as an artisanal and sustainable perfumery, Naso uses pure extracts from Indian herbs and spices, with traditional for a base. Naturally India’s perfume story would be incomplete without the mention of Ajmal. Founded by the Late Haji Ajmal Ali in the ‘50s in Assam, it grew from a regular trading house to one of India’s biggest homegrown perfume brands today.
