The making of petrichor perfume: Baked earth and bacteria for mitti ki khushboo

You know that earthy smell that fills the air after it rains on a hot summer afternoon? As the parched earth gets wet, a distinctive fragrance arises. It is called petrichor. For many, this mitti ki khushboo is the nostalgic scent of carefree childhood days; for others, it is nature’s comforting touch; for Indian lyricists, it is their favourite muse! Many also cherish it for its relaxing and calming effect.
No surprises then that this simple but complex, distinctive yet natural, and warm yet fresh fragrance has been the subject of so many poems and songs. Ahh! The warm embrace of this fragrance is unmatched.
Thanks to mitti attars (also called itr or ittar), petrichor perfumes and scented candles, you can experience this magical smell even on a dry day. These products are created to mimic that comforting earthy aroma, so you can wear it or just relish nature’s magic indoors.

Fragrance of the first rain captured in a bottle. (Photo: Amala Earth)

Many international brands like Jo Malone and La Lebo offer petrichor perfumes. But these came much later. Even the term petrichor came much later. For centuries, perfumers in Kannauj – known as the perfume capital of India – have been making mitti attars, capturing that smell of the season’s first rain in little bottles.
As for the term petrichor, it was coined in 1960s after Australian researchers Isabel Joy Bear and Richard Grenfell Thomas studied this distinct scent released when rain falls on dry earth. In their study published in Nature journal in 1965, Bear and Thomas discovered that the earthy scent is produced by compounds exuded by certain plants during dry periods. This oil, along with other molecules, is absorbed by soil and rocks. When it rains, the moistening of these porous materials causes the oil to be released into the air, binding with another compound called geosmin, produced by soil-dwelling bacteria like actinomycetes.
But why the word petrichor? It has a Greek mythology connection. The researcher duo coined the term from the Greek words ‘petra,’ which means stone, and ‘ichor,’ which means the fluid that flows in the veins of gods.
But in Kannauj, which is home to over 300 perfumeries that craft oil-based natural scents (ittar) using age-old distillation methods, mitti attar has been made for centuries. “While petrichor perfumes are a rage across the world now, India was the first place to use this fragrance to make a wearable scent,” says Vidushi Vijayvergiya, founder and CEO of the fragrance brand Isak Fragrances.

First Rain perfume oil by Isak Fragrances.

Divy Gupta of Raahi Perfumes, a seventh-generation perfumer in Kannauj, tells India Today that his family has been making mitti attar for more than two centuries. “It is a very unique fragrance made from real mitti,” he says.
You will find several perfumers selling these signature mitti attars in Kannauj. Most of them are B2B companies with an online retail presence as well. But what goes into these little ittar bottles that instantly transport you to the moment of long-awaited rain? Well, innumerable hours of hard work and humongous quantities of baked earth to begin with.
The traditional deg and bhapka method is used to make mitti attars. “The attar is made by distilling the fragrance of baked earth, typically after the first rains of the monsoon season. The earth is collected, baked, and then steam-distilled to release its unique aroma,” explains Divy Gupta.
The process begins with the extraction of clay from the topsoil, which is then baked in a kiln. The baked earth, often in the form of disks or even kulhads, is immersed in water in the deg (a large copper pot) in batches. The deg is heated carefully to allow the steam (carrying the clay’s essence) to rise. This steam then travels through a bamboo pipe to a bhapka (a receiver flask) containing base oil to form attar.

In Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh. Ittar in making (Photo: Getty Images)

Gaurav Mehrotra of Puja and Perfumery in Kannauj shares that producing 1 litre of mitti attar can take anywhere from a week to a month, depending on the desired quality and intensity. “Earlier, pure sandalwood oil was used as the base for making mitti iatars, but due to rising prices, many now use a carrier oil instead,” he tells India Today.
Mitti attar is one of the bestsellers for the perfumers in Kannauj who make this product. Till a decade back, only 10 percent of the Kannauj perfumeries were making this mitti attar.
“Though we export our products to other countries, the most demand for mitti attar comes from India itself. People love mitti ki khushboo and want to keep it close,” says Mehrotra. These ittar can also be used as an ingredient in perfumes too.
In the world of chemical perfumes, there are several common ingredients that end up becoming the soul of petrichor perfumes. One of them is vetiver essence, obtained from the roots of khus grass. The grassy aroma of vetiver lends an aroma of the moment when summer ends and the monsoon season begins.
LilaNur’s Vettiver Mousson perfume, available on GoodEarth, is one such fragrance. It retails for Rs 21,200. Marisa Zappas’ Petrichor and Undergrowth by London-based Rook Perfumes also contain it. So does Demeter Fragrance Library’s Thunderstorm, a popular petrichor perfume. Apart from vetiver, this one also uses patchouli – another popular ingredient in petrichor perfumes – to enhance the wet-earth fragrance.

LilaNur’s Vettiver Mousson, a petrichor perfume, retails for Rs 21,200.

Among the perfumes that smell of air after the rain falls on dry soil, geosmin (a compound produced by soil-dwelling bacteria like actinomycetes) is also a popular ingredient. A synthetic version is often used in petrichor perfumes.
However, new-age Indian perfumers with exposure to what’s happening around the world say that India’s petrichor is unmatched.
For instance, Vidushi of Isak Fragrances uses self-manufactured mitti attar in her newly-launched First Rain perfume. She, however, adds that international brands do not take this route.
“When I opened the bottle of Isak’s First Rain at the World Perfumery Congress in Geneva, everyone was blown away by its fragrance. Their petrichor perfumes don’t exude this kind of earthy smell,” she says.
Divy Gupta from Kannauj agrees and adds that perfumes labelled petrichor are often very different from the mitti attar that they already produce. Their perfumes smell more grassy than earthy, he says.
“Even though India has a 5,000-year-old perfumery history, we blindly run behind Italian and other international perfume brands. After I spent a few years in Europe, I understood why they managed to make a mark despite having limited resources. India is a goldmine of resources, and it is time we celebrate the beauty of Indian perfumes,” says Vidushi.
This year, we are experiencing an extended monsoon. But once it ends and you crave sniffing that soul-soothing mitti ki khushboo, you know which bottle to get your hands on.