Today we visited the headquarters of a massive perfume and beauty products company. The greatest lesson that I learned on the tour of Natura is that the beauty of nature is compounding. It is not just one thing that makes something like a fruit beautiful or smell good, it is the many compounds and molecules that make the fruit fragrant and unique to its own species. These compounds come together like puzzle pieces to make the whole piece of art. The same can be said for anything beautiful in life, there are always multiple aspects that make it beautiful. This experience has helped me to remember to look at the bigger picture in life. There may be some parts of an experience that are rough, however taking everything into account can help you to find the beauty of it all.
The methods that the Natura scientists use to create each of their fragrances show how important every single molecule of each fruit or plant is in the creation process. These scientists use a technique called chromatography in order to separate every single compound in each part of the fruit or plant. This technique uses a machine and specific solvents in order to separate the compounds based on their properties, such as, polarity and or size. When passed through the stationary phase in the machine, the molecules move slower or faster depending on their properties, allowing the machine to identify and quantify them. This allows the scientists to take the individual puzzle pieces and create a whole new final art product in the form of a scent or product.
Although the labs of natura are very technological and sterile, the whole compound exemplified a oneness with nature. There was a koi pond with beautiful fish, there was very diverse and plentiful flora, and it was built in a way to not disturb or harm the wild animals in the area. Although there was a ton of glass windows, the designers of the building kept that in mind and installed fake birds of prey to prevent wild birds from running into the glass. The attention to nature is very visible with how the structures have been constructed, emphasizing that everything in nature is important, and with the right puzzle pieces you can make something beautiful. The building also helps us to see how wild it is that all of the things in nature are made the way they are. For example, this koi fish isn’t beautiful just because it is gold or just because of how graceful it is when it moves through the water; It is beautiful because of the long and flowing fins that glide through the water, the contrast of its shining gold to the background and the way that the color shifts to white just at the tips of the fins. It is not just one piece that makes this fish beautiful, it is the billions of cells that make up the artful puzzle of the koi.
0 Comments