The Gulf War, AIDS ... two major happenings that brought into focus the fears and concerns of our society at the end of the second Millennium. To get away from an increasingly materialistic world, we plunged into rap or techno, we went into cocooning or embraced the New Age lifestyle. The Internet, like a giant web, was expanding to touch every aspect of our lives and beyond ... It was the birth of the interplanetary village. Certain perfumes reached back to the more gentle, tender memories of our childhood, linking taste and smell in the creamy, sweet notes of vanilla, caramel, milk. Men started to open up to their emotions. Fragrance was used to seduce. To react against the excesses of the eighties, the new "eaux" smelled of fresh water, as if to quench our desire for purity. Fragrances evoked the sea, water, plants and flowers, creating a natural feel, eventually refocusing on the basics : earth, fire, water and wind.