Distillation is an ancestral technical process used in perfumery. It is based on the capacity of water vapor to capture essential oils and requires the use of a still. Primitive stills dating back to 3,500 BC have been found in Iraq by archaeologists. Westerners, for their part, developed the practice of distillation from the 12th century for doctors and apothecaries and extended it to the world of perfumery in the 17th century.