see it clearly
Beauty and perfume
IN THIS progressive and aggressive age, it is a singular fact that the art of the perfumer has not fundamentally changed, and it is greatly to be doubted if our oils and pomades to-day excel the precious ointments of Araby the blest, hundreds of years back. We still are obliged to catch the odor of a bloom in fat, and to distill our choicest perfumes from these heavily flower-impregnated "pomades" as they are termed.
These are the oils which were well called "precious" in the days of Moses, and the science of their composition was taught by the High Priests to the Egyptian scholars. Indeed the Bible and its commentaries contain numerous rules for the making of perfumes, and an essential to every form of purification was the burning of a prescribed quantity of precious oils and incense.
At one time the Roman Church made so great a use of perfumes in the various ceremonials, that she had large tracts of land in Syria and other Oriental provinces expressly for the cultivation of flowers for oils.
We are forever being told of our extravagance in these days of the degringolade, but there is always a precedent in history. What should we think to-day of a king who would expend the year's growth in blossoms for the funeral of his wife? Nero did this at the death of his wife Poppaea.
As I have said, the only way to permanently hold a flower odor is to imprison it in fat. Once caught in oil or suet, you may keep it captive until you choose to release it through distillation and expansion. Extracts will evaporate, and are not reliable.
If you will study any of the list of odors advertised by the great perfuming houses of France, you will indeed find an embarras de richesse in the fifty or sixty extracts or essences offered you. Every flower is represented, and dozens of proper and invented names are added to swell the number of delicate perfumes from which the purchaser may select.
It is a well-known fact, however, that there are only six or eight flowers which yield oils, and that the perfumer must make combinations from these to imitate the odors of all other flowers. This may be properly called the artistic side of perfumery. The French perfumer excels in this delicate part of the science, studying similarities and affinities and shades as the artist does the colors of his skies, or the blending of his materials in the blush of the rose.
If you are going to endeavor to distill your own perfumes, I should recommend that you purchase your pomade or essential oil from a first-class importing house. The essential oils or pomades are very costly, but you will bear in mind that an ounce of pomade of first quality will make at least sixteen ounces of very strong extract. The method is simple enough. Suppose you purchase, for example, one ounce of oil of roses. Take one pint of pure alcohol--above proof -- mix the oil of roses with it in a clean bottle. Place the bottle in a vessel of hot water until the contents acquire a temperature of about 85 deg Fahrenheit. Then cork the bottle quite close; shake it briskly until the liquid is cold. You will have a most delicious and very strong odor as a result, which will improve with age just as good wine does. A few drops of this perfume will be all you can, with good taste, use at a time.
If you wish, however, to make a pomade from the natural flower you certainly can succeed, but it requires a good deal of skill, infinite patience and some utensils, and, inasmuch as pomades are the despair of many would-be perfumers, I do not advise their manufacture by the amateur, although I give a formula.
You will have to purchase from a dealer in perfumers' supplies a series of shallow, iron frames, adapted for piling on each other, and fitting close together. A piece of white, spongy, cotton cloth is stretched upon each, and is then freely moistened with oil of almonds, olives or ben. On the cloth is then laid a thin layer of the freshly-plucked flowers, and each frame, as thus covered, is placed on a preceding one, until a compact pile of them is raised. In twenty-four to thirty hours the flowers are replaced by fresh ones; and this is repeated every day, or every other day, until seven or eight different lots of flowers have been consumed, or the oil has become sufficiently charged with their odor. The cotton cloths are then carefully collected and submitted to powerful pressure, and the "expressed oil" which flows from them is placed aside in corked bottles or jars, to settle. After some time it becomes perfectly clear, and is then ready to be decanted into other bottles, and kept for distilling.
The best flowers for the above purpose in America are violet, honeysuckle, tuberose, jonquil, jasmine, narcissus, orange flowers and myrtle blossoms.