Perfumes
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.
top
|
