Perfumes and their preparation

Essence of Vetiver (Extrait de Vétiver).

Tincture of Olibanum (Extrait d’Oliban, Extrait d’Encens).

Extract of Wintergreen (Extrait de Gaulthérie).

This essence is more commonly sold under the English than the French name. Its composition is the following:

Tincture of Civet (Extrait de Civette).

Tincture of civet is exceedingly lasting and is generally employed for fixing other odors. As to the quantity required to fix perfumes in general, we may state that it varies with the nature of the odor. As a rule, about one-sixteenth part of tincture of civet suffices for even the most volatile perfumes.

Tincture of Cinnamon (Extrait de Canelle).

Owing to the yellow color left upon handkerchiefs by perfumes prepared with this extract, it can be used only for common goods, but it is more frequently employed for scenting soaps.

CHAPTER XII.
THE DIVISION OF PERFUMERY.

According to the purposes for which they are intended, the various articles of perfumery may be divided into several groups. They are:

True Perfumes.

A. Liquid.—Alcoholic handkerchief perfumes. Among these are the so-called extracts, bouquets, and waters. Ammoniacal and acid perfumes: aromatic vinegars and volatile ammoniacal salts.

B. Dry.—Sachet powders, fumigating pastils and powders.

Preparations for the Care of the Skin.

Emulsions, crêmes, perfumed soaps, toilet waters, nail powders.

Preparations for the Care of the Hair.

Hair oils, pomades, hair washes.

Preparations for the Care of the Mouth.

Tooth powders, mouth washes.

Cosmetics.

Paints, powders, hair dyes, depilatories, etc.

In connection with the description of these different articles some remarks will be made about the colors employed in perfumery and about the utensils used with the cosmetics, such as combs, brushes, sponges, etc.

CHAPTER XIII.
THE MANUFACTURE OF HANDKERCHIEF PERFUMES, BOUQUETS, OR AROMATIC WATERS.

The manufacture of handkerchief perfumes is very simple: the extracts prepared as directed in Chapter XI. are mixed in definite proportions and the perfume is finished. If the extracts are well seasoned, the perfumes blend in perfect harmony within a few days, and this time may be even shortened by the use of the apparatus illustrated in Fig. 32. If the extracts have been but recently prepared, a longer time will be required before the odor of the alcohol and the several constituents is imperceptible and all odors have blended into a harmonious whole.

If the manufacturer can afford to allow the finished extracts and perfumes to season for some length of time—of course, in well-closed and completely filled vessels—in a cool place, they will improve markedly in quality. Perfumes which contain but a single odor or in which a certain odor distinctly predominates are usually called by the name of the respective plant, etc., under a French title, e.g., extrait de violette, extrait de reséda, etc. Combinations of many odors which produce an agreeable impression as a whole, while no one odor predominates, are called bouquets or waters; for instance, Bouquet de Jockey Club, Eau de Mille Fleurs, Cologne Water, Hungarian Water, etc.

The mixture of the extracts is effected in strong glass bottles of a capacity exactly adapted to the perfume, so as to be completely filled. For perfumes which require seasoning to make the odors blend we use small glass balls of which enough are introduced into the bottle to make the mixture rise into the neck of the container which is then closed air-tight and preserved in a dark, cool place.

Of course, all perfumes should be perfectly clear and free from turbidity. The extracts made from pomades or essential oils are clear and furnish perfumes that remain so; extracts prepared from balsams or resins should be allowed to stand at rest for several weeks and then be carefully decanted from the sediment. Filtration should be dispensed with unless absolutely unavoidable, on account of the large amount of oxygen with which the extract would thereby come in contact, to the detriment of the odor.

The bottles in which the perfumes are mixed, as well as those in which they are put up for sale, must be perfectly dry, as a very small amount of water often suffices to separate a portion of the aromatics and to render the liquid turbid or opalescent.

Fine perfumes are always sold in glass vessels with ground-glass stoppers; cork has a peculiar odor which it would communicate to the liquid. For the more perfect exclusion of the air the stoppers and bottle necks are moreover covered with animal membrane, sheet rubber, or vegetable parchment, with an outer cap of white glove leather.

In the case of very expensive perfumes, much care is bestowed on the container; certain perfumes are filled into bottles of peculiar form and color, or into small porcelain jars provided with corresponding labels printed in gold and colors. Sometimes the container costs many times the price of the perfume. But as the finest perfumes are articles of luxury in the truest sense of the word, they require extreme care in their putting up; and good taste in the selection of the containers for fluids, pomades, cosmetics, powders, etc., is of as much importance to the perfumer as the possession of a sensitive and trained olfactory organ.

In the following formulas for the preparation of bouquets, the words extract, essence, and tincture have the same meaning as was explained under Chapter XI. For cheap perfumes the corresponding essential oils dissolved in alcohol, that is, the corresponding “essence,” is employed in place of the true “extract.”

CHAPTER XIV.
FORMULAS FOR HANDKERCHIEF PERFUMES.

Bouquet de l’Alhambra.

Extrait d’Ambre, I.

Extrait d’Ambre, II.

Bouquet de l’Amour.

Baisers du Printemps (Spring Kisses).

Note. Here and in all succeeding formulas, “oil of lemon” is meant to be the finest “hand-pressed” oil.

Eau de Berlin.

Buckingham Flowers.

Bouquet d’Andorre.

Bouquet du Bosphore.

Bouquet des Chasseurs.

Bouquet de la Cour.

Bouquet de Chypre.

Bouquet des Délices.

Bouquet de Fleurs (Nosegay).

Convallaria (Lily of the Valley, Fleurs de Mai).

While this perfume is very pleasant, its odor has no resemblance to the delicate fragrance of Convallaria majalis, our ordinary lily of the valley.

Couronne de Fleurs (Garland of Flowers).

Court Bouquet.

Macerate for two weeks, and filter.

Esterhazy Bouquets.

An old renowned perfume, a former rival of Cologne water; the name is derived from a noble Hungarian family.

A. Bouquet d’Esterhazy (French formula).

B. Bouquet Esterhazy (German formula).

Macerate for two weeks and filter; in the filtrate dissolve:

Cèdre du Libanon (Cedar).

Fiori d’Italia.

Lilac (Extrait de Lilas).

The above-named ingredients are exceedingly volatile; according to the desired permanence of the perfume, more or less of the extract of civet is added.

Essence des Bouquets, A (Ess. Bouquet).

Ess. Bouquet, B.

This perfume is much admired in England. The title Ess. Bouquet is an abbreviation of the full name given above.

Ess. Bouquet, C.

Florida.

Bouquet de Flore.

Honeysuckle (Extrait de Chèvre-feuille).

Heliotrope, A (Extrait de Héliotrope).

A very lasting perfume which is especially suitable for scenting the linen in a press.

Heliotrope, B.

Macerate for one week, and filter.

New-Mown Hay.

Hay owes its fragrance partly to cumarin, which is present in many plants, but in especially large amount in tonka beans. Hence all similar perfumes must contain tincture of tonka. Other aromatic substances, however, contribute to the odor of hay, but the cumarin gives, as it were, the keynote to its real odor.

A very pleasant perfume is made after the following formula:

Some add to this perfume 1 pint of extract of cassie which imparts a greenish color to it.

Royal Horse-Guard’s Bouquet.

Bouquet d’Irlande.

An exceedingly fine perfume.

Hovenia.

This plant, Hovenia dulcis, indigenous to Japan, has a peculiar odor, which, however, is not pleasant to European taste. The perfume sold under this name has a special odor, though it differs from that of the plant. It is made according to the following formula:

Huntsman’s Nosegay.

Bouquet du Japon.

Eau Japonaise.

Jockey Club.

England first introduced a perfume under this name, which soon became popular and was largely imitated. Jockey Club perfume is among the finest known to the trade; the delicacy of its odor rests largely on the extracts of cassie and tuberose which are employed in their strongest form—an alcoholic extract of a pomade well charged with the odors of the plants. As in the case of Cologne water, there are a number of widely diverging formulas for its preparation, from which we select a few which furnish excellent perfumes.

Jockey Club, A (English formula).

Jockey Club, B (French formula).

Jockey Club, C (German formula).

Jonquille (Extrait de Jonquille).

Kiss me Quick.

This perfume, which was once very popular, owes its peculiar refreshing odor to the tincture of tonka beans; by increasing this ingredient the specific odor can be made more pronounced.

Bouquet Cosmopolite.

Cologne Water (Eau de Cologne).

This famous perfume, which was first made in Cologne on the Rhine, its formula being kept secret, can be produced anywhere of the same quality as the original. In order to obtain a first-class product, it is necessary, besides using the finest oils—a matter of course for all fine perfumes—to observe another special point. Every Cologne water contains oils of the citron group which develop their best odors only in true spirit of wine. Unless an alcohol distilled from wine is used, it will be impossible to make a Cologne water of really first quality. While it is possible to make a good cologne with grain or potato spirit, especially if highly rectified, comparison with one prepared from pure spirit of wine will at once show a marked difference. The small amount of œnanthic ether, hardly demonstrable by chemical tests but present in every spirit of wine, exerts a decided influence on the flavor.

Cologne water of the most superior and incomparable quality is made by dissolving the essential oils, excepting the oils of rosemary and neroli, in the alcohol and distilling it, the other oils being added to the distillate.

A very large number of formulas for the preparation of Cologne water have been published of which we subjoin a few. We have purposely omitted those containing many essential oils, as experience has taught us that they are of little value; for it is not the number of oils that determines the fineness of a perfume, but the manner in which certain odors are combined.

A. Finest Cologne Water (Eau de Cologne Supérieure).