The True Perfume

Nature does things much more perfect than man.  Man, with all his boasted skill, strength and wisdom, cannot duplicate exactly the delicate and beautiful work of nature.  Man often makes excellent substitutes.  Often makes good imitations, but has never even approximated the real excellency of nature's productions. 

This is true of perfume as well as of anything else, and that is why we call our perfume "the true perfume" simply because our odors are taken direct from nature and are not man-made substitutes.

Perfumery is classed in the commercial world under two distinct heads.  Chemical or artificial perfumes and Floral or natural perfumes.

We are going to try in a short interesting way to tell you the difference between these tow kinds of perfume, and explain to you how we draw the natural odor from the flowers themselves.

Chemical or artificial perfumery is made up entirely of Chemicals, Oils and Tinctures.   A substitute is produced which has a similar odor to that which nature has given to some flower.  Chemical perfumery cannot be as perfect as natural perfumery, any more than any other work of man can be as perfect as the work of God.

In making a Chemical perfume, man blends together the various oils and tinctures until the artificial odor is produced.  It is almost a perfect odor when finished, but gradually loses its perfection as it grows older.  The process of evaporation cannot be guarded against and it is a well-known fact that some oils and tinctures evaporate much quicker than others.  In the Chemical perfume, one of these oils may evaporate entirely and thus the remaining oils may have a different odor that it did when the perfume was first produced.  This is why some perfumes become disagreeable and have that strong offensive smell after they have reached a certain age.

Floral or natural odors such as we place on sale, are made direct from the flowers themselves and thus have all the delicacy and sweetness that nature has put into its most beautiful blossoms.  Chemical perfume occupies the same relation to Floral perfume that Oleomargarine does to Dairy Butter.  One is nature's production; the other is made by man.  One is mild, sweet and perfect; the other, while often a good imitation as far as the eye is concerned, is not perfect to the taste and is sometimes found to be rancid after it has been kept awhile. 

Chemical perfume is an imitation of the natural odor.

In beginning to describe the Floral perfume, we will say, that nearly all the most popular flowers have their odors extracted and these odors are known all over the world.  The Violet, the Apple Blossom, the Rose, the Sweet Pea, the Jasmine, the Lily of the Valley and the Lilac are the flowers most used in making Floral odors.  There are two places in the world where the majority of these flowers used in perfume making are grown.  One is the south of France, and the other our own glorious state of California.

California does not produce as many flowers as France, but it is claimed by some that the flowers which it does produce are larger and more beautiful and have more delicate odors that the flowers raised in any other country in the whole world.  The flowers are gathered in large quantities and are put into immense vats filled with grease.  This grease is made up of many substances such as lard, olive oil and tallow, etc.   Every flower has a different composition of grease which is necessary to use in order to perfectly extract the odor from it.  For instance an entirely different mixture is necessary to use with Roses from the mixture used with Violets in order to accomplish the perfect extracting of the odor.

It is a well-known fact that grease absorbs the odor of any substance that it comes in contact with.  This is why that some say that lard packed in wooden buckets always has the smell and taste of the kind of wood in which it was packed.

The flowers are gathered in large quantities and placed in these vats with the grease heated to a certain temperature and allowed to remain in the vats until the grease becomes thoroughly cold.  The cooling of this heated grease absorbs every particle of odor from the flowers, and it is then part of the grease.  This grease is then warmed sufficiently to allow it to be strained, and the leaves or flowers are taken out.  This operation is repeated some times two or three times, or until the grease becomes thoroughly impregnated with the odor of the flowers.  It is then put up in cans and ready for market.  In this shape it is called Pomade,  and is shipped direct from the Flower fields to our Laboratory at Suffern, N.Y.

It may be interesting before going further to mention some of the plants from which the perfume is extracted and give the yield per acre, the weight of these flowers and the value per acre, where the flowers are raised, when the crop is ripe.

When the Pomade reaches our laboratory; then begins the real work of putting the perfume into liquid form, so that it can be used in various ways.  The pomades are placed in large "washers" designed for the purpose and French spirits are poured over them.  The Pomade and the spirits are thoroughly mixed together until the spirits draw out of the grease the odor which it has received from the flowers.  This is a process that the perfumer calls washing, which means that he has used the French spirits to wash the odor out of the Pomade.  After the washing is completed, the grease is strained out of the spirits and the spirits now contain the odor.  The grease separates itself into such small particles, that it is impossible to perfectly clear the spirits from the grease by means of straining or filtering and so the perfumer resorts to the freezing process.  The spirits containing unseen particles of grease is reduced to a temperature below freezing point.  The grease particles freeze and are easily taken out.  The spirits never freeze, and thus one is separated from the other.

The spirits are now thoroughly impregnated with the odor, but these odors would quickly evaporate, where it not for the knowledge of the practical perfumer as to how to make them permanent.  To the impregnated spirits are added what is know as fixatives and developers.  These fixatives do not alter the character of the odor, but make it pungent, bringing it out and making it lasting.

This description of how  Floral perfume is secured, is necessarily abbreviated in detail.  We have omitted to mention many of the minor things that must be done in order to make the odor perfect.  We wish to assure the public who use our perfumes, that every care has been taken to make them the best that can be produced.  We have in our laboratory and in the fields where the flowers are gathered, the newest and most improved machinery, and we employ the most skillful chemists and mixers that it is possible to secure.

Drawing the perfume direct from the Pomade enables us to guarantee the quality of our goods and to sell them at a much less price that if we dealt through many hands, as is the case with most perfumes.

Picture and article copied from the 1897 edition of "For Beauty's Toilet"