A PLEASING SCENT

Perfume, like many classic cosmetics, has been around pretty much forever. Somewhere back in the mists of time a cave-person rubbed some flowers or leaves on themselves and discovered that they liked it…and that it had a good effect on other cave people, too.
By Ancient Egypt, perfume-making had become an elaborate art, with bottles of unguents on every dressing table. You’ve probably seen the tomb paintings of people eating dinner with cones of solid perfume melting on their heads. Honestly, it seems pretty icky, even if you allow that the stuff was oozing into a wig.
Over the following centuries, perfume settled into most of the forms we still see today: heavy essential oils extracted from botanicals, lighter floral or herbal waters, and dried flowers used in sachets or potpourri. Until the invention of modern deodorants (a whole different post!) much of the goal was simply to overpower unpleasant odors, whether on the wearer or their surroundings.
Beyond the flowers, herbs, and spices, some more exotic ingredients crept into the perfumers’ kit, including animal musks and spermaceti, a secretion of sperm whales that washed up onshore. Contemporary accounts claim it was a wonderful scent…which makes me wonder about what these folks smelled every day!
Well into the 19th century, most scent was made at home. Every decent-sized household had a still room for making rose and lavender water, and other concoctions for cosmetic, or medicinal purposes. Ladies – and many gentlemen – often considered a sprinkle of floral water quite enough.
Perfumers and apothecaries, though, were starting to come up with more elaborate blends. Various herbal waters had been available for centuries – the women at the Tudor Courts liked Hungary Water, a lemon and rosemary concoction that’s rather medicinal to the modern nose. And the famous Caswell-Massey store in New York had a blend that was favored by George Washington – and is still sold today for people who want to smell like the Father of Our Country.
Cologne water, based on bitter-orange blossoms, was the favorite of Early Victorian women – and men, too.
Probably the biggest “water” was Florida Water, an orange-based preparation sold by a bunch of different makers, each with slightly different formulas. By the mid- to late-19th century, it was everywhere, and versions of it are still around today. It was even on the very short list of acceptable gifts for a gentleman caller to give a young lady.
Speaking of ladies and gentlemen, women and men did not differentiate much between perfume until the 19th century, when the heady florals like violet and rose became strongly associated with females. But there were still a lot of scents that crossed the spectrum – particularly the combination of bergamot and lemon oil, a citrusy herbal blend that historians say was pretty much everywhere.
Like many other products that began as bespoke luxuries for the aristocracy, by the late 19th century, perfume was well within the reach of anyone who was even reasonably comfortable. Whether made by an elegant perfume house, an apothecary, or one of the new cosmetic companies, a pretty bottle of a pleasing scent became an affordable treat – and one we still enjoy today.

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