Some of the published formulas for "Jockey Club" call for civet
or ambergris and those of "Lavender Water" for musk and civet. The less
said about the origin of these three animal perfumes the better.
Fortunately they are becoming too expensive to use and are being
displaced by synthetic products more agreeable to a refined imagination.
The musk deer may now be saved from extinction since we can make
tri-nitro-butyl-xylene from coal tar. This synthetic musk passes muster
to human nostrils, but a cat will turn up her nose at it. The synthetic
musk is not only much cheaper than the natural, but a dozen times as
strong, or let us say, goes a dozen times as far, for nobody wants it
any stronger.
Such powerful scents as these are only pleasant when highly diluted, yet
they are, as we have seen, essential ingredients of the finest perfumes.
For instance, the natural oil of jasmine and other flowers contain
traces of indols and skatols which have most disgusting odors. Though
our olfactory organs cannot detect their presence yet we perceive their
absence so they have to be put into the artificial perfume.
Pages:
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173