Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-05-29
FASHIONS IN PERFUME0.
spring the Season Of Change-SOme
Facss About Making Sweet OdOrs.

From the New York Sun
A slender little lady, with delicate, redned
features, and attired In an elegant but note
worthily quiet costume, stood for some time
the other day near one of the show cases OF
fashionable big drug store uptown shifting ten
tatlvely from time to time at one or the other
OF two little ground-glass shoppers that she held
In her daintily gloved fingers. A reflective,
CRITICAL and puzzled expression rested upon her
ia1r face. At length, handing both the shoppers
pack to the patiently waiting clerk, she said:
u like both, but cannot tell without more trial
which prefer. Send me large bottle of EACH"
When she had gone out the proprietor said in
reply to question:
I'VE sometimes have half dozen ladies at
one time in this season of the year testing per-
Fumes In that way. The spring is the time
when, if at all, they change from their favorite
the S
away from the associations and habits OF
winter. If they do not change then, it is SIM
them so we'll as what they have been using. A
very few steadfast noses, having once settled
upon what suits them best never use any other
singularly enough, the odors thus most faith
July chung to are not such as are generally
ply clearly defined and not unpleasant smells
as prefer to characterize them-such as civet
or sandal wood, for instance. Sticking always
70 one perfume seems to me like a continual
diet OF mutton-liable to grow monotonous in
time; ana have not yet settled in my own
mind whether persons Of that habit do so be-
cause they like it or because they have read
tnat IL Is the fashion among certain great ladies
IN IN, Europe: "A change In spring seems as natu-
raj as turning with joy from the dollhouse
flowers OF the winter to that first sweetest and
arbutus.
This annual process of selection tends to the
gradual establishment of special perfumes in
very close proportion to their actual merit,
strong, penetrating perfume, possessed of that
one virtue most appreciated by vulgar tastes OF
being lasting may be rushed into sudden tenn
vigorous advertising-as in the case of q certain
cologne that could name, the compounders of
which have made halt a million of dollars off a
combination OF strongly Smelling essential oils
ana resins But delicate perfumes, suited to
refined sensibilities grow in favor gradually
eventually attain a firm hold upon popular
iayor mats extends year by year, SO far as we
tain Old established perfumes that NAV be
viewed as sort of classics, such as Lubin's
Jockey 7, Club Bells .Ess. Bouquet Lund-
"Choice perfumes may be considered as be-
longing to three classes-the so-called 'bou-
qnet perfumes, those that are the simple odors
OF the flowers whose names they bear, and
those that Dy delicate art employ such combi-
nations and blendings of various odors to-
particular flower, the real odor of which
Is SO evanescent and delicate that it
can canho 1e, oe e caught and fixed by any pro,
these, the representative one that most readily
occurs TO my mid at present is the 'Edenia
that l have already mentioned among the
Classics. The inventor OF that perfume was no
less than nine years in bringing it to perfec-
,on, and when it was done he was SO
nature sciipsed.' All these S slass p pef.
OF the results of the enyHeurage pro-
cess-the extracted odors OF violet, jasnlin
t ,u rose, orange flower, and cassie
together with musk, oil OF rose, oil of Wang.
ylang, and ambergris as a f1ateur. One or
another OF those may be LETT out of a special
blending, but that is the open field for selecton
The eft7eurdge process consists in exposing
Clarified grease, tniny spread on glass frames
TO the presence OF the flowers, until it has taken
their odor from them. That is done by manu-
LECTURERS in the valley OF the Var in the south
OF france, where Vast fields of sweet-smelliug
alterward takes up all the perfume from the
grease and the perfumed alcohol is what is
used IN making the extracts for the toilet. Il
Is IN the grease form that the perfumes are inn
ported 10 this country. Other HIQteurs than
that which have mentioned are employed,
such as gum benZoin and gum tolu The prov,
ince OF ambergris Is to blend and develop per.
fumes, to give them a homogene1ty as it were
lis natural smell is not pleasant, being more
IKE that OF a damp cellar than ANYTHING else
1t Is found in the spermaceti whale, is an indi-
cation OF an abnormal and unhealthy condition
VI tnat creature, ana Is supposed TO be product
OF indigestion. Nevertheless it is requisite
Tor the pertumer, and nothing else can take its
place.
"Of the simple natural floral odors. that OF
Vlolets is unquestiOnably the most delicate and
that which stands highest in The appreciati ion
OF persons OF refined taste. should have made
Il iona 1althfuiness TO this perfume an excep.
ton in my remarks about the odors that some
people cling to permanently. Many OF my lady
customers buy nothing but Alpine violets and
are proof against all the Establishments by
which my young men endeavor to induce them
10 even Try something else. respect that sort
OF woman. Beau Brummel is said to nave
affirmed that tuere was no perfume so sweet as
that of freshly Numbered linen bleached on the
grass. Well, the French have Invented a per-
to dal
lcately susceptible nostril. They call it Nous.
SEINE No other is SO faint and evanescen, but
IL Is very charming, and a Few OF my patrons
are exceedingly fond OF it, but they are more
Liable 10 change OH at times for more decided
perfumes than are the lovers OF the violet
"Doubtiess the incest art OF the perIumer ia
shown in the perfect stimulation of the odOrs OF
certain nowers, the real perfume Oh which can
not be caught. Such a flower, Tor instance is
the my OF the valley, yet here is u perfume,
named after that flower, the entrancinuIvv
sweet door OF which is the perfect reproduction
Oh nature work, so tar as the smell goes The
Production OF SUCH a Stlmulant perfume is
sometimes the work of years. It can only he
carried on when the flowers themselves are in
pefiecuon ior purposes OF comparison, tor a
scent can no more be accurately remembered
IMAM IL can be analysed. And even when the
Time Is prop1tlOus the artist compounder must
often lay aside his work for DAYS together he
cause MS oiIactories grow weary, TEMPORARILY
,its,I ana unreliable Two OF our most de-
nshtluily sweet flowers that grow upon our
continent, the magnolia and the tea olive OF
Georgia and Alabama, have never vet been ner
.NN''S III pcIluue, IuOugn they have
been The subjects OF almost countless experi-
ments. Again and again the exact odors have
been caught ana lost again the moment that
the necessary fIoteu1S for retaining them were
added to the alcoholic compounds. OF course
they will be won some day, but when they do
they will have been well earned.
1.-The cheap extracts 'coiognes' seldom
contain any of the natural odors obtained nv
e1fteurdge, but are made of Oil OF patchouIi
Canadian snake root, alligator musk butyric
ether little oil Of ylang-ylang, and l don't
know what all else. Edison is said to have af.
fri1ed, several years ago, that he had found
ways of extracting exquisite odors from ne.
troleum, and he may have done SO, but SO far
as know, he has never done any thing with
his discoveries in that direction. AS a rnIe
perfumers now both in Europe and this com.
try, have brOadened the field of their enter
prise SO as TO take In almost every article of
the toilet that 1t Is desirable should have a
pleasant scent, such as soaps, dentrifices cos.
metics, lip saives, hair oils, face washes &c In
tact, am acquainted with but one large mann-
featuring firm in this country thai Confines
Itself entirely to the production OF shandker.
chief extracts, so-called, and colognes. and
their rigid restriction of their business to those
lines seems 10 have given them very decided
lead In the quality and popularity of their nro-
oucts. have observed in late years that our
American goods are steadily growing In favor
and also that a discriminating and judicfons
use Oh perfumes Is much more commoA now
than 1t was few years ago."
Bits OF Girls Gossip.