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.”