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Toilet Preparations: Oils

Volatile Oils. - These are found naturally in plants, and are usually obtained by distillation. They are distinguished by their pungent odor and also by the fact that they are not capable of uniting with alkalies to form soaps. They are used principally in perfumery, with the exception of turpentine, which is employed in mixing paints and varnishes. This oil is obtained from various conebearing trees, and exudes from the bark mixed with rosin and other vegetable juices, from which it is extracted by distillation. The volatile oils upon being exposed to air absorb oxygen and crystallize into substances having the appearance of rosin, balsam, or gum camphor. The perfumed oils, if not tightly corked, gradually lose their delicate scent. Most volatile oils are obtained by distillation in the presence of water or alcohol, but others are obtained by mechanical processes without heat. The essential oils in solution with water are known as essences, as essence of pennyroyal or of mint, and the like. These are often prepared by distillation with water, forming the distilled perfumed waters of commerce. The bath in which perfume-bearing substances are distilled should be slightly acidulated with sulphuric acid. Use a few drops only-just enough to give a sour taste to the tongue. All the essential oils are soluble in alcohol and ether.

To Test Essential Oils.-As many of the essential oils are expensive, they are frequently adulterated. Obtain a drop of the pure oil and determine the presence of substitutes by placing a drop of each on separate pieces of paper and comparing them carefully. The attar of roses is often adulterated with the oils of rhodium, sandalwood, camphor, spermaceti, etc. The pure article has a sweet, smooth taste. A bitter taste indicates the oil of rhodium or sandalwood; a pungent flavor, the oil of geranium or camphor; a greasy stain on paper, spermaceti.

Or mix a drop of the attar of roses with a drop of sulphuric acid. The pure attar will not be affected, but the adulterated article will become dark colored, and the characteristic odors of the different substances with which it may have been adulterated can easily be discerned.

Or, to test for adulteration with fixed oils, place a drop of the suspected oil on paper and evaporate it with gentle heat. The presence of a fixed oil will be detected by a permanent greasy stain. Or distill off the volatile oil with gentle heat. The fixed oil will be left behind.

Or add three or four times its volume of 80 per cent alcohol. The fixed oil will not be dissolved.

Or, to test for alcohol, dilute the suspected oil with water. If the quantity of alcohol is large, the mixture will become roily or turbid. To test for oil of turpentinewhich is often used to adulterate the oils of orange, lemon, neroli, and the like-set a little of the oil on fire, pentine may be detected by its charblow it out, and the presence of turacteristic odor. Odor of Perfumes. - The odor of the volatile oils is probably caused by their gradual oxidation or chemical union with the oxygen of the air. This is the same process as that which takes place in the rusting of iron, and is similarly promoted by moisture. When treated chemically so as to be perfectly pure and free from oxygen and moisture, the most powerful perfumes are odorless. Exposure to moist air restores their odor. Perfume-bearing flowers are much tened, as with dew. Roses and other more fragrant when moisfragrant blossoms are nearly scentless in dry climates. Rose jars and other mixtures of dry perfume-bearing substances give off very much more perfume when slightly moistened.

Individual Perfumes. - Many persons prefer to have a perfume of their own different from those which are on the market or used by others among their acquaintances. This is not especially difficult, although the perfumes that are usually employed, such as heliotrope, violet, white rose, and the like, may, of course, be obtained by anyone. An individual perfume may be secured by experimenting with two or more essential oils, mixing and blending a few drops at a time until a new and agreeable fragrance is obtained. This is, in fact, the way in which colognes and similar preparations are compounded for the market. One celebrated "German cologne" of the past generation is said to have contained no fewer than thirty different kinds of ingredients, the result being a pungent perfume of a peculiarly agreeable odor. The proportion in which the various ingredients should be blended is entirely a matter of indiby experiment. vidual preference, to be determined TOILET PREPARATIONS PERFUMES-COLOGNE Eau de Cologne.