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Toilet Preparations: Perfumes

ESSENCES AND PERFUMES Perfumes. - The subject of perfumery is perhaps not so important as it was formerly, because the use of strong perfumes appears to be going out of fashion. The natural fragrance of flowers, spices, and perfumed woods-the sources of the ingredients used in perfumery - is, however, so delightful that those substances are likely always to be employed to a certain extent in the toilet.

The various forms in which perfumes are placed upon the market are, according to the degree of dilution, the attar or essential oil, the essence or extract, and the perfumed toilet water. Innumerable compounds are sold under various fanciful titles, as colognes, scents, spirits, (French esprit), and the like. The substances from which these perfumes are obtained may also in some cases be purchased, as the dry leaves or flowers of plants, various kinds of wood or roots, ambergris (supposed to be a morbid secretion of the sperm whale), and the like.

Perfumes are also used in the form of sachets or dry powder, to be placed among garments or linen, either in sachet bags or scattered loosely in chests and drawers. They are likewise employed to perfume the atmosphere of a room by putting them in open jars, or burning them in the form of pastilles and incense. are Generally speaking, the most convenient form in which to obtain perfumes is the attar, otto, or essential oil. A few drops of these concentrated substances, usually about 5 or 6 drops to the pint or pound, will yield any desired odor. When the essence, the perfumed water, or the original substances themselves prescribed in recipes, the essential oil can be substituted in most cases by a little careful experimenting. The process of extracting essences and essential oils, however, is not difficult, and can be carried on at home by anyone who is interested enough to procure suitable apparatus. Several methods of preparing homemade extracts are given below which can be employed successfully by anyone.