- Joined
- Nov 26, 2016
- Location
- central NC
Pot Pourri
Herbert James Draper, circa 1897
Perfumes were rarely applied directly to the skin. Instead, our Victorian friends used their perfumes to scent handkerchiefs, gloves and clothing. Some even added a touch of fragrance to their hair pomade or lip salve.
Some fragrances were consistently popular throughout the 19th century. However, others were popular for a short time and then fell out of favor. When it came to purchasing perfumes, Victorian women had a wide variety of choices. Perfume did not have to be an expensive product bought from fashionable perfumers. Chemist’s shops and pharmacies sold a variety of popular, inexpensive perfumes, toilets waters, and other scented products to the Victorian ladies of more moderate means.
At the beginning of the Victorian era, the predominant fragrance was Eau de Cologne. It was created from a base of neroli oil - an oil derived from orange blossoms and flowers from the bitter orange tree. Ruth Goodman, the author of How to Be a Victorian, describes Eau de Cologne as “a sharp, clean scent that cut through other smells.” It was diluted with distilled water and sold as a relatively inexpensive scent for Victorian women.
Eau de Cologne advertisement, 19th century.
“Herbs, drugs, and flowers, are made to yield their aromatic odours for our use. Among the former we may mention marjoram, sage, thyme, lavender, &c., while of drugs, frankincense, mace, cloves, benzoin, storax, and many others, are held in great esteem. Orange-flowers, jonquils, jessamine, roses, violets, and other fragrant flowers, are also largely employed, and thus, by a judicious use of some of these various essences, we may impart to our dwellings or our dress, the delightful odours of our favourite flowers, at any period of the year.”
The Saturday Magazine named Otto of Roses “the most costly of all the perfumes and the most powerful.” Its title as most expensive perfume was eclipsed by the trendy complex scents of the 1880s and 1890s, but Otto of Roses remained a favorite fragrance throughout the Victorian era and into the 20th century.
Rose Otto Hydrolat Organic - the “hundred-leaved rose”
More to come...
Sources:
Eugene Rimmel’s 1865 Book of Perfumes
Floris and Penhaligon’s websites
Mimi Matthews In Style