The How-To Guide to Making Perfumes

PREFACE

We all know of the five senses, - seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling. This book is all about the sense of smell and how you can make something yourself to enhance that senses pleasure.

Of the five senses, that of smelling is the least valued, by most people and, as a consequence, most pay little attention to it but we should not think the because we do not pay the most attention to it that it is not important. It still affects our welfare and happiness.

By neglecting sense of smell, we are constantly led to breathe impure air, and thus poison the body by neglecting the warning given at the gate of the lungs.

Persons who use perfumes are more sensitive to the presence of a vitiated atmosphere than those who consider the faculty of smelling as an almost useless gift. In the early ages of the world the use of perfumes was in constant practice, and it had the high sanction of Scriptural authority. The patrons of perfumery have always been considered the most civilized and refined people of the earth.

If refinement consists in knowing how to enjoy the faculties which we possess, then must we learn not only how to distinguish the harmony of color and form, in order to please the sight, the melody of sweet sounds to delight the ear; the comfort of appropriate fabrics to cover the body, and to please the touch, but the sense of smell must be shown how to gratify itself with the odoriferous products of the garden and the forest.

In early history the use of perfumes was believed to be in the highest degree prophylactic; the refreshing qualities of the citrine odors to an invalid was well known. Health was  often thought restored when life and death trembled in the balance, by the mere sprinkling of essence of cedrat in a sick chamber.

The climate of where you live will dictate what type of flora grows in your area. Production of odors from flowers that require elevated temperature to bring them to perfection or flowers and herbs that need colder climates will be decided on area or the market. A garden to grow your own flowers will help cut costs and to bring a organic sureness to your perfumes. Market and florists will have many different types of flora and you and check available in your area.

Adapting a garden to what you want for scents can be fun and useful. The final result will be up to you and how much work or money you want to invest into your handmade perfumes and satchels.

Mr. Kemble, of Jamaica, sent to England some fine samples of Oil of Behn. The Moringa, from which it is produced, has been successfully cultivated by him. The Oil of Behn, being a perfectly inodorous fat oil, is a valuable agent for extracting the odors of flowers by the maceration process.

For centuries oils and perfumes have been created for personal use and not until modern times has the making of such personal items been commercialized.

The home gardener, being generally unacquainted with the methods of economizing the scents from the flowers they cultivate, entirely lose what would be a very profitable source of income.

For many ages copper ore was thrown over the cliffs into the sea by the Cornish miners working the tin streams; how much wealth was thus cast away by ignorance we know not, -but there is a perfect parallel between the old miners and the modern gardeners.

Many of ingredients and recipes collected in this book are from articles in the "Gardeners' Chronicle" and of the "Annals of Pharmacy and Chemistry" and have not been published since the early 1800’s.

These have been collected and placed in a book form just for you; all that are considered useful to the reader.

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