STRENGTH OF PERFUMES.

Shannon News, 18 June 1926, Page 4

STRENGTH OF PERFUMES.

VARIES ACCORDING TO CLIMATE

One of the curious things about perfume is that the strongest blends are more popular , in hot countries than in cold (writes “M.A.” in the Westminster Gazette). Even between the scents on sale in th e Radhusplazen, in Copenhagen, and those one can buy in the Calle Victorei, in Bucharest, there is a big difference of pungency as well as kind; and though London as the world’s metropolis, will yield plenty of Eastern perfumes their strength is rarely that of those sold under similar . names in the bazaars of Arabia.

Among the joys of a stay on the Cote d'Azur is a visit to the perfume factories of Grasse. Perched high In the hills above Cannes, with the snow-capped Alps behind h§r and the tideless Mediterranean in front, this picturesque little town is a magnet that literally draws millions of blossoms up its steep streets every spring, and is the reason for the country for around being one continuous dream of fragrance from January to July. Just now is the time of the violet and the jonquil harvest, the first blossoms of the year to be scattered gently on to slabs of white waxen fat as an inducement to yield up their soul’s essence in the caus e of beauty and hygiene. Only the petals are used in making perfume,' and as soon as they arrive at the fatcories they are piled high on white sheets spread on stone floors.

In one particular factory at Grasse, once a convent. ,the blossoms make miniature mountains of perfumed colour along three sides of what used to be the convent chapel, thougn there is no suggestion of the religious about ahy of the full-blossom-ed, white-aproned women whose Job it is to. feed the flowers to the fat. Later the petals simmer to shreds in a bath of hot alcohol, and the grease that remains after distillation becomes superlative soap for export to the beauty parlours of Euopo. Otto of roses, which tradition says was. first made by the mother of tne Hindu Empress Nurjahan, is ,in India aw*ays offered to wedding guests on a little cotton twisted at the end or a short stick. Usually it is home-made and distilled from rosewater that has been poured while warm, into shallow silver dishes and left 24 hours, when the oil that has collected on tne surface is skimmed off, much as we skim cream from milk in England. Some of the finest otto of roses m the world is to be bought in Bulgaria. There only the damask rose is used, and it is plucked at dawn, Just as the bud is ready to expand and before the sun has had time to dissipate the scent. One acre of plants is needed to secure one ton of petals, and, as this in turn will yield but 10 oz. or 12oz. of oil, no wonder otto of roses remains amout the costliest perfume in feminine favour.