Perfume’s Lie: Witch’s Ointment Was Kitchen Grease
From The Perfumed Perspective.
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Why perfume is a witch: the flying ointment that turned out to be kitchen grease, the molecule that puts the grave inside every white flower, the queen who was not killed by poisoned gloves, and the perfume ban that never happened to Poison.
On the table: Stora Skuggan Hexensalbe, Amouage Portrayal Woman, Maison Crivelli Tubéreuse Astrale, Régime des Fleurs Blood Spider Orchids, Tom Ford Black Orchid, Maison Violet Compliment, Maître Parfumeur et Gantier Secrète Datura, Serge Lutens La Dompteuse Encagée and La Religieuse, vintage and current Dior Poison, Estée Lauder Spellbound, Arquiste Venice Rococo, Papillon Spell 125, and three from Etat Libre d’Orange.
Halloween night, and the second of two spooky stories. Last time it was the dead. Tonight it’s the ones who did the killing, the witch and the poisoner, and how the perfume industry has sold both by name since 1932.
Chapter one is the flower that smells of the grave: indole, which is one to three per cent of jasmine and is also made by bacteria in a corpse, so the bride’s bouquet and the body share a molecule. What a decaying body actually smells of, layer by layer, and why cadaverine and putrescine are not it. The corpse flower’s 2010 gas chromatograph. Then the Victorian rule that forbade girls the tuberose garden after dark, traced back to a two-word flower dictionary entry and a cluster of blog posts.
Chapter two is the witch’s ointment: henbane, mandrake, datura and belladonna, what they do to a body, and Giambattista della Porta’s 1558 recipe. Michael Ostling’s 2016 finding that the recipes came from physicians and the seized pots held cooking grease. Robin Briggs’s Lorraine trials, where a bad smell was proof of witchcraft. Then Jung, and the 1973 book that turned the accused into a wronged healer.
Chapter three is the poisoned gloves: Jeanne d’Albret, René the Florentine, the autopsy.
The Salon is where this channel goes deeper than an hour on YouTube allows. Every month, members get a full house deep dive that no one else sees: one perfume house, its history and its bottles, start to finish. Une Nuit Nomade is next, on 20 November. There are perfume parties where we all smell the same discovery set and argue about it together, the uncut interviews with the perfumers who make what we wear, and The Wrist every Monday: what I’m wearing, the releases worth smelling and the news that matters. Right now there’s also a Halloween bonus episode waiting, Why Monsters Always Smell Expensive. But the real reason to join is this: this channel takes no affiliate links and no brand deals, so no house pays for what I say about its perfume, and the members are what keep it that way. It’s $14.99 a month, and the Join button is on the channel page. Come and join me in The Salon.
perfume, fragrance, perfume history, Halloween perfume, witch perfume, poison perfume, Dior Poison, vintage Poison, Estée Lauder Spellbound, Serge Lutens, Tubéreuse Criminelle, Papillon Spell 125, Hexensalbe, Stora Skuggan, Amouage Portrayal, Tom Ford Black Orchid, Etat Libre d’Orange, indole, tuberose perfume, white floral, witches ointment, flying ointment, Affair of the Poisons, Aqua Tofana, poisoned gloves, Jeanne d’Albret, perfume ban, fragrance review, The Perfumed Perspective
On the table: Stora Skuggan Hexensalbe, Amouage Portrayal Woman, Maison Crivelli Tubéreuse Astrale, Régime des Fleurs Blood Spider Orchids, Tom Ford Black Orchid, Maison Violet Compliment, Maître Parfumeur et Gantier Secrète Datura, Serge Lutens La Dompteuse Encagée and La Religieuse, vintage and current Dior Poison, Estée Lauder Spellbound, Arquiste Venice Rococo, Papillon Spell 125, and three from Etat Libre d’Orange.
Halloween night, and the second of two spooky stories. Last time it was the dead. Tonight it’s the ones who did the killing, the witch and the poisoner, and how the perfume industry has sold both by name since 1932.
Chapter one is the flower that smells of the grave: indole, which is one to three per cent of jasmine and is also made by bacteria in a corpse, so the bride’s bouquet and the body share a molecule. What a decaying body actually smells of, layer by layer, and why cadaverine and putrescine are not it. The corpse flower’s 2010 gas chromatograph. Then the Victorian rule that forbade girls the tuberose garden after dark, traced back to a two-word flower dictionary entry and a cluster of blog posts.
Chapter two is the witch’s ointment: henbane, mandrake, datura and belladonna, what they do to a body, and Giambattista della Porta’s 1558 recipe. Michael Ostling’s 2016 finding that the recipes came from physicians and the seized pots held cooking grease. Robin Briggs’s Lorraine trials, where a bad smell was proof of witchcraft. Then Jung, and the 1973 book that turned the accused into a wronged healer.
Chapter three is the poisoned gloves: Jeanne d’Albret, René the Florentine, the autopsy.
The Salon is where this channel goes deeper than an hour on YouTube allows. Every month, members get a full house deep dive that no one else sees: one perfume house, its history and its bottles, start to finish. Une Nuit Nomade is next, on 20 November. There are perfume parties where we all smell the same discovery set and argue about it together, the uncut interviews with the perfumers who make what we wear, and The Wrist every Monday: what I’m wearing, the releases worth smelling and the news that matters. Right now there’s also a Halloween bonus episode waiting, Why Monsters Always Smell Expensive. But the real reason to join is this: this channel takes no affiliate links and no brand deals, so no house pays for what I say about its perfume, and the members are what keep it that way. It’s $14.99 a month, and the Join button is on the channel page. Come and join me in The Salon.
perfume, fragrance, perfume history, Halloween perfume, witch perfume, poison perfume, Dior Poison, vintage Poison, Estée Lauder Spellbound, Serge Lutens, Tubéreuse Criminelle, Papillon Spell 125, Hexensalbe, Stora Skuggan, Amouage Portrayal, Tom Ford Black Orchid, Etat Libre d’Orange, indole, tuberose perfume, white floral, witches ointment, flying ointment, Affair of the Poisons, Aqua Tofana, poisoned gloves, Jeanne d’Albret, perfume ban, fragrance review, The Perfumed Perspective
