Toxic effects

Posted by Robin on 12 May 2021 6 Comments

Professor [Parvez] Haris, an expert in Biomedical Science and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, will submit a research paper this week which says the essential oils in Napoleon’s favourite Eau De Cologne can explain many of the changes in Napoleon’s health, including his development of gastric cancer found during an autopsy by the Emperor’s British captors at the time.

His exposure to high levels of essential oils was not limited to Eau de Cologne. He regularly drank orange blossom water which also contains essential oil. Being from Corsica, he was fond of citrus fruits which are rich in essential oils but it is the abnormally high daily intake from Eau de Cologne that led to toxic effects.

— Napoleon reportedly used 2-3 bottles of Eau de Cologne per day. Read more in Did Napoleon meet his Water-l'eau? DMU professor says French emperor was killed by an obsession with Eau de Cologne at De Montfort University Leicester. (Hat tip to Bill, who originally found this story in the Daily Mail.)

The (almost) daily lemming

Posted by Robin on 11 May 2021 13 Comments

A lemming for fans of Lush Karma: the new Good Karma...Everybody Needs Some shower gel. "Cleanse your body with heady patchouli and refreshing orange oil. Chill out with Lush’s most iconic fine fragrance." £23 for 550g at Lush UK.

Tuesday scent of the day 5/11

Posted by Robin on 11 May 2021 237 Comments

It’s Tuesday and Salvador Dali’s birthday. (And a reminder: the haiku challenge is coming up on Saturday!) What fragrance are you wearing?

I’m in Lush Kerbside Violet for Stevie Wonder’s 2020 ballad Where Is Our Love Song. Proceeds from the song went to Feeding America.

Reminder: on 5/14 we’re celebrating Stevie Wonder’s birthday…

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A movement was underway in Western perfumery

Posted by Robin on 11 May 2021 5 Comments

What I could not have known, as an “oriental” boy growing up among oriental smells, was that, from the late 1970s through the mid-1980s, a movement was underway in Western perfumery, in which the scents of my childhood, known in fragrance as the “orientals” — ambers and aromatic woods, vetiver, patchouli, musk and sandalwood — were being repurposed. Their rise, culminating eventually in the popularization of oudh in our century, spoke of profound societal changes in the West, such as women’s liberation, sexual freedom and the global dominance of the United States.

— Read more in The Fragrances That Changed the Field at The New York Times.