Applying a modest
dab of fragrance has become an established part
of many hygiene routines today, but perfume was a
celebrated luxury item long before Chanel No. 5 or your desperate
gas station cologne. And it didn't always
smell so sweet. Today we're taking a look
at the history of perfume, but before we get started,
be sure to subscribe to the Weird History Channel. And while you're at it leave
a comment and let us know what other historical hygiene topics
you would like to hear about. Time to spritz a little Tay
Tay's Wonderstruck into the air and walk through it
into some Weird History. [MUSIC PLAYING] In ancient Egypt,
people called perfume the sweat of the
sun God, believing it to come from the
perspiration of Ra himself, but since Ra's tennis headband
isn't super appealing, they had another god
dedicated to perfume Nefertem. According to Simon
Goodenough's Egyptian Mythology and several other
texts on the subject, Nefertem was the
god of the sunrise. He also pulled double duty
as the god the lotus blossom. That's disappointing. Even gods have to work two jobs. Lotus flowers are known
for their pleasant scent and medicinal properties
and were a vital ingredient in Egyptian perfume, which
led to Nefertim's association with fragrances. To create their
scents, Egyptians use plants like henna, lotus,
waterlily, roses, and cinnamon. These were soaked in oil
and sold to the wealthy. Poor people meanwhile just
had to bake in their own funk. Speaking of wealth between the
16th and 11th centuries BCE, Egypt was at its
most prosperous. Known as New Kingdom
Egypt, it was the period during which King Tut lived. The Valleys of the
Kings became a landmark, and the Temple of Luxor
was built at Thebes. Architecture at the time still
humbles and inspires Las Vegas land developers to this day. The time period also ushered
in some unique fashion choices involving perfumed hats. According to The History of
Ancient Egyptian Literature-- Volume One, people wore wreaths
of perfume on their heads as they drank wine, and some
wore perfumed cones made from beeswax and oil scents. Artwork from the period depicts
people sporting these cones. But the practice wasn't
confirmed until 2019 when a team led by Monash
University's Ana Stevens uncovered two bodies in
Amarna that were buried with the cones on their heads. Bury me in my smell hat
isn't the type of final wish you can refuse. Throughout the ancient
world, most perfumes were basically scented oils. For the ancient
Greeks and Romans, olive oil was the
most common base. Well, I guess they prefer to
conduct their daily business while smelling
like pantry pasta. That would just make
me hungry all day. But there were other oils such
as almond that were also used. After pressing olives,
perfumers would add in different wood and plants
to create fabulous fragrances. Pliny the Elder
bitterly complained about these oils in
his Natural History, calling them the
most superfluous of all forms of
luxury and insisting they lost their scent the
very hour they are used. This may be the earliest known
instance of a one-star review. The Romans also loved
perfumes and scented oils. Fragrances were used as part
of love, ritual, beauty, and commerce, pretty
much the same things we use them for today. The oldest known perfume
factory, located in Cyprus, manufactured scents
for Roman temples. Ingredients like pomegranate
rind, sweet marjoram, and cyprus all made their
way into fine Roman perfumes. But frankincense was
likely the most popular. At the height of
the Roman Empire, perfumers blazed through nearly
3,000 tons of frankincense every year. That's a whole lot of incense. Sounds like someone
didn't want their parents to smell what they were
actually burning in the Domus. The Romans used
frankincense in their baths, during beauty rituals,
and even dabbed a bit on the soles of their feet. And similar to
ancient Egypt, people were buried with perfume
made from the resin although to the best
of our knowledge, no Romans got to wear
fancy scented cones. Perfume was also popular
in ancient China. The Chinese like
to burn incense, associating the practice
with purity and honor. They also wore
perfume pouches filled with herbs, flowers, and other
pleasant smelling things. Nowadays if you wear a homemade
Yankee Candle necklace one time, you're no longer
allowed to ride the bus even if it's a controlled flame. Have we really progressed? The traditional
Chinese perfume pouch has many names including
Xiangnang, Xiangbao, or Hebao and traces its origins back
to the Tang, Zhou, and Shang dynasties. During the Tang
Dynasty, women began making the sachets with colorful
silk and silver or gold beads. Throughout the Qing
Dynasty, emperors treated perfume as a luxury. Due to a long held
Manchu custom, emperors and empresses
carried pouches around. They'd use them to bring
good luck and freshen the air around them
and would hand them out to those with whom
they found favor. But perfume wasn't just a
noble's pursuit in China. Throughout history,
royalty types have had a common
obsession with perfume, and ancient Persia
was no different. Growing and cultivating
flowers for use of perfume was fairly common in the region. According to Akhemenian stone
inscriptions and Pallavi texts, perfume caught the attention
of Persian royalty, in particular
Darius the Great who was especially keen
on fragrances, so much so that one relief
depicts him holding perfume flowers in his hand. Another stone image shows him
sitting in an elegant chair. Beside him are two
perfume bottles, and behind him stands his son
Xerxes, the bad guy from 300, who is also holding flowers. We wouldn't be surprised if
archaeologists discovered evidence of Darius launching
his own line of fragrances like Juicy Couture. Persia significantly contributed
to perfume advancements and developments
throughout the Middle Ages. The Persian philosopher Avicenna
even experimented with perfume. When he wasn't busy
writing about ethics, he was also a chemist. It's widely believed
that he invented the alcohol distillation process
that led to liquid perfumes. [MUSIC PLAYING] Contrary to popular
depiction, people liked to smell good during
the Middle Ages, too. To provide a pleasant aroma,
members of the upper class carried around pomanders. A pomander a small scented
ball at the end of a chain, like a medieval wallet chain
clipped to a bottle of Thank U Next by Ariana Grande. Taking their name from the
French word pomme d'ambre, meaning amber apple,
pomanders were built for a single purpose,
to eliminate foul odors. The little devices were
typically constructed of wood metal or porcelain. People wore them around their
necks both to enjoy the aroma and to avoid the plague. Even doctors of
the period believed perfume would keep the
Black Death at bay. You know those nasty looking
bird masks plague doctors wore? They'd fill the ends of
those freakishly long noses with dried flowers,
spices, herbs, and vinegar to thwart miasma, the belief
that illnesses could be transferred via pungent odors. Meanwhile, pomanders contained
a mix of herbs, spices, and ambergris, otherwise
known as the intestinal wax from the belly of a whale. Apparently that smelled
better than whatever the hell was in the air back then. Ambergris is basically
a big oily hairball coughed up by a sperm whale. According to British marine
biologist Robert Clarke's 2006 study The Origin of
Ambergris, squid beaks may cause a deadly blockage in
the whale's intestinal tract, which causes ambergris to
be expelled into the sea. Perfumes made from
ambergris were thought to have medicinal
properties and possibly even freshen the breath. Today perfumers rely
on a synthetic lab produced version of ambergris
instead of the genuine article. But real scent heads with
a pure stuff comes from. While many perfumes
contained ambergris, others were concocted
from secretions from different animals including
deer, beavers, and cats, specifically liquid secreted
from the animal's scent and anal glands. Dab on a little
eau du cat butthole and make a reservation for two. [MUSIC PLAYING] Medieval Italians discovered
alcohol-based perfumes in the 14th century. If you're going to make a
game changing discovery, chances are there's going
to be some alcohol involved. The first liquid
perfume was called Queen of Hungary Water, which
was made with alcohol, mint, and rosemary as a
special present for Queen Elizabeth of Hungary, not to
be confused with hungry Queen Elizabeth. That woman could pack it away. Eventually Italians arrived at
the creation of Aqua Mirabilis. In 1600, the miraculous
water is perhaps better known as eau du cologne so named
because its inventor Giovanni Paolo Feminis lived in the
city of Cologne at the time. His creation would go on to
haunt countless nightclubs on the Jersey Shore
centuries later. At first it was used
as a disinfectant and to kill bacteria. Later it was transformed
into a perfume thanks to the efforts of Italian
perfumer Giovanni Maria Farina. Italy was known as a fine
perfume purveyor for centuries, a reputation Catherine de
Medici helped to accommodate. The daughter of a young
Italian prince, Catherine was destined for a royal life,
but she wasn't exactly popular. Known as cold and
calculating during her reign, she oversaw a country that
was plagued by civil wars. She also played a heavy role
in the infamous 1572 massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day,
but what's not as well known is her connection to perfume. Catherine loved
Italian perfumes. As a young queen wedded
to France's King Henry II, she was gifted a special perfume
by Florence's Dominican monks called Acqua della Regina
or Water of the Queen. When Catherine
moved to France, she brought her perfume
maker Rene le Florentin along with a large
custom perfume collection. According to some sources,
she gave scented gloves to the French court,
and French Nobles began wearing them as
prestigious status symbols. It's not a Mercedes or a Rolex,
but a pleasantly aromatic hand still provided the desired
feeling of superiority. Interestingly,
Catherine later was accused of murdering her
enemies by presenting them with gifts of poison gloves. Those claims have largely been
discredited, but at any rate, they didn't seem to affect
the upper class's fascination with fragrant
gloves, which became popular gifts for nobles
throughout the next few centuries. Catherine wasn't the only
notorious fan of perfume. According to historical records,
Napoleon loved eau du cologne and swore by its
supposed health benefits. He loved it so much, in fact,
that Professor Parvez Haris of De Montfort
University Leicester believes the French emperor
may have inadvertently poisoned himself with it. Haris writes, for
Napoleon, eau du cologne was a double-edged sword. It saved him during his
campaigns and travels, but it ultimately killed him
due to overdosing himself over several decades. Since it mainly
contains alcohol, eau du cologne was
acting as an antiseptic, and this may have well saved
his life by protecting him from catching deadly
bacteria and viruses during his campaigns. It's not hard to
believe he ODed on musk. Napoleon famously ordered 50
bottles of perfume per month, preferring the
scent of rosemary. He certainly kept his
perfumer, Chardin, busy. Chardin reportedly
delivered 162 bottles of eau de cologne to Napoleon in a
single three-month period. Apparently, Napoleon also
doubled as a Miami DJ. [MUSIC PLAYING] For a long time,
perfume was only really accessible to the rich. Odor, like virtually
everything else, acted as a dividing
line between classes. In the Middle Ages,
pomanders were carried by wealthy
nobles, not common folk, but by the 19th century,
synthetic fragrances had changed everything. Production gets a
little less costly when you don't have to scour
the ocean for whale vomit. Perfume was still marketed as
a luxury item like it is today, but it became an affordable one. Thanks to centuries of
experimentation and perfection, smelling nice is no longer
the exclusive domain of the rich and powerful. Now you, too, can smell
like Bruce Willis. So what do you think? Would you have freshened up
with any of these fragrances? Let us know in the
comments below. And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos from our Weird History.
