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Perfumes obtained from animals

Q: Do people use whale vomit as perfume?

Krishna: You must be asking about Ambergris.

It is a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull grey or blackish colour produced in the digestive system of sperm whales (1).

Freshly produced ambergris has a marine, faecal odor. It acquires a sweet, earthy scent as it ages, commonly likened to the fragrance of rubbing alcohol without the vaporous chemical astringency.

Ambergris was earlier highly valued by perfume makers as a fixative that allows the scent to endure much longer, although it has been mostly replaced by synthetic ambroxide.

Ambergris is formed from a secretion of the bile duct in the intestines of the sperm whale, and can be found floating on the sea or washed up on coastlines. It is sometimes found in the abdomens of dead sperm whales. Because the beaks of giant squids have been discovered within lumps of ambergris, scientists have theorized that the substance is produced by the whale's gastrointestinal tract to ease the passage of hard, sharp objects that it may have eaten.

Ambergris is passed like fecal matter. It is speculated that an ambergris mass too large to be passed through the intestines is expelled via the mouth, but this remains under debate (2).

Ambergris is passed like fecal matter. It is speculated that an ambergris mass too large to be passed through the intestines is expelled via the mouth, but this remains under debate. Ambergris takes years to form. Christopher Kemp, the author of Floating Gold: A Natural (and Unnatural) History of Ambergris, says that it is only produced by sperm whales, and only by an estimated one percent of them. Ambergris is rare; once expelled by a whale, it often floats for years before making landfall. The slim chances of finding ambergris and the legal ambiguity involved led perfume makers away from ambergris, and led chemists on a quest to find viable alternatives.

Ambergris is found primarily in the Atlantic Ocean and on the coasts of South Africa, Brazil, Madagascar, the East Indies, The Maldives, China, Japan, India, Australia, New Zealand, and the Molucca Islands. Most commercially collected ambergris comes from the Bahamas in the Atlantic, particularly New Providence. In 2021, fishermen found a 127 kg (280-pound) piece of ambergris off the coast of Yemen, valued at US$1.5 million. Fossilised ambergris from 1.75 million years ago has also been found.

From the 18th to the mid-19th century, the whaling industry prospered. By some reports, nearly 50,000 whales, including sperm whales, were killed each year. Throughout the 1800s, "millions of whales were killed for their oil, whalebone, and ambergris" to fuel profits, and they soon became endangered as a species as a result. Due to studies showing that the whale populations were being threatened, the International Whaling Commission instituted a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1982. Although ambergris is not harvested from whales, many countries also ban the trade of ambergris as part of the more general ban on the hunting and exploitation of whales. It is illegal to possess Ambergris in some countries including India under the wild life protection act,1972.

Footnotes:

1. "Ambergris". Britannica. Retrieved 31 January 2013.

2. William F. Perrin; Bernd Wursig; J. G.M. Thewissen (2009). Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. Academic Press. p. 28. ISBN 978-0080919935.

Q: What are the perfumes obtained from animals?

Krishna: The main perfumes obtained from animals are civet, musk, castoreum, ambergris and hyraceum. Natural animal notes in perfume creation were used earlier in very subtle fragrances to enhance smoothness in fragrances. Some flowers such as the jasmine, naturally contain animal notes called the indole that can be isolated and used by perfumers to enhance the other notes.

Animal notes of natural origin are today forbidden in the perfume industry. At the beginning of the century, almost all perfumes were made with animal notes. They contributed to the staying power, gave roundness to the fragrances and were great base notes.

The civet note was used in perfumes for men and for women, or unisex perfumes.

The scent of the raw product is extremely strong, but it softens once integrated with other scents such as rose, jasmine and ylang-ylang, for example, and often improves the cohesion of the fragrance, while bringing an almost aphrodisiac-like sweetness.

For the protection of animals, animal notes are prohibited today, except gray amber because it does not involve animal suffering.

The word "civet" is used to refer to both the animal and the secretions produced by it. It is a small carnivorous, marten-like mammal that is native to Ethiopia. It is also known as the "Abyssinian cat". The animal produces secretions in the form of fat in its perianal region, which they use to mark their territory.

Civet

To extract this fat, a curettage (a painful process for the animal) was carried out approximately every ten days, while the civet was raised by farmers in cramped cages. Big brands themselves tried for a while to set up farms for raising civets in cages, but these were systematically exposed by local activists: this approach was therefore unsuccessful and later banned.

Due to the difficult harvest of this fat, the price of the product was very high.

Musk is a class of aromatic substances commonly used as base notes in perfumery. They include glandular secretions from animals such as the musk deer, numerous plants emitting similar fragrances, and artificial substances with similar odors. Musk was a name originally given to a substance with a strong odour obtained from a gland of the musk deer. The substance has been used as a popular perfume fixative since ancient times and is one of the most expensive animal products in the world.

Musk deer

Castoreum is a yellowish exudate from the castor sacs of mature beavers. Beavers use castoreum in combination with urine to scent mark their territory. Both beaver sexes have a pair of castor sacs and a pair of anal glands, located in two cavities under the skin between the pelvis and the base of the tail.

In perfumery, the term castoreum refers to the resinoid extract resulting from the dried and alcohol tinctured beaver castor. It is also used as a food additive.

Hyraceum is the petrified and rock-like excrement composed of both urine and feces excreted by the

Cape hyrax or rock hyrax. The rock hyrax defecates in the same location over generations, which may be sheltered in caves. These locations form middens that are composed of hyraceum and hyrax pellets, which can be petrified and preserved for over 50,000 years. It is also a sought-after material that has been used in both traditional South African medicine and perfumery.

Perfumes obtained from animals

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