The manufacture of handkerchief perfumes is very simple: the extracts prepared as directed in Chapter XI. are mixed in definite proportions and the perfume is finished. If the extracts are well seasoned, the perfumes blend in perfect harmony within a few days, and this time may be even shortened by the use of the apparatus illustrated in Fig. 32. If the extracts have been but recently prepared, a longer time will be required before the odor of the alcohol and the several constituents is imperceptible and all odors have blended into a harmonious whole.

If the manufacturer can afford to allow the finished extracts and perfumes to season for some length of time—of course, in well-closed and completely filled vessels—in a cool place, they will improve markedly in quality. Perfumes which contain but a single odor or in which a certain odor distinctly predominates are usually called by the name of the respective plant, etc., under a French title, e.g., extrait de violette, extrait de resÉda, etc. Combinations of many odors which produce an agreeable impression as a whole, while no one odor predominates, are called bouquets or waters; for instance, Bouquet de Jockey Club, Eau de Mille Fleurs, Cologne Water, Hungarian Water, etc.

The mixture of the extracts is effected in strong glass bottles of a capacity exactly adapted to the perfume, so as to be completely filled. For perfumes which require seasoning to make the odors blend we use small glass balls of which enough are introduced into the bottle to make the mixture rise into the neck of the container which is then closed air-tight and preserved in a dark, cool place.

Of course, all perfumes should be perfectly clear and free from turbidity. The extracts made from pomades or essential oils are clear and furnish perfumes that remain so; extracts prepared from balsams or resins should be allowed to stand at rest for several weeks and then be carefully decanted from the sediment. Filtration should be dispensed with unless absolutely unavoidable, on account of the large amount of oxygen with which the extract would thereby come in contact, to the detriment of the odor.

The bottles in which the perfumes are mixed, as well as those in which they are put up for sale, must be perfectly dry, as a very small amount of water often suffices to separate a portion of the aromatics and to render the liquid turbid or opalescent.

Fine perfumes are always sold in glass vessels with ground-glass stoppers; cork has a peculiar odor which it would communicate to the liquid. For the more perfect exclusion of the air the stoppers and bottle necks are moreover covered with animal membrane, sheet rubber, or vegetable parchment, with an outer cap of white glove leather.

In the case of very expensive perfumes, much care is bestowed on the container; certain perfumes are filled into bottles of peculiar form and color, or into small porcelain jars provided with corresponding labels printed in gold and colors. Sometimes the container costs many times the price of the perfume. But as the finest perfumes are articles of luxury in the truest sense of the word, they require extreme care in their putting up; and good taste in the selection of the containers for fluids, pomades, cosmetics, powders, etc., is of as much importance to the perfumer as the possession of a sensitive and trained olfactory organ.

In the following formulas for the preparation of bouquets, the words extract, essence, and tincture have the same meaning as was explained under Chapter XI. For cheap perfumes the corresponding essential oils dissolved in alcohol, that is, the corresponding “essence,” is employed in place of the true “extract.”