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 Those who
love perfume and prefer it for every day use, may find it exciting to read
about the unique substance used by most perfumers to create their terrific
fragrances. Ambergris is an organic animalic wax-like substance excreted by
sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus). This substance has a superb, rich, and
almost unbearable intensity before it finally mellows down. Before it lands onto
your skin, the scent of ambergris coming from a phial evokes intriguingly
enough the smell of spicy dusty old leather-bound books. Once heated by the
warmth of the skin, the ambergris glows and becomes enfin, releasing a luminous
effect that is very close to the visual sensation felt next to a fire burning
in a fireplace.
Ambergris is
widely used in perfume industry as the scent fixing agent. Also it is used in
homeopathy to create medicinal homeopathic drugs. Ambergris is widely found on
the earth, from the shore of Atlantic Ocean to the hot lands of Brazil and in Madagascar,
onto the shores of the African continent, in India,
China, and Japan and far Molucca Islands.
Ambergris is
known from the time immemorial, though people possessed little information on
its origin and thus, they made somehow weird and ridiculous assumptions. So, as
one of the legends says, ambergris is neither more no less than the frozen
saliva of dragon. The other version from unbelievable feature is that ambergris
is the excrement of the magic bird Roc. There were people who proposed that
ambergris is just the white wax, and this is likely the closest version. Yet,
only in XIX century the scientists managed to find out the true origin of
ambergris. And they found out that this substance originates in the stomach of
whales and sperm whales.
Sperm whale
hunting is not essential to get the ambergris. This substance origins in the stomach
of these animals and excreted into the water in natural manner. Sometimes the
ambergris is just dipping on the surface of water, sometimes it is merely
thrown out onto the shore. As the scientists propose, ambergris is excreted in
the organism of sperm whales not incidentally. It is needed to heal wounds made
by squids into the stomach, and we know that squid is the basic food in the
diet of these marine animals. Yet the scientists assume that jaws of squids irritate
the mucous coat of stomach of sperm whales and the special secretion is then
excreted.
Dark greyish
viscid lumps come into the water out of the stomachs. These lumps are special
with their sharp unpleasant scent that is too loathsome or even fecal.
Ambergris undergoes a range of processes and metamorphoses before it is the
component for expensive perfume. After the ambergris is picked up, it is soaked
in salty water by the special technology. The salty water influences the scent
of the ambergris, and hence it gets milder than as it is in nature. The experts
highly evaluate the ambergris that has been in sea water for over hundred of
years, that is in natural conditions. It gets white color and noble scent. This
ambergris is acknowledged as the most expensive, where a kilo of this substance
costs dozens of thousand Euros.
Ambergris
comes as lumps of various weights, from several grams to kilograms. The biggest
piece of the ambergris ever found is 122 kg. Ambergris is well diluted in spirit, in
ether, aroma oils (both fatty and ether oils). Though, it is not diluted in
water. It gets softer in hands, and it is flammable, creating viscid liquid
that goes into the vapor later. In sea water ambergris changes it preliminary
color getting lighter. After it is specially processed, the color of ambergris
may come as black, grey, brown, golden or white. And white ambergris is the
mostly evaluated one among others.
Ambergris
is widely used in perfumery, though there is not single composition built on
the base of amber, it is not used as it is. Ambergris is the perfect fixing
agent of fragrances. Amber added into the perfume composition makes your
perfume stable and strong throughout a day of wear. Fragrance persistence is
one of the most important parameters. Yet, the elite perfume stands for its
level of persistence against the cheaper perfume. The perfumers note that
ambergris is not good as the fixing agent for all fragrances. It is especially good
for spicy Oriental fragrances that help to create the feeling of warmth.
Ambergris is not suitable in cases when fixing citrus or marine scents to
create the fresh concepts; thus, other components are practiced to fix such
scents.
Currently
ambergris is used in perfume industry not as frequent as it is before. It is used
just to create expensive perfume of reputed brands, which result in its final
cost. In the meantime, perfumers learnt to manufacture the synthetic analogue
of ambergris that replaced the natural one for long years. It may not happen if
not the complicated development of ambergris, high price and on the top of it,
it is not suitable for all fragrances.
A thousand
nuances seem to assemble into a few recognizable facets smelling of dry herbs
but also of peach, apricot, leather, dusty parchment, and baby powder before
the fact, white rice flour, a tinge of almond, sweet fruits, skin, wine-y
resin, sandalwood, manure, earth, sand, moss, iodine, hay, and cinnamon. It is
a world opening up in and of itself, a tiny universe that has formed thanks to
the sea, salt, sun, and marine animals.
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