Whale Vomit worth a fortune!

Here’s more lol.
 
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ok I am responding before reading the article. Yes this whale vomit is called "ambergris" it is VERY EXPENSIVE cuz it takes a lot of work chasing down a whale that looks like it has a stomach ache.!!! It is used as a base note i.e the primary material that anchors or grounds the blend of flowers, fruits,woods (oud),spices, etc in a perfume blend..Ambergris is similar to musk or sandalwood or frankincense, all heavy scents that are earthy and more pungent.It gives the perfume blend depth and gravitas. I believe most ambergris products these days are created synthetically or with the tiniest amount of the stuff . This is why the musk perfume I was talking about last night was 6.95 in the 70's and all natural pure ingredients which is impossible to find nowadays thus 600 bucks for the same 1/2 oz bottle. The Coty musk is still made by the same company but it smells NOTHING like the original .No-thing.It is why perfumes these days all smell kinda chemically and the same. They are flavored water. The original perfumes were much denser,had true natural ingredients and basically cost more to make than to sell. Add to that banning or limiting animal based stuff like musk and you end up walking into a big department store and everything smelling like one god awful mess.
 
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Here’s more lol.
yes exactly pungent,depth of scent,trufflelike " UMAMI "is the perfect explanation
also perfumes are made up of 3 components the top notes or head notes,middle notes or heart notes and bottom or base notes. The top notes are usually light fragrances,lilac,citrus,lily of the valley .They are the scents you smell first but after about 20 minutes (called the "dry down") the top notes start to recede and you start to smell the mid notes and finally the base notes which last the longest.Heavier base notes will extend the life or silliage (the scent trail when someone walks by with the perfume on) So ambergris can extend how long the perfume will stay on you before disappearing.
 
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Here is an example of a perfume I own from Olympic Orchids: It is an awesome smelling perfume made by a small niche perfume house.
here's the description:

Sonnet XVII by Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes is a Floral Woody Musk fragrance for women and men. Sonnet XVII was launched in 2012. The nose behind this fragrance is Ellen Covey. Top notes are Champaca, Cubeb or Tailed pepper, Mastic or Lentisque and Citron; middle notes are Osmanthus and Orchid; base notes are Ambergris, Nard Himalayan (Jatamansi), Musk, Haitian Vetiver, Oakmoss, Woody Notes and Bourbon Vanilla.

Ya see the ambergris? it can also be used to enhance the musk.It is one of the substances called 'animalic" which can kinda smell like a stinky animal but it does give a je ne sais quoi something extra, that is undefinable as in an umami quality. And I'd reach up the whale's butt if I could get it to make my perfume smell fabulous and exotic. But that's just me...;0)
 
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ok one more thing just for those fragrantly inclined..I had spoken a bit about how the very same perfume that was made in the 70's or some as early as late 1800's can have the same name but smell completely different. I am quoting my new friend the vintage perfume expert when she was talking to me about perfume. And I'm sure this is waaaay more than anyone needs to know but it is kinda interesting...

"#CRAZYAUNTJULIE



I keep all of my full fragrances on shelves in three dark, temperature-controlled rooms. I keep my empty bottles in antique curio cabinets to enjoy. Over the decades, changes in IFRA (International Fragrance Association) laws have mandated a change in ingredients. Real musk was removed under animal cruelty laws sometime during the early 1980s and synthetics replaced it. That is why you cannot find a musk today that equals the ones from the 1970s and before, where musk was a staple ingredient. IFRA rules also mandated the dilution and removal of other ingredients which were considered allergens; which is why you can no longer find glorious fragrance heavy in oakmoss on the store shelves today. Thus, a bottle you purchased in the latter 1970s would not have the same ingredients as the "identical" bottle purchase a few years later in the 1980s.

Also, when companies change hands, the formulations are often modified so that the fragrances are not as expensive to make. For example, when Guerlain was held by the Guerlain family, real iris oil went into Shalimar. When it was sold to a conglomerate, that incredibly expensive ingredient was the first to go and replaced with a synthetic. Other fragrances, such as Borghese's Vivant were discontinued when the flowers used to make it caused its manufacture to become cost prohibitive. For many years, Patou Joy was actually more expensive to make than what it was sold for. Once out of the Patou family's hands, and with the death of its head perfumer who had worked there for decades, that immediately changed. It is really such a shame."


 
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