The Art of Perfumery, and Methods of Obtaining the Odors of Plants: With Instructions for the Manufacture of Perfumes for the Handkerchief, Scented Powders, Odorous Vinegars, Dentifrices, Pomatums, Cosmetics, Perfumed Soap, Etc., to which is Added an Appendix on Preparing Artificial Fruit-Essences, Etc.Piesse, G. W. Septimus (George William Septimus)
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The Art of Perfumery, and Methods of Obtaining the Odors of Plants: With Instructions for the Manufacture of Perfumes for the Handkerchief, Scented Powders, Odorous Vinegars, Dentifrices, Pomatums, Cosmetics, Perfumed Soap, Etc., to which is Added an Appendix on Preparing Artificial Fruit-Essences, Etc.
Piesse, G. W. Septimus (George William Septimus)
Cosmetics; Perfumes
This method is exceedingly convenient and economical for scenting small
batches, involving merely mechanical labor, the tools required being
simply an ordinary carpenter's plane, and a good marble mortar, and
lignum vitae pestle.
The woodwork of the plane must be fashioned at each end, so that when
placed over the mortar it remains firm and not easily moved by the
parallel pressure of the soap against its projecting blade.
To commence operations, we take first 7 lbs., 14 lbs., or 21 lbs. of the
bars of the soap that it is intended to perfume. The plane is now laid
upside down across the top of the mortar.
Things being thus arranged, the whole of the soap is to be pushed across
the plane until it is all reduced into fine shavings. Like the French
"Charbonnier," who does not saw the wood, but woods the saw, so it will
be perceived that in this process we do not plane the soap, but that we
soap the plane, the shavings of which fall lightly into the mortar as
quickly as produced.
[Illustration: Soaping the Plane.]
Soap, as generally received from the maker, is the proper condition for
thus working; but if it has been in stock any time it becomes too hard,
and must have from one to three ounces of distilled water sprinkled in
the shaving for every pound of soap employed, and must lay for at least
twenty-four hours to be absorbed before the perfume is added.
When it is determined what size the cakes of soap are to be, what they
are to sell for, and what it is intended they should cost, then the
maker can measure out his perfume.
In a general way, soaps scented in this way retail from 4_s._ to 10_s._
per pound, bearing about 100 per cent. profit, which is not too much
considering their limited sale. The soap being in a proper physical
condition with regard to moisture, &c., is now to have the perfume well
stirred into it. The pestle is then set to work for the process of
incorporation. After a couple of hours of "warm exercise," the soap is
generally expected to be free from streaks, and to be of one uniform
consistency.
For perfuming soap in large portions by the cold process, instead of
using the pestle and mortar as an incorporator, it is more convenient
and economical to employ a mill similar in construction to a cake
chocolate-mill, or a flake cocoa-mill; any mechanical apparatus that
answers for mixing paste and crushing lumps will serve pretty well for
blending soap together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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