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> So what did the ancients do? I am sure they would have worked out
how to
> make waters - rose and lavendar, the process of sublimation -
camphor,
> menthol and tyme. extraction with alcohol - just think of the greek
> retsina wine which is rich in resins!
>


We're lucky in that there is a lot of evidence for the immensly
diverse trade in aromatic substances. Olive oil production is well
documented and writers such as Pliny and Dioscorides also talk at
length about oils expressed from other fruits The fact that omphacion
is specified as different to common olive oil definately suggests
that specific characteristics were being looked for. Interestingly,
they preferred almond oil from bitter rather than sweet almonds in
cosmetics (another oil its hard to getthese days- you can get sweet
almond oil by the bucket, and the bitter almond oil is just used very
sparingly [beacause of its toxicity] as a scent and flavouring, but
no-one seems to express it as a base oil any more..)Sesame oil is
another widely referred to oil. Aromatics included resins such as
myrrh and terebinth and fragrant herbs covered just as wide a range
as most perfumers use today.

The tricky bit is trying to reconstruct a plausible recipe from the
fragmentary evidence. If people are interested on this list, I'll
happily post one of the reconstructed olive oil based recipes if
anyone would like to try their hand at early perfume making.

Cheers for all the input everyone, its very stimulating approaching
this from a different perspective.
Sally
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