You Smell of Whale Vomit (and You Love It)! [Something New Sunday]
Do you ever wonder what's in your perfume before you spray it on? You might not want to, because there's a good chance is contains the cooked vomit of sperm whales (called Ambergris) or its synthetic copy Ambrox.
While you might not be aware that you smell (pleasantly) of whale vomit, Ambergris has been used for centuries for anything from perfumes to cocktails and aphrodisiacs. From ancient Egypt to today's high-end perfumers - people do love that whale vomit.
Select perfumes from high-end brands like Creed, Guerlain and Bvlgari contain this vomit simply because the cheap brands can't afford it - it's increasingly rare and unreasonably pricey.
(Source: Just a Random Whale Not Vomiting on Unsplash)
What is Ambergris?
Since sperm (Physeter macrocephalus) whales can't digest the spikey and sharp parts of animals like squids, their digestive tract produces a kind of gooey substance that covers squid beaks and bones. In most cases, the whale will vomit the greyish lump of sticky gooey bile along with the sharp remains of marine life in it, and people will hurry to collect them.
These chunks can be up to 50 pounds in weight, and are nearly worth their weight in gold - quality whale vomit cost around $20 a gram. That's a lot of Steem tokens!
(Source: Wikipedia - Photographer: Peter Kaminski - CC BY 2.0)
At first, these smell very much like feces, which has caused some scientist to theorize that it is not whale vomit but rather something that comes out the other side. Through chemical processing (mostly heating), the substance gets a sweet musky smell and is used in the cosmetic industry as a fixative, helping the fragrance "stick" to the skin for a longer period of time, in addition to contributing its own sweet and musky smell.
Endangered Whales and Synthetic Vomit
Collecting the upheavings of whales doesn't hurt them, but whaling and our damaged environment are. As the number of sperm whales in the wild declined, so did the availability of freely floating ambergris. Some countries (like the US and Australia) made the owning and trading of ambergris on their territory illegal, but that hardly helps save the whale population.
With the price of ambergris rising, scientist have been working on synthetic replacements that are cheaper to produce and don't involve foul-smelling chunks of whale barf. These are now being used in the cosmetic industry, but there's still no lack of demand for whale vomit, and anyone who happens to find some whale puke on their walk on the beach is still looking at a nice pile of cash in exchange.
So if you're a fan of smelling good, you should be fighting to save the whales! If you're currently really grossed out, then you might (NOT) want to browse this list of classic perfumes that definitely include sperm whale vomit in their ingredient list.
(Just a few brands of whale vomit fragrances)
Bonus Fact: Ambergis is one resources traded in Assassin's Creed.
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Notes: My apologies to my readers for the lack of @mistress chapter last night. I will make it up to you!
Oh my gosh. Whale vomit! When I read the title, I thought it's going to be about STEEM whales, LOL.
I already don't use perfume very often, but this will make me think about it whenever I see any kind of perfume!
It's like boots n' cats. I will see whale vomit when I see perfume!
It's called targeted click-baiting. :)
Think of saving the whales! For their vomit, if nothing else!
Haha, I figured it was targeted click-baiting :P
Yes, save the whales and their vomit!
dammit!
I got click-baited too, but decided to read on and 'til' also.
Happy to say that I don't (currently) own any aftershave (or is it donkey jizzy for men's perfume?) and so this is an excellent reason not to buy any more, thanks!
OMG! I'm thinking this falls into the TMI category!
I ran quickly to the site of all the fragrances and am relieved to report I do not now, nor have I ever worn whale vomit!
I was, however, surprised to find a fragrance called "Libertine Fragrance: Sex and Jasmine" - who knew someone bottled that scent? (And with whale vomit no less.)
Thanks for teaching me something awesome for cocktail party conversation. 😘
You had me in sperm
Wow I had no idea whale vomit was used to create fragrances, very cool. We need to make sure these majestic creatures don't go extinct
A refreshing post!
I did know that there is a use to the musk produced from deers glandular secretions but didn't know about whale's vomit and that's really fascinating and amusing me right now!
The whole alchemy of the fragrance industry is also really interesting - I didn't bother checking is, but I do remember most of the companies buy from some central companies that has a man called "the nose" that has an outstanding smell capabilities and can discern between a plethora of smells. I should really Google it, but for now I wrote what i somewhat remember.
חחח מזל"ט
Hello @techslut
Kudos to you for nice use of words there. I've been accustomed to Steem Whales, that the first thought I had was that of a whale dropping all his vote on you. And sincerely I was grinning 😀😀, for who doesn't like a whale vomit that is so valuable.
But here, I've learnt about Ambergeris, hope I got that right and how its being used for perfume. I guess it will be safe to protect the whales from going into extinction.
That would be a step in the positive direction.
Keep being amazing, and thanks for informing me on the need and importance of saving a whale.
Thats right men. Now a days, people doesnt appreciate things until, only when its gone.
Clickbaiting, unlike whale-baiting, can be useful and helpful to all. :)
I would change ambergris from being unreasonably pricey to reasonably pricey since you have to kill a whale to get the stuff. Whales are often endangered so maybe a synthetic alternative would be more palatable.
You can't get ambergris from dead whales. That's the point. You can find ambergris floating in the water or washed up on the beach. And there are synthetic alternatives but not because it endangers the whales, but because it's pricey.