Exploring the history of pharmacy and its strange ingredients of animal origin, I discovered just how many of them are still used in the perfume business (and related trades such as soap making, cosmetics, fragrance sticks, solid perfumes etc). Besides musk which is extracted from the secretions of various species of deer (but also plants with similar smell), there is also civette, from the anal glands of the civet cat group of felines and ambergris, from the digestive system of sperm whales. I guess it has to do with pheromones and the animal in us, but I am still amazed of the great contemporary success of such products. My latest Etsy treasury "Animal fragrance" explores some of these products and the way of presenting them - in a very aesthetically pleasing, sanitized way. Interesting!
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