1930s Vegan Heliotrope Perfume | Vintage Hollywood Charm

VINTAGE SCENTS
1930s Heliotrope Scented Water
4 oz glass bottle ( sprayer optional)
1/3 oz Small Plastic Spray Bottle
Fragrance Oil + Essential Oil ( 1930s style- I’ll explain)

The history of Heliotrope is pretty darn fascinating, but for those wanting the quick run down, if you like our Lilac-Lily and Violet Toilette Water, then you will like this one too!! In my mind, it smells like a specific fabulous Bean that starts with. “T” and ends with “a”. These beans smell like a creamy, sweet vanilla smell, which makes this scent irresistible. In addition to its vanilla scent, it is also renowned for its distinct almond notes. These are the current notes I pick up most for this Heliotrope Water!!

This isn’t meant to be long lasting like high-concentrated perfumes would. Historically, waters were used for lightly scenting clothes, rooms, baths, and hair -things like that. It’s a little pick-me-up, not a high-concentration perfume. With that all said, because this is a newer recipe, historically speaking, and a combo of synthetic and natural oils, it most likely will last a little longer than our naturally scented waters ( unlike our rose), which is made from rose hydrosol and Bulgarian Rose EO.

So, what does this smell like? Heliotrope has a sweet and floral scent with a subtle touch of almond. Many people associate the fragrance with feelings of warmth and comfort, often noting its nutty and woody undertones. When you smell it, you will recognize it as an old-fashioned scent right away!

WANT THE HISTORY:
In the Classical myth, told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the water nymph, Clytie, was “betrayed” by the sun god Helios; even though she loved him, he did not return it. Eventually, she wasted away and was transformed into the heliotrope, whose flowers still always face the one she loved, the Sun.

While the heliotropin molecule wasn’t discovered until the second half of the 19th century, the use of heliotrope flowers in perfumery is much older, and they are somewhat different from what we have today! But we have records from Ancient Egypt that talk about the flower’s daintiness and fragrance. Pliny also praised the plant because, “It helped show many the hours of the day!” He also having it “other” abilities.

Now, we are going to take a large jump to David de Planis Campy in the 17th century. I came across an interesting book from 1701, titled “Curiosities of Nature and the Art of Husbandry and Gardening.” In this book, the author discusses David de Plains Campy’s (1589-c.1644) and writings in the 17th century regarding Heliotrope’s virtues. He was a French alchemist, physician, and surgeon. In 1612, Campy proclaimed that Heliotrope’s virtues and “helps” were above everything and said there was nothing it couldn’t do. He also gave some recipes. After reviewing them, the author said some of the “helps” are more fantasy than actual fact. But if nothing else, this shows how highly the Heliotrope flower was esteemed. Plus, the same name was also given to a stone. The heliotrope stone ( named after the flower) was also known as “ The Stone of Babylon,” which was given special alchemical properties and was said to create invisibility when combined with the flower!

Next, we have to move ahead to the Peruvian Andes and the French Dr. and botanist Joseph De Juissie, who was said to have found the plant on a 1735 expedition. This is where we start to see the lovely-smelling plant gathering momentum for eventual 19th-century use in perfumes and toilette products. Shortly after, I was able to find a newspaper article from the General Evening London Post that said, on this day, a new book had been published with a set of Figures of Plants Adapted to the Gardner’s Dictionary and written by Philip Miller. While we don’t have an exact date, it’s estimated that it was brought to France sometime between 1735 and 1757. According to monticello.org, in 1786, while serving as Minister to France, Jefferson sent a collection of seeds and plants home to friends, including the lovely blue-flowering heliotrope with a note: “To be sowed in spring. It’s a delicious flower, but I suspect it must be planted in boxes and kept in the house in winter. The smell rewards the care.”

So, how does this fit into perfumes and scenting toilette articles? Well, all this to say, the scent started becoming really popular in the 19th century. Maceration and enfleurage were used to extract the scent, and once the Regency period learned of its association with ancient Greece and Rome, we started seeing it advertised as a scent in toilette products. But as much as it was in demand, it was very costly for the oil. Fear not, as science and technology made leaps in bounds in the 19th century, we see Heliotrope, or the scent molecule Heliotropin, became one of the first, along with Vanillin and Coumarin, to be synthesized in 1869, allowing many types of products to obtain a scent similar to the Heliotrope flower at a fraction of the cost.

By 1825, I started to see recipes that call for the petals of Heliotrope to be used in simple things like cordials and sachet powders. But if a greater scent was wanted, one could compound something close to the scent using other oils and extracts. This was the most common way of putting together a heliotrope scent before 1869 unless you had the money for the true oil the plant gave off.

In the 19th century, no two historical recipes for this scent were the same. We see countless recipes, and they are all different, using many unique essences. But by 1869, we see more simplistic recipes because of this new synthetic scent molecule. It also allowed the scent to be available to a broader range of customers and used in many products, not just those in the higher echelons. It’s not as simple as taking its petals and letting them soak, especially using modern Heliotrope, because it is not the same. The scent is complex, and any perfumer would need to use many notes to create one scent, even with the new synthetic molecule.

All this to say, despite having acquired the name heliotrope for its similar scent to that of the heliotrope flower, this synthetic chemical does not actually appear in the natural flower’s scent composition. So, formularies suggest that to have the best outcome when using the Heliotropine molecule was the careful addition of complimentary accords like Vanilla and so on. So, despite the much-called-for use of this molecule to obtain the heliotrope scent at an economical price, this 1930s recipe still follows the original compounding structure of older Heliotrope waters in that- one adds other notes and accords to mix something that is close kin to the actual smell of the flower.

And that is what we did. By the 1930’s, this scent was available for everyone! Now, something even more crazy, modern-day heliotrope, has been bred more for the colors than the scent. So you may get a whiff of what it smells like, but it is said that it isn’t as strong as the original flower was. Also, in the Victorian book The Language of Flowers, the Heliotrope symbolized devotion and eternal love.

So, if you are looking for a really interesting and unique scent that you will recognize from your Grandmother or Great-Grandmother, you need to try our Heliotrope water. If you like it, we may pull some older recipes where we blend more natural notes together to come up with a similar lovely scent, but it’s such a unique scent and history that we didn’t want you to miss out on this 1930s gem of a water. It is everything you can imagine!! And this scent was so popular that it is sure to please, even today.

Also, in the 1880s, there was a new color ( dye) that was called “heliotrope purple” or “false purple.” But it was all the rage and more economical to produce!!