Yes you read the title wellππ
It has come to my attention that some products use whale Poop π³ for their perfumes
You may go about sniffing yourselves to see if you can get that whiff of Moby Dick π
Okay I guess I'm joking a bit too muchπ
No
You won't be able to smell the sea on you, but yes Whale Poop is an ingredient in some companies perfume formulas.
What exactly from the poop is used in Perfumes?
I hear a rather curious reader askπ
Well it's a rather strange compound, special in it's characteristics and elements.
Ladies and Gentlemen, it's the main point of this post
Ambergris
Image gotten from here and edited using Canva
Definition
This is a substance originating in the intestine of the sperm whale (Physeter Catodon)
Apparently it's is formed when pieces of the sperm whales diet that can't be digested (horny beaks of squid and cuttlefish), the whales intestine can only accommodate small pieces so larger chunks of ambergris are regurgitated.
So most of y'all are wearing both whale Poop and vomit π
What else to know?
Another thing to know is that Ambergris is suprisingly edible π
It's used in Cocktails, and medicine. In fact, Persian sherbets once added ambergris with water and lemon. Apparently it was once added in Casanova's Chocolate mousse for aphrodisiac effect.
Is it valuable?
It is goldπ
Okay that's a bit of an exaggeration, although it is quite expensive.
Going at a massive $20,000 per kilogram
That's quite a lot since we're talking about whale excrements ππ
It's extremely costly considering the fact that this stuff could just get washed up on a beach somewhere.
So it's rather common for fishermen to go ambergris hunting although the high prices make the hunt sometimes dangerous.
That's not gonna stop us eh @trumpman, expecting you at the dock by 8am tomorrow morning β΅πππ
Sadly, Ambergris is considered illegal in some countries due to the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972.
Although there are some grey areas were it can be sold and bought freely.(I'll leave you to find those places outπ)
So that's it for the Whale Poop/Vomit perfume.
Fun Fact
The Queen Of England, Queen Victoria, was said to always have on Fleurs de Bulgarie by Creed, a perfume made in 1845, who was publicly known to have Ambergris as part of their formula.
For further reading
If you want to read further, feel free to click these links
π https://www.alphaaromatics.com/blog/ambergris/#:~:text=Three%20examples%20are%20the%20very,worn%20it%20all%20the%20time.
π https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/ambergris-whale-excrement-ice-cream
π https://www.britannica.com/science/ambergris
Sources
All images used are of my own creations except cited otherwise π