27 Items Tagged

Perfume

London, England

Floris Perfumery

A storied London perfume shop that supplies scents for royalty has been operating out of this storefront for nearly 300 years.

The island of Cyprus was an ancient mecca for herbal perfumes.

Resurrecting the Scents of Ancient Cyprus

An experimental archaeology park lets visitors get a whiff of the island's aromatic past.

Anna K. Cottrell August 15, 2024

Podcast: Sniffing out What’s Special with Saskia Wilson Brown

What did Napoleon smell like?

The Podcast Team December 21, 2023

This mural from the Necropolis at Shaykh 'Abd al-Qurnah depicts the embalming process.

Ancient Egyptians May Have Spiced Their Mummies

Most ingredients in embalming perfumes were good enough to eat.

Diana Hubbell October 25, 2023

The limestone canopic jars of lady Senetnay featured lids shaped like human heads. Two jars are kept at the Museum August Kestner in Hanover, Germany.

Get a Whiff of Ancient Egypt’s 'Scent of Eternity'

Experts reconstructed the smell of mummified organs—and it’s actually pretty pleasant.

Roxanne Hoorn September 14, 2023

Children play in the monsoon rains that pour down on the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh every year from late July till September.

How Indian Perfumers Capture the Smell of Rain

In Kannauj, perfumers have been making monsoon-infused mitti attar for centuries.

Zinara Rathnayake August 2, 2023

Let the crafty on your list create their own gifts this year.

Quirky Gifts for the Crafty DIYer

A gift guide from the Atlas Obscura team.

Atlas Obscura December 1, 2022

Gifts for bibliophiles can be more than just books. But books are good, too.

Unusual Gifts for Book Lovers

A giving guide from the Atlas Obscura team.

Atlas Obscura November 28, 2022

What the Scent of a Witch Revealed About the Ancient World

Antiquity’s perfumed sorceresses still influence ideas about magic today.

Britta Ager October 24, 2022

Dr. Philippe Max Rouja, Custodian of Historic Wrecks from the Government of Bermuda, clearing the non-historic layers of sand during the rescue archaeology investigation of the bow of the shipwrecked <em>Mary Celestia</em>, South Shore Bermuda.

How a Long-Lost Perfume Got a Second Life After 150 Years Underwater

A team of divers and archaeologists discovered the 19th-century fragrance in a shipwreck off the coast of Bermuda.

Lina Zeldovich June 30, 2020

Old Enio Bonchev Distillery & Family Museum

Tarnicheni, Bulgaria

Old Enio Bonchev Distillery & Family Museum

This rose and lavender oil distillery still operates as it did more than a century ago.

Inside the scent-based mini-museum.

Reykjavik, Iceland

Fischersund

This aromatherapy shop and mini-museum cofounded by the Sigur Rós frontman documents Icelandic history through scents.

On the left, a musician wears an unguent cone.

Researchers Concocted an Ancient Egyptian Perfume Perhaps Worn by Cleopatra

One archaeologist describes the spicy, musky scent as "the Chanel No. 5 of ancient Egypt."

Sabrina Imbler August 6, 2019

This fresco in the palace is said to have inspired the Taj Mahal.

Burhanpur, India

Shahi Qila

A fresco in this magnificent palace is said to have been the first depiction of the Taj Mahal's design.

Jars of ambergris.

Ambergris

Whale excrement once flavored ice cream.

Immortalizing Human Scents as Memory Perfumes

Bodily odors are forever.

Christina Ayele Djossa February 26, 2018

An illustration of "the woman with the most wonderful nose in the world," Ann Haviland.

Ann Haviland, Forgotten Mastermind of the Signature Scent

Meet the woman dubbed the "poetess of perfume" in 1917.

Jessica Murphy December 19, 2017

At CB I Hate Perfume, food scents abound.

Why Smell Like Flowers When You Could Smell Like Roast Beef?

The rebel of the perfume world can make you smell like dinner or dessert.

Anne Ewbank November 30, 2017