Night Star - Perfume from Titanic by Scents of Time

Scents of Time as a Company started when we originally contacted RMS Titanic in Atlanta after reading in January 2001 that a complete bag of perfumes had been found in the debris field of Titanic and that when the submersible placed the bag on the mother ship it literally smelled of roses!

Adolphe Saalfeld originally hailed from near Leipzig in Germany, but settled near Manchester in England. A chemist by trade, he diversified into perfumery, and decided to seek his fortune in America, boarding RMS Titanic with his bag of samples. Adolphe travelled first class return ticket, numbered 19988 and costing thirty pounds and ten shillings for cabin C-106 aboard the White Star liner. Here is a note from his diary:

And later, on departure from Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland:

Adolphe survived the sinking of Titanic, and was rescued by the Carpathia some hours later on Life boat number three. But his leather bag containing two wallet with over sixty phials of assorted fragrances and essential oils, went two and a half miles down to the Atlantic bottom.

Adolphe’s bag plunged to the ocean floor taking over ninety years to be re-discovered. RMS Titanic Inc. were salvaging in the debris field when the claw of the small submersible, which took four hours to gain the ocean floor, grabbed a leather bag to bring to the surface.
Here is the newspaper article of that event:

In a secret warehouse location near Detroit the bag of samples were examined and restored by a team from Eastern Michigan University, and Scents of Time were called in to take over the recovery process by sampling the phials. Many were intact as they were safely kept in
aluminium tubes, and since the liquid inside acquired the pressure of the ocean water outside, had not exploded.

Scents of Time brought this ocean treasure back home to the UK to examine with sophisticated apparatus – gas layer chromatographs and a mass spectrometer. A combination of the nose of an experienced perfumer and the “aromaprint” thus captured allowed an exact copy of the aroma of what we called “RosaMaris”- the rose of the sea, which was tempered a little formodern tastes without altering the aromatic senation.

And there was something else of interest in the perfume formula. A central theme of the composition is rose. And it may be a particular rose. In 1906, six years before Titanic sailed, Francois Coty brought out a fragrance called La Rose Jacqueminot. The Rose Jacqueminot was first grown in France in 1853, and has a strong rosaceous aroma. General Jacqueminot had been a revered veteran of the Napoleonic wars and the Rose was named in his honour.

It is known that as a newcomer to the industry Adolphe Saalfeld visited Grasse, European centre of the essential oil business, many times. He modeled some of his fragrances on the best sellers of the day, and La Rose Jacqueminot was one of them. What makes this story of interest is that in the name of this particular rose we have the two lovers of the recent Titanic movie – Rose and Jack!

A description of that fateful night when Titanic sunk was given by passenger Lawrence Beesley:

As a research exercise this had been a magnificent achievement. But it stopped there. After all, Titanic’s disaster was less than a hundred years ago, fifteen hundred perished and the experience was still raw in some people’s memories.

We genuinely believed Adolphe would not have approved of a replica fragrance being marketed. Adolphe carried his bag onto RMS Titanic with a tag labeled “Wanted First Class – For baggage room”.

His treasures would travel with him in cabin C106. It is reported that Adolphe moved from Manchester to Twickenham on his return to England, in part to try and get away from the terrible memories of Titanic’s demise. But they never quite left him alone. He had his chauffeur drive him around London at night when he couldn’t sleep.

And there was another probable detractor. From conversations with Elizabeth Dean I felt that she too would not have approved. Millvina (Elizabeth) Dean, the last survivor of that fateful night, died aged 97 onMay 31st 2009 near Southampton, England. She was the
liner’s youngest passenger just two months old at the time. Her family were third class passengers moving to Kansas. She and her mother and brother survived. Her father did not.

And so the brief was radically changed. Chris Sheldrake, sorcerer’s apprentice to Serge Lutens and now working for Chanel was asked to create a fragrance of the future - NIGHT STAR. For steam ship read star ship. For latitude and longitude read galactic coordinates. And Night Star, a symbol of future hope, would be dedicated to Millvina, who, along with Adolphe, has nowjoined the night stars above.

There is apparently a planet – the third from its own star, just under twenty one light years away. The planet exists in what NASA term the “goldilocks “ zone. Not too hot, not too cold. it is likely to have water and to support life. What kind of flowers would it have? They would
not be green, as the radiation from this star is different from our own sun. And so photosynthesis would not make chlorophyll. What would the perfume of ASTEROSE smell like? It would be composed of the elements of the periodic table, which exist throughout the Universe - Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen and Carbon. The brief on NIGHT STAR was to create a fantasy fragrance based on earthlike aromas which would be both alien in make up, and yet have a comfortable, earthly feel, reflecting Gliese 581d’s potential as our new home.

                                               THE PERFUME NAME

                                   What’s in a name? that which we call a rose.
                                   By any other name would smell as sweet;
                                                                          William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (II,ii)

NIGHT STAR - From the star Gliese, and its planet Gliese 581d - a possible new location for humankind.

                                                      COMPOSITION

NIGHT STAR is a celebration of bouquet aromas which has a floral heart consisting of rose
blended with violet and Lily of the Valley (Muguet) broadened by citrus and herbal notes whilst simultaneously deepened by an embracing combination of woody notes with a suffusion of powdery vanilla and Mayflower.

GIVE AWAY: Scents of Time will give a TRAVALO atomizer for free to the first few hundred purchasers of 100ml Nenufar or Pyxis. Please visit online store of Scents of Time.

Source: Press Release Scents of Time
Images: ahisgett, nosha, Clearly Ambiguous

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Article comments:

Leesee

What a fascinating article. I have been alternately mesmerized and terrorized by all things Titanic since I was a small child, and I believe I may have seen the perfume vials that were rescued when I visited the Titanic exhibit at the museum in Victoria, BC. You could smell the perfumes so easily, even with the heavy glass under which they were displayed. It was a heady and eerie moment, past and present in perfect harmony and alignment. I am now very curious about Scents of Time and plan to visit their online store soon.

11/29/09 14:23:52

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