PerfumesofAntiquity

"Cleopatra VII" Perfume Oil in Alabaster Vase

This perfume oil is concentrated essential oils in a lightweight plant-based oil. It completely disappears

when rubbed in, and the scent truly lasts. Cleopatra would recognize the ingredients used to make this perfume. The fragrance is a light, spicy floral blend of the elusive lotus blossom, rose, spices and resins from the Mediterranean region. The beautiful Italian alabaster vase is hand carved and polished by stone artisans in Italy. It rests inside a beautifully embossed black leather box with four pharaohs on the lid, cushioned in gold satin. It is nearly 5" tall and 2" wide. It is sealed with wax for its journey to you, and we enclose a pamphlet with the story of the ingredients and the methods used to make perfume in Cleopatra's time.

#CLOILVASE $56

"Cleopatra VII" Scented Unguent in Alabaster Jar

Unguents are made by combining perfumed oil in a natural wax base. In the days of ancient Egypt, unguents were used to both perfume and protect the skin from the harsh sun and dry heat. We suggest you use it as your base fragrance to start the layers of scent for your day. The lidded alabaster jar is 2 1/8" wide and 1 1/2" tall, handmade and polished in Italy. It is offered in a leather box, made in Egypt, embossed in gold and white on top. It rests on a cushion of gold satin. It is accompanied by a pamphlet telling the story of Cleopatra's perfume.

#UNGUENT $38

We know from ancient historians that Cleopatra VII was highly intelligent, well educated in the Greek tradition, inquisitive, and possessed a charming personality; A famous historian of her day, Plutarch, said this about Cleopatra: "Her actual beauty...was not in itself so remarkable that none could be compared with, or that no one could see her without being struck by it. The contact of her presence....was irresistible...the attraction of her person, joining with the charm of her conversation, and the character that attended all she said or did, was something bewitching." When she spoke " her grace in conversation, the sweetness and kindness of her nature, seasoned everything she said or did." He goes on to write: "It was a pleasure to hear the sound of her voice, with which, like an instrument of many strings, she could pass from one language to another; so that there were few of the barbarian nations that she answered by an interpreter; to most of them she spoke herself, as to the Aethiopians, Troglodytes, Hebrews, Arabians, Syrians, Medes, Parthians, and many others, whose language she had learnt." She was thought to be the only Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt who learned the Egyptian language. Another historian, Dio Cassius, wrote this: "She also possessed a most charming voice and a knowledge of how to make herself agreeable to everyone."

One of the keys to her charm seemed to be in her vast education. She was skilled in rhetoric, sciences, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, medicine, drawing, and music. She was also very knowledgeable and artful in the use of perfume. She wrote about it, had it manufactured for her, and used it to her advantage.

Cleopatra VII was the daughter of Ptolemy XII, and could trace her ancestry to Alexander the Great. She was the seventh woman in the Ptolemy line to be named Cleopatra. She wrote a treatise on cosmetics entitled Cleopatra gynaeciarum libri. She owned a cosmetic and perfume "factory" at En Boquet by the Dead Sea. Men and women of her day used perfume, scented bath oils, milk, unguents, and cosmetics extensively in their daily lives. It was written by historians that when she sailed to Tarsus to meet with Mark Antony, she perfumed the sails of her barge and fragrant smoke wafted from incense burners aboard her ship to the people who had lined the shores to view this magnificent queen's arrival

For more information about the perfumes in use during that period of history, see the History of Perfume section of this website. It is updated periodically as our research progresses.

The second Perfume of Antiquity, "Cleopatra VII", is offered in white alabaster from the hills surrounding the city of Volterra, Italy. Alabaster had been used for centuries in Egypt to hold precious perfumes and cosmetics because it is non-permeable, stays cool, and will last forever. It is a soft stone that can be carved and shaped by skilled stone artisans. We arranged with the artisans of Volterra this past year to use their wonderful alabaster for our Perfume of Antiquity. Colored glass was very highly prized during the Greco-Roman era of Egypt, so we offer "Cleopatra VII" bath products available in dark green glass bottles. The shapes of the vases and jars are in keeping with the shapes of perfume vessels of that Cleopatra's era which have been found by modern day archaeologists working in Egypt.

At the time Cleopatra VII reigned in Egypt, perfume making in Egypt was already a 3,000 year-old art. The materials most often used for perfume were: rose (especially favored by the Romans), lotus blossom, lily, honey, sweet flag, camel grass (lemongrass), lavender, saffron, cassia, nard (spikenard), cinnamon, myrtle, laurel, marjoram, costus root, ginger root, cardamom, labdanum, rosewood, cyperus, wormwood, fenugreek, balsam, galbanum, opoponax, styrax, orris root, myrrh, frankincense. Perfumes were based in oil or a combination of oil, honey and raisins.

All of these ingredients are available to us today, and many have been used in the fragrance we created and named after the famous queen of Egypt. Its fragrance is a blend of the materials in her world: roses, lotus, hints of lemongrass, and many more. The fragrance would be best described as a fresh floral with a hint of spice.