90% of us have used perfume, well you may have misted yourself with whale fecal waste, no need to panic its a blessing in disguise. Some years ago, three Oman fishermen found “floating gold” ,ambergris, which is the whale’s fecal matter. It may sound a bit disgusting but ambergris is actually worth big bucks — the chunk the fishermen stumbled upon weighed 176 pounds (80 kilograms) and was allegedly worth nearly $3 million.
When a whale expels the ambergris, a waxy substance formed in the stomach of a sperm whale. It is soft and has a terrible smell like cow dung ,but after floating on the salty ocean for about a decade, the fecal matter hardens and becomes smooth and waxy. in addition, the foul smell disappears and is replaced by a sweet scent. The longer it floats, the better the scent. The smell is so fine that ambergris is a coveted ingredient for fine perfumes. In fact, it’s described as being smooth, musky, earthy, sweet or simply “indescribable.” Aside from its unique odor, ambergris’ helps perfume scent to stick to the surface of the skin, instead of quickly evaporating.
Mind-blowing, right? Well perfume designers use strong scents like these for the base note in their fragrances. Certain fragrances by Chanel, Gucci and Givenchy have all been rumored to contain this matter. Roja Parfums, has several expensive perfumes with base notes of ambergris like those in the Profumi D’Amore collection. They sell for around $500 a bottle and are described as a “passionate love letter in fragrant form.
That is not its only reason to fame as its also used as a flavouring for food, sounds enticing right?Ambergris is also said to be an aphrodisiac, a homeopathic remedy and a high-end flavoring for food. circa the 1660s,used ambergris as a flavoring for ice cream,the first-known recipe of icecream. Adventurous eaters better scarf it down fast as it starts smelling lovely, like vanilla, but as it melts the scent becomes far more fecal in nature
As much as no whales are harmed in the collection of ambergris, Gero says it’s never a good idea to buy or sell products from an endangered species. But until we can replicate something that smells as good as whale poop, we probably will.
