Medicinal and aromatic plants – industrial profiles

Victorian England
It was in the Victorian times that lavender became one of the three most popular scents, together
with rose and violet flowers. The famous Eau de Cologne was based on lavender oil. A recipe
from 1834 gives a splendid, if very expensive, cologne:
Bergamot oil 6.2 kg, neroli oil 0.8 kg, lavender oil 1.2 kg, lemon oil 3.1 kg, clove oil 1.6 kg,
rosemary oil 0.8 kg, with alcohol 90º added to make up to 100 l.
Yardley, best known for its lavender products, first became active under Charles I, before the
Great Fire of London, and rose to prominence as the House of Yardley in 1770. After a period of
bad business in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, advertising in the 1930s
made perfumery, as well as Yardley, popular once again.