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The sour smell of perfume [a rant]

post #1 of 10
4/22/08 at 7:30pm
Thread Starter 
Maneka Gandhi, activist and member of the famous Gandhi family of India, just posted a rant of sorts on the "killers used by the perfume industy".. she has a soft spot for the source of ambergris, castoreum, civet and others ..

http://news.in.msn.com/columns/artic...mentid=1351555
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post #2 of 10
4/23/08 at 9:14am
Quote:
Originally Posted by zztopp View Post

Maneka Gandhi, activist and member of the famous Gandhi family of India, just posted a rant of sorts on the "killers used by the perfume industy".. she has a soft spot for the source of ambergris, castoreum, civet and others ..

Oh, there's a soft spot going on here somewhere. What a load of disinformation. And what anti-western bias. Apparently the French perfume industry is exterminating every cuddly creature on the face of the planet. The ravages committed in the name of traditional Eastern medicine apparently get a free pass, however.
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post #3 of 10
4/23/08 at 9:31am
She is correct about how civets are housed and treated for the production of civet musk. That's no big secret.

Her information on ambergris seems incorrect from what I know. That doesn't mean some enterprising country isn't killing whales and harvesting ambergris as part of the procedure, though.

She may be incorrect about the musk deer. While that musk is now synthetically produced, it doesn't mean that some fragrance houses are not using the "real deal" in their products. Without having the recipes, we can't know that for sure. Several articles and books I've read on the perfume industry have hinted that this is a possibility in "higher end" perfumes.

From what I understand, castoreum is no longer harvested from beavers and hasn't been in some time.

Which is what makes her posting reprehensible: mixing some correct information with a lot of incorrect or poorly researched information and giving the world a vomitus of her opinion.
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post #4 of 10
4/23/08 at 9:40am
She obviously forgot to mention how Rhinoceros horn is still heavily harvested in the far East and India for it's aphrodisiac properties, but that is not something we need to worry about; she chose her target, aimed, then fired. It comes across as a very hypocritical rant when you do not face the offenses in your own country, for products utilized primarily in your own country. Because the last I checked, Rhinoceros Horn was not being sold in my local pharmacy, amongst all the other remedies.
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post #5 of 10
4/23/08 at 9:45am
She has put a hold on the killing of the stray dogs on the roads. This, despite the fact that stray dogs fuck in the middle of crowded roads, litter like crazy, poop anywhere their heart desires, bite atleast 2 humans on any given day, atleast one of them has to go stark raving mad with rabies everyday and infect anyone or anything coming in contact and much much more.

Oh and they also pee on your feet and start humping your leg madly if you stand in one spot for more than 5 minutes
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post #6 of 10
4/23/08 at 11:45am
she's got a wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maneka_Gandhi
...a vegan-Sikh Indian politician slash animal rights activist, with a former media career involving political defamation.

but indeed, a sad piece of journalistic flotsam; dated and thoroughly uninspiring.

at least she's doing something for animal rights in India but a different approach is definitely in order.

Some critical ramble based on factual bombardment/shock tactic clearly doesn't get through to people; I'd rather listen to creative solutions that involve the public.
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post #7 of 10
4/23/08 at 1:51pm
I think she raises a possibly valid point at the end - whether, given the variety of synthetics, it is necessary to use products that are the result of animal cruelty (and I am keeping in mind what Hoos wrote - that at least some of her information seems to be incorrect). I'm not certain I want any fragrance that comes, at least in part, from animals kept or treated inhumanely. Then again, I have no idea if any of my frags do so, and I guess ignorance is bliss (or complicity). I wonder if some eco-conscious makers might start putting "cruelty free" labels on their scents, like I've seen on some cosmetics. But now I'm just pondering. It's too bad roaches don't emit some kind of useful odor. No one would care if people scraped out their anal sacs.
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post #8 of 10
4/23/08 at 2:28pm
dpak's post points directly to the heart of the matter. While these products may be available synthetically and the synthetics may smell identical to the non-synthetic, in practice the synthetics do not behave the same way or have the same effect as the natural products.

Mandy Aftel describes her experiences of using natural vs. synthetic (she does note that she's never been able to obtain natural ambergris or natural musk or natural castoreum) and that manufacturing of synthetics necessarily is different than a product produced naturally. She's made notes of how natural civet musk has a different effect on a perfume than synthetic.

I'm part way through her book (and am possibly in the neighborhood of "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing"). It's an easy read and very informative. She's done a lot of research and pulls a lot from her own experience.

Which doesn't mean we're not headed toward using pure synthetics in the future nor that there is anything wrong with that. Just different.
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post #9 of 10
4/23/08 at 3:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dpak View Post

It's too bad roaches don't emit some kind of useful odor. No one would care if people scraped out their anal sacs.

Eww! I would care!

Although, on a more serious note, aren't insect exoskeletons used to manufacture dye?
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post #10 of 10
4/24/08 at 12:39pm
I couldn't care less, and i'm not going to read the article, all i'd like to say is, most journalism is hypocritical, and no-one is going to bad-mouth their own country, especially when they're a politician. Honestly though, I feel that this is the wrong thing they are addressing, and that India itself has far greater problems that should be focused upon.

And Gabrielle, as far as I am aware, Indian law bans any killing of animals for the use of alternative medicine and such, unfortunately, it still happens. Plus, the Far East and India are in completely different leagues, and I have seen such items at apothecaries in the Far East, rather than in India
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