Title: 8 Ways People Made Themselves Smell Good Before Deodorant | Mental Floss
Headings: 8 Ways People Made Themselves Smell Good Before Deodorant
8 Ways People Made Themselves Smell Good Before Deodorant
1. Ostrich eggs
2. Porridge balls
3. Carob
4. Scented olive oil
5. Perfume baths
6. Ambergris
7. Musk
8. Carbolic acid
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Content: Scented olive oil
Olives were such a big part of life in ancient Greece and Rome that they were used as the base for perfumes. Perfume makers would steep aromatics—such as leaves, roots, and flowers—in oil pressed from olives. Once the oil was infused with the scents, they would strain it and apply it to the skin. 5. Perfume baths
Another way ancient Greeks dealt with body odor was by constantly bathing. Some people in high society took scented baths before applying perfume beneath their armpits (a practice they copied from the Egyptians). In that era, it wasn’t unusual to take baths once a day —a practice that faded out in the Middle Ages when getting nude to bathe was considered impure. 6. Ambergris
Many of the most common perfume ingredients throughout history came from messy places. Ambergris, which has been used by perfumers for centuries, is a waxy substance that forms when indigestible matter clumps together in the intestines of sperm whales (how it gets out of whales and into the ocean is still debated).