In the following pages we shall describe only the most important of these preparations usually made by the perfumer. In this connection we may state that by slightly modifying the substances used to perfume them, new varieties of vegetable milk can be easily prepared.
Every vegetable milk consists in the main of a base of soap, wax, and spermaceti, and an aromatic water which gives the name to the preparation. This composition is intended to keep suspended the fatty vegetable substances (almond or pistachio meal, etc.), thus producing a milky appearance.
Melt the soap with the wax and spermaceti at a gentle heat. Prepare a milk from the vegetable substance and the aromatic water (_e.g._, _unexpressed_ almonds and rose water) by careful trituration, strain it through fine silk gauze into the vessel containing the melted mixture of soap, wax, and spermaceti, stir thoroughly, let it cool, and add the alcohol holding in solution the essential oils, the glycerin (and the salicylic acid), under continual stirring. The alcohol must be added in a very thin stream, otherwise a portion of the mass will curdle. The coarser particles contained in the milk must be allowed to settle by leaving the preparation at rest for twenty-four hours, when the milk can be carefully decanted from the sediment and filled into bottles for sale.
Soap 2¼ oz. Wax 2¼ oz. Spermaceti 2¼ oz. Sweet almonds 1 lb. Lilac-flower water 4½ pints. Huile antique de lilas 2½ oz. Alcohol (80-85% Tralles) 2 lb.
In place of lilac-flower water and huile antique de lilas, lilacin (terpineol) may be used, a sufficient quantity (about 1 oz.) being dissolved in the alcohol. But the lilacin must be pure and of clean odor.
This preparation differs from all other milks sold in perfumery in that it consists of some aromatic water with tincture of benzoin and tolu. In making it, pour the aromatic water in a very thin stream into the tincture under vigorous stirring. If the water flows in too rapidly, the resins present in the tincture separate in lumps; but if slowly poured in, the resins form minute spheres which remain suspended. The preparation is named after the aromatic water it contains: Lait virginal de la rose, à fleurs d’oranges, etc. Its formula is: