Essence Absolue Épurée

 In your travels, you may come across a bottle of "Essence Absolue Épurée" and may wonder what it actually is. A "Purified Absolute Essence" is derived from a concrete, a natural waxy substance which results from a process of extraction of flowers. If the concrete is further refined—by rinsing with strong alcohol in shaking machines called batteuses— cooled, then filtered to remove the wax and natural pigments, the almost pure product obtained this way is highly concentrated, this is called "absolute essence". 

The natural raw materials used in the manufacture of perfume are very costly, especially because great quantities of the best quality are needed to obtain the essence. Let's explore the production of one of the most expensive of all perfumery materials, the jasmine. To make a gram of absolute essence of jasmine, for example, five thousand flowers are needed, each one carefully picked by hand at a certain time of the day. It takes around 2,000 man-hours to hand pick the 1 million or so jasmine blossoms that go into just one kilo of absolute essence. During ordinary manufacture, 1000 kilos of jasmine flowers produce by enfleurage 5 to 6 kilos of pure concrete; extraction by means of petroleum ether only gives 1-300 to 1-400 kilos of absolute essence. 

In the 1930s, some perfumes contained up to 10% absolute essence of jasmine, but by the mid 1990s, concentrations were lower, reaching at most only one or two per cent.

Back to the Essence Absolute Purees:

The "Essence Absolue Épurées" in question, were produced at the factory either of Pierre Chauvet et Cie (now Firmenich) or P. Robertet et Cie, at the time, two of world's largest raw material and essential oils suppliers located in Grasse, France. It was these special companies who supplied the raw materials and oils to fine fragrance companies such as Guerlain, Jean Patou and Chanel who would then incorporate these materials into the manufacture of their fragrances.

These "esssence absolue epurees" were usually the factory's versions of popular fragrances of the era and were sold in the Chauvet or Robertet factory gift shops. The factories often gave public tours to show how the essences were distilled or extracted, blended and bottled. The caps of the bottles were then dipped in red sealing wax. Visitors could purchase one of these bottles in the gift shop as a souvenir of the experience. I would imagine that these bottles were filled with the very highest concentration of absolute essences which would be blended together to make up the individual perfumes.

I have found that the majority of these were manufactured during the 1930s-1960s period based on the popular fragrances available at that time. You could find Chauvet or Robertet's dupes of the following fragrances and their date of introduction, so you'll know that your Essence Absolue Epureee perfume was made after that date:

• Guerlain's Mitsouko (1919)
• Chanel's famous No. 5 (1921) 
• Lanvin's My Sin (1924)
• Guerlain's Shalimar (1925)
• Caron's Bellodgia (1927) 
• Jean Patou's Joy (1930)
• Ciro's Surrender (1932)
• Guerlain's Vol de Nuit (1933)
• Caron's Fleurs de Rocaille (1933)
• Schiaparelli's Shocking (1937)
• Lucien Lelong's Tailspin (1940)
• Evyan's White Shoulders (1949)

I will state that these dupes were NOT made by the famous companies such as Guerlain or Chanel. They were made by either Robertet or Chauvet.

The labels can be found with copyrighted names of the popular perfumes, but I believe that lawsuits were filed by the original owners which resulted in the factories to start using abbreviations in order to get around the restrictions. Examples:

• White Shoulders can be found labeled as "WS-E"
• Fleurs de Rocaille is found labeled as "F de R-C"
• My Sin was labeled as "MS-L"
• Bellodgia is found as "Bel-C"
• Joy was found as "J-P"

Some original names were found on labels such as Chancino.

More on perfumery manufacture:

Perfumery Processes by Edwin H. Burr, 1906:

The industry of natural perfumes existed in France for ages. It is in the department of the Alpes and in the case of certain special products in some of the neighboring departments. Its center is Grasse where factories are collected which are fed the floral plantations of the district. Grasse and its district are placed as regards climate in an exceptional situation. Its inhabitants who have been able create this industry there and who may be said have always kept it line with the march of ideas and of in the methods of and appliances will not easily allow to be despoiled of the supremacy they have acquired.  The considerable development and the remarkable progress of the method of volatile solvents in the south of France is a manifest proof of the care with which the perfumers of the Alpes Maritimes are constantly seeking to improve their products Grasse supplies the perfumery trade with products extracted from the flowers which grow upon its soil the rose, orange flower, violet, jasmine, cassie, mimosa and tuberose, processes employed for this extraction three in number. The first the most ancient is with steam It is practiced to with highly perfected apparatus heated steam. It yields essential oils which generally oily liquids almost insoluble water which do not always resemble the perfume of the flower but which nevertheless possess special properties mainly of tenacity which cause them enter into all the preparations of perfumery.

 The second process for the extraction of the perfume of flowers is that of fixed solvents. It also has been practiced for a very long time and consists in placing the flowers in contact with fatty bodies either solid or liquid which absorb the perfume. There are thus obtained pomades or perfumed oils which are then carefully exhausted with alcohol which extracts the perfume and thus be utilized by the perfumer. Lard is generally employed as the solid fatty body. It is melted and mixed with the flowers. After remaining for some time in contact the perfumed fat is separated from the exhausted flowers by the action of filtration and pressure. Several successive can macerations are performed with fresh flowers. This is the process of hot maceration. In the cases of jasmine and tuberose, the flowers are placed in contact with the fat at the ordinary temperature in wooden frames having glass bottoms on which the fat or oil held by a coarse cloth is spread. This is the process of cold enfleurage. 

The third process is that of volatile solvents. It is more modern than the preceding ones. Its origination is attributed to a chemist named Robiquet. After numerous experiments the manufacturers of Grasse succeeded a short time back in completely solving the problem of extracting faithfully with all their characteristics the subtle aromas of flowers. The perfume solids thus extracted by digestion of the flowers with light petroleum spirit and evaporation of the latter under vacuum, occur in the form of waxy masses frequently colored. As a matter of fact, the solvent becomes charged not only with odoriferous matter but also with vegetable fatty matters, similar to beeswax and with coloring matters. Roure Bertrand Fils who have succeeded particularly in this branch of the industry, have conceived the idea of preparing in a more utilizable form the odorous bodies thus extracted. Their essences liquides contain the same quantity of perfume as an equal weight of the parfum solide. Proceeding further they have prepared by methods which are not have prepared by methods which are not divulged the actual odorous matter of the flower without any vehicle. Some of these Absolute Flower Essences have a considerable intrinsic value. The Absolute Essence of violet costs no less than 15,000 francs per kilogram. Side by side with these products yielded by French soil, the perfumer also employs a multitude of materials imported from abroad which are mostly derived from the Far East. I will mention the essential oils of Mexican linaloes of the female rosewood of Guiana, those of ylang ylang from the Philippines, and cananga from Java, the various oils from the British Indies, the various oils of cinnamon from China and Ceylon, and of cloves and patchouly. For the majority of these products we are indebted to the British colonies.