During Nero’s reign in the 1st century B.C., trade routes expanded, making the transportation of scented oils cheaper and faster. As a result, shops selling perfumes multiplied across Rome.

The most sought-after scent of the time was ‘rhodium,’ a blend of carefully selected roses. This perfume became synonymous with Nero’s reign. Another popular scent, ‘foliatum,’ made from Roman roses, was a lighter alternative to rhodium.

— Read more in Historical scents revived: Nero’s signature perfume recreated at Türkiye Today.

Part of the reason these long-lost embalming and burial perfumes smelled so delicious is most of their ingredients were actually pretty tasty. “Almost everything that the ancient Egyptians used in their perfume was edible,” Goldsmith says. “Perfumes in ancient Egypt were often very versatile. You could eat them, chew them, fumigate them, or wear them on your skin, hair and clothing.”

— Read more in Ancient Egyptians May Have Spiced Their Mummies: Most ingredients in embalming perfumes were good enough to eat at Atlas Obscura.

Now researchers studying residues of balms used in the mummification of a noblewoman called Senetnay have not only revealed that many of their ingredients came from outside Egypt but also reproduced their perfume.

[...] Huber added that, working with a perfumer, the team had recreated the balms’ scent, which would be used in an exhibition at the Moesgaard Museum in Denmark this autumn.

The smell of the balm has been labelled “the scent of the eternity”.

— Read more in ‘Scent of eternity’: scientists recreate balms used on ancient Egyptian mummy at The Guardian. Hat tip to Helen!

In Roman Spain, some 2,000 years ago, people may have been perfuming themselves with the musky scent of patchouli, new research hints. The study marks the first time that the composition of a Roman perfume has been identified, offering us a rare whiff of a bygone empire.

The perfume, which has solidified after two millennia inside a carved quartz bottle, was discovered in a funerary urn found in a mausoleum in Seville, Spain. Unearthed in 2019, during an excavation in modern-day Carmona, the mystery ointment has now been chemically described, revealing the inclusion of patchouli, an essential oil common in modern perfumery but never before known in use in ancient Rome.

— Read more in Composition Of Roman Perfume Identified For First Time, And It Smelled Like Patchouli at IFLScience.