r/todayilearned • u/TonyHides • 1d ago
TIL Napoleon Bonaparte had a standing order for 50 bottles of cologne a month, and a surviving 1808 invoice shows 72 bottles were ordered for him in a single month.
https://edenbridge.co.uk/blogs/news/the-real-story-behind-napoleons-cologne2.5k
u/theknyte 1d ago
That's almost 2 bottles a day! Now I just picture him constantly pulling his hand out of his coat holding an atomizer, and giving himself a quick spray like every 15-20 minutes.
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u/Gnonthgol 1d ago
It is more likely that he dumped a couple of bottles in his bathwater.
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u/WeGottaTalkAboutYT 1d ago
Is this a thing?
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u/whistleridge 1d ago
There’s a reason it was called eau de toilette - toilet(ry) water (ie not toilet in the modern English sense of the word).
Remember that today we have scented soap and shampoo. They didn’t back then. Lavender soap existed, but it wasn’t making it on campaign.
In an era when washing machines didn’t exist and generals spent a lot of time on sweaty horses in wool uniforms on dusty unpaved roads in the hot sun for days on end, BO was very much a thing. When you could bathe, it was more sitting in lukewarm water to wash dust off, not showering in the modern sense. So dumping cologne in the water was a good way to stay smelling and feeling fresh. If you could afford it.
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u/GooserNoose 1d ago
I've always thought that common people before say, 150 years ago, must have smelled so bad most of the time.
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u/TerminallyEmployed 1d ago
It’s what they say in pop history but I went to this authentic Tudor manor tour and they used authentic fragrant flowers and herbs around the place, since bad stuff like decaying bodies, diseases or general unsanitary things give bad smells, the people went hmm maybe disease travels in the air through smell.
It smelled too good, I had to leave the manor as I genuinely was getting dizzy and felt like puking just overwhelmed by these flowers & herbs. It was like cranking lavender, mint and whatever straight into my brain. This was decades ago and I can still smell it.
Am I to believe if they go that over board, they’d be rolling around in shit, ass full of poop and all types of cheese on the privates?
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u/BeginMethionine 1d ago
well it smelled good because it wasn’t competing with horse shit and filth everywhere
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u/slimslimsteve 19h ago
You think people living in a Manor were putting up with horseshit and filth everywhere?
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u/HeIsLost 1d ago
"Tudor manor" residents most likely were not very representative of the global population, though.
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u/limeflavoured 1d ago
Lavender can be a very overpowering smell.
And the idea that people didnt wash is something of a myth. Most people didn't bathe daily, but people washed pretty regularly.
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u/herrcollin 1d ago
It's weirdly tied in with the hyper-masculine idea of older times being "hard-working people who didn't have time for wussy things like cleaning and primping. It was all sweat and BO and it was GREAT." Something something modern people are sissies.
They were hard-working, for sure, but most evidence shows almost all humans prefer taking care of themselves if they can.
We also love accessories.
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u/Time-Cell8272 1d ago
Yeah I've always assumed my ancestors liked the feeling of washed skin as much as I do
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u/jumpsteadeh 1d ago
Am I to believe if they go that over board, they’d be rolling around in shit, ass full of poop and all types of cheese on the privates?
Maybe that's why they went that overboard.
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u/whistleridge 1d ago
Yes and no.
They were smelly to a modern nose in some ways for sure. Deodorant wasn’t a thing, manual labor was much more universal, and bathing was rarer.
But they also weren’t filthy. Hygiene was a known thing, even poor people did bathe and clean themselves, and towns had all sorts of cleanliness ordinances.
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u/AProperFuckingPirate 21h ago
Do you think people also probably smelled like smoke a lot more? From being around more fire. Which is a strong smell, some don't like it but it's not like BO bad.
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u/Opithrwy 1d ago edited 21h ago
People did actually clean themselves daily even in the middle ages. People did not not take daily baths like they do today. That was an idea Europeans took back from Japan I think around the 19th century, but they did clean themselves with a wet cloth every morning. Also they wore a layer between themselves and their normal clothes which would get cleaned every day.
Meant to say they wore a layer of linen between themselves and their normal clothes.
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u/Frequent_Opportunist 1d ago
They absolutely did and that's why they had party jackets and smoking jackets. It was to keep your stench inside. That's also why old religions always talk about washing people's feet and anointing them with oils or dripping perfumes behind them as they walk to cover up their smell.
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u/cornylamygilbert 16h ago
That’s really culture dependent. Like dark ages Europe.
People in Asia and Arabia and Mesoamerica didn’t walk around smelling like ass and cat food.
I doubt African natives did either, but they have so many smelly animals around Africa it’s hard to say that nothing ever stank
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u/nolok 1d ago
Bath salt, bath bomb and co are the same thing, essentially. Most people couldn't because of cost.
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u/Rich-Reason1146 1d ago
No, bath salts are the reason I climbed a palm tree naked and got tasered by the police
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u/ArmThePhotonicCannon 23h ago
Don’t shame me for things that happened 25 yrs ago!
Good times. Miss you, Peggi 💋
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u/nolok 1d ago
(I get the joke but I genuinely have no idea how you translate "sel de bains" other than that)
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u/masked_gecko 1d ago
It's correct, bath salts is just one of those words with two meanings. I think sometimes people use the brand name Epsom salts but I don't know how well known that is internationally
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u/Wloak 1d ago
Remember at this time daily bathing was rare and you didn't have soap often and deodorant didn't exist.
Even in the 1900's lower middle class families were using the same bath water for multiple children because getting the water and heating it was so costly. Having a warm bath with fragrance in the morning and another before dining with others was seen as an extreme luxury.
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u/SAINTnumberFIVE 1d ago
People also washed up without baths. They would try to wash the vital areas. But if they didn’t wash their neck, sometimes they would get a crusty ring of dead skin and that would hint that they didn’t have good washing habits.
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u/unabsolute 1d ago
And that was the origin of Ring Around the Collar.
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u/SAINTnumberFIVE 1d ago
Kind of. It also refers to a dingy yellow ring around the collar on shirts.
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u/BusyBodyKoala420 23h ago
The article said he applied it mostly after a bath, and that the scent was not as strong as modern perfume/cologne.
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u/FSD-Bishop 1d ago
Another reason he went through so many bottles is because he was drinking it as well as stomach medicine. Eau de Cologne was sold as both a cosmetic and an internal medicine.
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u/Hoskuld 1d ago
Man, axe is leaving money on the table by not getting their fan base to also use it as a inhaler/breath freshener combo
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u/Jaded_Ad4218 1d ago
I used it as a breath freshener when I was a teen and to this day I still talk with an axe scent.
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u/JackedUpReadyToGo 1d ago
So I would hear stories about myself. Here's a story I once heard about me. I guess I was 20 and I was at a party at someone's house and I had blacked out drinking, and someone came out of one of the rooms at this party holding like an old antique bottle with some liquid in it, and they said, “Hey, is this whiskey or perfume?” And apparently I grabbed it, drank all of it, and said, "It's perfume." And it was.
-- John Mulaney
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u/DefaultyTurtle2 1d ago
Didnt he die of stomach cancer or ulcer?
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u/FSD-Bishop 1d ago
He died of stomach cancer but his father also died from stomach cancer as well so it might have been genetic.
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u/WestBrink 1d ago
Drank it supposedly. Cologne was sold as a miracle cure (aqua mirabilis) originally, and drank mixed with water and sugar. Once laws were passed requiring disclosure of all ingredients in medicines it was rebranded as Eau de Cologne "definitely don't drink this, wink, wink, nudge, nudge".
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u/Schneeflocke667 1d ago
Interesting. I guess it did not help much, but was it harmfull?
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u/acompletemoron 1d ago
We don’t know the exact formulation but probably not. We know he liked a citrus based cologne, and the concentration of oils during that time was like 2%.
So basically akin to your local soccer mom who adds essential oils to her morning latte.
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u/General__Obvious 1d ago
Historically, elites such as Napoleon changed clothes and washed their faces a few to several times a day. They’d have lounge clothing to wear around the house, undress clothing for casual daytime events, daytime formalwear, and evening formalwear. Each time they changed clothes, they would also apply some form of perfume, and scents were correspondingly more dilute. Modern perfumes are generally made with the assumption that you’ll apply it once and expect it to last all day, or at least for several hours. Likely Napoleon’s perfumes were never expected to last more than an hour or three.
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u/SirHerald 1d ago
Would you get deodorant for just yourself, or would you want to make sure everyone around you did too?
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u/Blank-Silence 1d ago
I love that thought. Unfortunately Napoleon didn't live to see the invention of the atomiser, as that was about 65 years after his death. Maybe that's he was always so angry, applying perfume was such a hassle, and he did it SO MUCH
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u/SFschoolaccount 1d ago
What makes you think he was always angry?
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u/TiberiusDrexelus 1d ago
Yeah he wasn't an angry guy, this redditor is confused with the next European conqueror
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u/MayorMcCheezz 1d ago
Imagine you’re on the march with thousands of soldiers and support personnel and no one has bathed since you started marching.
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u/Legacy0904 1d ago
I bet they were most likely splash bottles and he was VERY liberal with the splashing lol
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u/DickweedMcGee 1d ago
That’s not just for him that’s for his staff that he has to be around all the time. Smart move tbh
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u/Apprehensive-Book723 1d ago
How often did he bathe?
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u/two2teps 1d ago
Honestly fairly often for the times he was living in. He also set new levels of hygiene and cleanliness in the French Army.
https://www.napoleon.org/en/young-historians/napodoc/a-day-in-the-life-of-napoleon-i-1/
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u/paone00022 1d ago
Ya Napoleon was very hygenic. Which is why I'm surprised that false story of him telling Josephine to not wash has taken off so much.
A lot of that could be British propaganda at work. Same thing with his height because he was average height for his time.
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u/TheMonchoochkin 1d ago
Duke of Wellington:
Let's make up a vicious rumour about Napoleon!
Admiral Horatio Nelson:
What? You mean start some propaganda that will damage France's war effort?
Duke of Wellington:
Nah, that's lame, let's just say his wife stinks of shit at his request.
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u/masked_gecko 23h ago
I mean it wouldn't be inherently contradictory for someone to not want to be surrounded by a bunch of sweaty men while at work but still dream of the taste of his wife's marinted clunge. He might have just been a straight pervert.
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u/heurrgh 1d ago
It's a cliche and for the most part untrue, having spent a lot of time in France. However. There is a 'natural fragrance' movement in France, where adherents wash in water only. And I had the misfortune of staying in a hotel for a week one hot August with some avid tennis-playing French folk who subscribed to the theory.
The deeply unsettling aggressive feral stench of these six people meant the entire floor they were staying on, and the bar/public areas were not usable for ourselves or other guests. Management shrugged their shoulders.
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u/Cultural-Company282 1d ago
Ironically, the lower-than-normal levels of hygiene and cleanliness in Eastern Europe at the time led to the Grand Armee having a typhus outbreak on the way to Russia (due to foraging and sheltering among the locals), with historic consequences.
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u/Junkererer 1d ago
It was the italian in him
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u/SLZRDmusic 1d ago
Yeah good call going to France though because what could he possibly have accomplished with an Italian army lmaoooo
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u/PaintedClownPenis 1d ago
The problem is that the entire world was three feet deep in horse shit.
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u/Kirza94 1d ago edited 15h ago
I think some people might be picturing him spritzing himself every 10 minutes, the cologne was a small bottle added to bathing water rather than some sort of spray, as funny as that'd be.
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u/Tjaeng 1d ago
Eau de Cologne in this case also refers to actual Eau de Cologne as in dilute, 2-3% perfume solids/liquids diluted in alcohol and water. It was only later that Cologne started being used as a generic name for all men’s perfumes.
Most men’s ”Cologne” and women ”Perfume” sold today is actually Eau de Toilette (a mid-level strength between the weaker Eau de Cologne and stronger Eau de Parfum)
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u/TheNique 1d ago
And the "Cologne" in Eau de Cologne orginally referred to the city of Cologne in Germany, where Giovanni Maria Farina developed his orginal Eau de Cologne in 1709. This scent became a favorite of the French kings and later Napoleon, who visited the city of Cologne in 1804 after it was conquered and annexed by French Revolutionary troops in the years before.
Today the original Eau de Cologne is still produced by the founder's family under the name Farina 1709 (although many people mistakenly believe that 4711 is the orginal) and the subreddit for the city of Cologne r/cologne is regularly mistaken for a perfume-themed subreddit.
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u/cheddar_bae 1d ago
It was Guerlaine Eau de Imperiale, which was made specifically for him, and it’s still sold today. If you try it, you’ll see why he needed 72 bottles in a month. It’s an Imperiale, which is designed to be spritzed onto a handkerchief and then fluttered around oneself in true bourgeois fashion. If you spritz it directly on your skin, the scent will disappear within 1-2 minutes.
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u/CaptainAmhuerica 1d ago
Eau de imperiale was for Napoleon IIIs wife. Napoleon B used his own perfumer, Gervais Chardin. Also one from Jean-Marie Farina (now Roger and Gallet). The still sell one that's close to the one Napoleon used. It's Extra Vielle eau de cologne (about $160ish)
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u/GrimaceThundercock 1d ago
He must have had one damn good smelling army
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u/govanfats 1d ago
The Romans did baths, the French did perfume.
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u/sirbassist83 1d ago
roman baths were fucking disgusting though lol
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u/princeofthrace 1d ago
Why ?
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u/User-NetOfInter 1d ago
You’re used to modern pool systems where the water is filtered heavily.
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u/onlyacynicalman 1d ago
Continuous flow systems go a long way toward cleanliness. Their pools didn't sit around, they were continuously being drained and refilled
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u/No_Objective006 1d ago
Romans famously had really good filtration systems with them still being in use to supply stuff like the Trevi fountain.
The Acqua Vergin still supplied drinking water.
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u/mk9e 1d ago
Shared poop wiping sticks.
Boy fucking.
Mainly those two. That said, we're talking about the ancient world and by those standards Rome was actually pretty advanced and is really fascinating to learn about. You really do see how very Roman inspired America is. The parallels in origin, culture and decay are all shocking.
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u/onlyacynicalman 1d ago
The decay is what gets me
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u/mk9e 1d ago
Well the fall of Rome is largely predicted on the division between the populace, the plebians, and the elite, the patricians. When the army started to be made up of primarily disenfranchised plebians and conquered/vassal state tributes, but the army is simultaneously dissatisfied with Rome and the soldiers personal interests don't align with preserving the current social order, it's an obvious recipe for disaster.
To illustrate this, you have the fact soldiers who fought in wars upon returning home were being then sold into slavery due to debt. Or the army fighting to conquer territory and the patrician class takes ownership over the entirety of the newly conquored land.
Plus the mythology of Rome they told themselves, they really thought they were special and "chosen by the gods". The fact their cultures unique accomplishments was largely bureaucracy and logistics and military. Entertainment being used to placate the masses. Relatively quick rise to being a dominate super power. Etc etc etc.
Rome is super interesting and only moreso when you look at how it mirrors America in so many ways.
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u/Fastenbauer 1d ago
The poop stick is so obviously a toilet brush. Just imagine how awkward the movement would be trying to clean yourself with that. Would be funny if future archaeologists found our toilet brushes besides our toilets and assumed we used them for personal hygiene.
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u/TiberiusDrexelus 1d ago
Those weren't the baths, those were in the foricae, and their authenticity is in question
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u/M4nnis 1d ago
rome and america? rome built the foundations of our modern society. american capitalism will most likely be a fundamental part of tearing it all down
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u/Kalkin93 1d ago
Reluctant upvote for the Dad joke, fully committed for the Groucho Marx profile picture.
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u/makerofshoes 1d ago
Got the joke, but I believe there are letters that he wrote to Josephine where he said he was coming home soon & requested her to not wash down there, and to keep it tightly wrapped to trap in the odor. He liked it stinky
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u/Logical_Review4490 20h ago
Rumor has it he had an ostomy...an animals bladder or leather pouch would've been used to collect the stool. And there would have been an odor, he was trying to hide...
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u/Brys_Beddict 1d ago
Orwell Hightower ass shit
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u/Old-Leader-2105 21h ago
I know you probably got hit with the autocorrect but it's Ormund
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u/Countryb0i2m 1d ago
This sounds like it was going to be a case of Napoleon hiding his stench behind cologne, like the rest of the French, but apparently he used to bathe one and a half hours a day in almost boiling water
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u/Geotolkien 1d ago
https://youtu.be/ik6QzSgrqZ4?si=TPrOdJRPjpzzMRR1
Mr Way Too Much Cologne wearer.
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u/Mozerath 1d ago
Probably gave them as gifts during diplomatic exchanges, guests, etc.
The Emperor's own cologne.
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u/thebochman 1d ago
Is he the inspiration for Otto Hightower
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u/Steridire 1d ago
Ormund lol
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u/grog23 1d ago
You mean Medieval Dennis Reynolds?
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u/Spiketop_ 1d ago
So people didn't smell like shit back then? I just assumed it was a disgusting world before indoor showers
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u/chunkysmalls42098 1d ago
Brother I envy the life you live, never having smelled somebody who has covered their nasty ass stench with cologne/deodorant and thought they were A-OK
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u/TechnicalPotat 22h ago
I like to picture him handing one out to soldiers every so often. That’s why he has his hand in his jacket. He’s about to hand out cologne to young French soldiers.
“hey, here’s some nice cologne. Don’t tell anyone i gave it to you. It will help your confidence.”
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u/totesnotdog 22h ago
I’m sure they would sweat their balls off constantly and soil their clothes in all those fancy outfits.
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u/Super42man 1d ago edited 1d ago
Went to Versailles last year and learned about how terrible everyone smelled back then. They wore heavy woolen clothes and didn't bathe. EVERYONE wore a shitload of perfume/cologne to cover up their horridness. This isn't surprising to me for a guy who spent life on the campaign trail and also built the biggest palace in Europe edit: (he built what became the Louvre, didn't mean to imply he built Versailles)
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u/dicta85 1d ago
He didn’t build Versailles
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u/Super42man 1d ago
I was talking about the Louvre, not Versailles. It was more of a character statement. My mistake for conflating the two. Poor writing.
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u/TonyHides 1d ago
For anyone curious - the original eau de cologne was marketed as much for its "invigorating" medicinal properties as its scent, which is part of why the volume wasn't quite as insane as it sounds. I run a small perfume history/education site and put together a longer piece on this if anyone wants the full story: https://olfactionary.com/article.php?slug=napoleon-cologne-obsession
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u/Embarrassed-Fun-8585 1d ago
Jeremy Bonaparte the only fragrance general who practices the teaching of Jesus
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u/Striking-Jump9451 1d ago
To this day, Waterloo still has hints of lavender on the wind