What's that smell?

[sawyl]

Via the Guardian, a piece describing some of the less glamourous ingredients used in perfumery:

Many of perfumery's most venerable creations owe their sensuality to the use of animal ingredients with a certain "spray" element: civet, a faecal paste extracted from the anal glands of the civet cat; castoreum, a leathery emission from the genital scent sacs of the castor beaver; ambergris, a briny and vomitous by-product of the digestive system of sperm whales; and musk secreted from the sheath gland of the musk deer have all been popular perfume ingredients. Then things become still more complex: civet may be cut with hair or — brace yourself — infant excrement.

Which reminds me of Mom's classic remark on encountering an ambergris-wearing Amy Wong, "What smells like porpoise hork?"