Object: Beauty Product 024 Type: Container for fragrant substances Place of origin: Ras Al Khaimah Date of production: c. 1930s - 1940s Material: The pot is carved out of a single piece of stone. Lid diameter: 20 cm Height: 28 cm Base converges to a point. Women made large quantities of thick liquid perfume called "mukhammariyah" in stone pots such as this one. Different ingredients, including saffron, aloewood, civet and ambergris were mixed together and allowed to ferment by burying the sealed pot in the ground for forty days. To ensure that the pot was air and water-tight, wet mud was used on the lid as a sealant. After forty days, the mixture of ingredients would turn into a concentrated fragrant liquid, and the pot would be taken out of the ground. The thick perfume would then be poured into smaller containers, to be distributed among friends and family, or to be kept ready for use by the woman herself.

scented beauty product from the private collection of Fatima Ahmead Obaid Zayed Almogani Alnaqbi, as documented by Suheyla Takesh and Clint McLean (photographer) as a part of Suheyla Takesh's Summer 2014 FIND Fellowship

Object: Beauty Product 024
Type: Container for fragrant substances
Place of origin: Ras Al Khaimah
Date of production: c. 1930s - 1940s
Material: The pot is carved out of a single piece of stone.
Lid diameter: 20 cm
Height: 28 cm
Base converges to a point.
Women made large quantities of thick liquid perfume called "mukhammariyah" in stone pots such as this one. Different ingredients, including saffron, aloewood, civet and ambergris were mixed together and allowed to ferment by burying the sealed pot in the ground for forty days. To ensure that the pot was air and water-tight, wet mud was used on the lid as a sealant. After forty days, the mixture of ingredients would turn into a concentrated fragrant liquid, and the pot would be taken out of the ground. The thick perfume would then be poured into smaller containers, to be distributed among friends and family, or to be kept ready for use by the woman herself.