The History of Florida Water

A spiritual scent with a million uses

Dear Readers,

If you’ve started Soledad, you’ve certainly noticed that the women of our protagonists family prefer spiritual solutions to their problems and physical ailments, and often practice aspects of Dominican santeria, Congos Del Espiritu Santo. The most prevalent of applications being the use of Florida Water, for spiritual cleaning, actual cleaning and household rituals. You might use Florida Water in your own practices, or maybe you’ve seen it behind the counter at your neighborhood bodega, or perhaps the smell is familiar to you, but do you know where it comes from? I didn’t either, and was surprised to hear that its origins are actually here in New York City.

Murray & Lanman Florida Water was first introduced in 1808 as an alcohol-based essential oil concoction inspired by the Fountain of Youth, which according to lore existed in the Spanish colony of Florida — Juan Ponce de Leon’s first attempt at colonization in the United States.

From a 2021 article in Unpublished Zine by Kimberly Kapela:

“With its sweet floral scent and lemon overtones, Florida Water—named after the Fountain of Youth—is commonly used for ritual offerings and purification. Some replace Holy water with Florida Water. The sacred cologne contains numerous spiritual benefits and has become a staple in Voodoo, Hoodoo, Wiccan, and Santeria practices.

Mixed with spices, herbs, lavender, and citrus oils, the Water can be used as a simple cologne or perfume for protection, to draw in good fortune, and in any kind of spell to block out negativity and harmful entities.

While thousands of fragrances have gone in and out of style, Florida Water has maintained its true recipe since 1808. When Florida Water was introduced in the 1800s, enslaved African-Americans in the Southern United States used the cologne while serving their masters. They would use Florida Water to scent the bed linens, sprinkle in bathwater, mop the floors and shave men’s faces. Enslaved African Americans were forbidden to practice African religions and were forced into Christianity practices.

According to Witch Swap, those forced into slavery would use Psalms in the Bible to hide Hoodoo rituals in the scriptures. While publicly worshipping Catholic saints, slaves worshipped African deities. Florida Water became a staple ritual tool of slave-based magic.

In secret rituals, Florida Water found its way into magical/spiritual practices performed by the enslaved. Rituals like spiritual floor washes became more popular.

According to Gabriela Herstik’s 2018 book, Craft: How To Be A Modern Witch, she calls the Water “the baking soda of the magical world.” For Latinos, those maintaining cultural traditions and spiritual practices, it’s believed Florida Water can do powerful and mundane deeds to connect to the spiritual realm and ancestral spirits.

“It can be added to a bath, used as a perfume, put on energy points like the third eye, sprayed in the air, and utilized to clean a counter, to name a few. The citrusy scent of the cologne means that it’s both energizing and purifying. It’s also said to represent the fountain of youth, which is supposedly in Florida,” Herstik said.

Florida Water was used in enslaved people’s practices and spiritual practices throughout the Caribbean, and continues to be used by their descendants to this day through purification, ritual offerings, attracting love, etc… Its use became more commercialized in the last few years as social media popularized it through Wiccan practices and other pagan magical practices. In the last 200 years, its power comes from the traditions of spiritualists, even now its used in the same way.”

Online from The History of Bandits you can find more about its uses over time, and the design of the the elaborate trade cards that were made for the product:

“When Ponce de Léon landed on the mainland, which did not fit his description of the island, he named it La Florida (“The Flowery”) because it was Easter season and vegetation was in full bloom. It is possible Murray named his product after the Territory of Florida simply because of its translation. However, a fountain became the dominant motif in du Maurier’s labels. Trade cards—old-school advertisements exchanged in social circles to clients and potential customers, often repeated this theme. While the Fountain of Youth’s grip on the American psyche has remained effectual even through today, scientific skepticism eventually led to a devaluation of Florida Water’s curative capacities.

In regards to eau de cologne’s medicinal abilities, American chemist John Snively in 1877 asserted that “at this day, save its occasional application as a lotion for headache, not the slightest pretensions are made for it in that line.” Paired with skepticism was the increasing scientific knowledge behind perfume making. Advances in organic chemistry and the ascension of synthetics to replace hard-to-find natural oils led to an increased market for perfume. The New York Times, on August 14, 1870, stated that general perfume use “may be dated back to almost fifteen years ago,” around 1855. Previous to that, “comparatively little was used, and the bulk of that was imported.”

By the turn of the century, Florida Water companies were downplaying medicinal capacities and focusing predominantly on the product as a perfume. In the second volume of The Woman’s Book—a manual for home-living published in 1894—the author extols the virtues of a bath with added Florida Water, after which “the perfume it leaves about her person will not be sufficiently powerful to cause discomfort to any one.” The author compares this delicate description with the “extraordinary cheapness” of other perfumes in the market with which a woman could drench herself “until she becomes offensive to all who come near her.” A proper fragrance demanded judicious and indirect use. Florida Water, adding to its array of uses, was a choice product for this endeavor.

Florida Water’s versatile nature helped it adapt to a changing market. The du Maurier label and castor oil bottle also contributed to the product’s continued success, as Lanman and Kemp (renamed in 1861) relied on their tradition and signature look to maintain sales in the midst of imitative competition. In 1957 the company moved west across the Hudson River, first to Palisades Park and later to Westwood, New Jersey, due to the need for a larger production facility. Only with the advent of increased market specialization has Florida Water lost some of its sway. Today, deodorants, mouthwashes, aftershave lotions, and a variety of other products have replaced a product that once addressed all of these needs. Whether these specialized products could survive a transitioning market as did Florida Water is debatable. It is unquestionable, though, that Florida Water’s origins, which played no small part in the product’s appeal, represent a distinctly American link in a chain of myth passed down through the ages.”

If you’ve never taken a whiff of a fresh bottle of Florida Water, I implore you to pick one up next time you see it and incorporate it into your own rituals. Better yet, take yourself on a field trip to Flower Power for a bottle of their house-made version :)

Yours in fiction,

Caroline