Yesterday, I was reading about some thoughts of people on various fragrance reviewers. I noticed that there were many people complimenting on the "poeticness" and "lyrical" styles of writing of certain writers. I started realizing that there is a huge dependence of people on fragrance reviews.
There are so many writers approaching perfumery nowadays with their own interpretation and analysis of fragrances and the industry. There are people who write just to document their experiences with fragrances. There are people who write to convince others to try the fragrances that they love. Some people are artists and historians and they try to draw a link between the artistry of perfumes with their own artistry and history with fragrances. There are writers that translate fragrances into poetry and to create dreams.
An article that really spoke to me could be found here: http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.com/20...e-galante.html where the author had caught whiff of the next Hermessence release. From the name of this fragrance and analyzing the style of Jean Claude Ellena, this author sewed together a post of history, music, food, and art as a way to make sense of this upcoming release and predict what the fragrance will be like. We will never know what the true story is if Jean Claude Ellena does not step out to explain what had inspired him to create the fragrance.
JCE is in a special place where fragrance design starts with him. However, in the mass market fragrance industry, the fragrance starts with the marketing department of the company who sends out the brief. In almost all cases, the perfumer does not know the name of the fragrance and the true story of the fragrance until it is launched.
The marketing departments are there to help create dreams to intice the consumers to buy their fragrances. Let us take a fake fragrance development as an example. The marketing department for company X had developed a story behind a man and his lover making love in a forest. However, the goal of company X is to challenge but at the same time ride the success of Chanel No. 5 on the market. A brief is sent to fragrance companies to create a more modern, green, spicier version of Chanel No. 5 as a benchmark. As the fragrance is being developed, the perfumer is inspired by a woman wearing Chanel No .5 in an Indian restaurant. The perfumer takes Chanel No.5 tones down the aldehydes, add some green notes, a tea accord, a trace of tuberose, and some spices. This fragrance design is submitted and then selected by company X.
The fragrance is launched. People smell the fragrance and analyse the fragrance ingredients from the published olfactive pyramids (rose and jasmine is not shown but only tuberose). You begin reading reviews of people who have found the sensual use of tuberose as a representation of the sophisticated love between the two couples. The greenness of the fragrance represents the the forestry and the leafy environment that surrounds the couple. The soft, cold aldehydes contrasts the warm sexual tonka bean in the basenotes. The touch of cumin detected has to be because the perfumer's wanting to protray the smell of sweat exuded from their sexual activity, etc, etc. While these reviews are helpful, this is where you notice how far the reviews have hit the mark on the fact that this fragrance is a Chanel No 5 in disguise.
I observed a group of tourists crowding a Grasse boutique store raving about a fragrance about how natural it is and how unique and special it smelled... that the fragrance represented Provence. As the crowd thinned out, I approached the bottle and smelled it. It was Le Male-type (and I do not mean type like distant cousin but more or less like twins) by Jean Paul Gaultier except it was poorly constructed and lasted on the strip for 5 minutes.
Another example is what I always mention is a popular niche vetiver named fragrance without any vetiver used!
The image and the story can lead people astray. Chandler Burr, the fragrance critique, for example describes dihydromyrcenol as "sink cleanser spilled on an aluminum counter." When I have this description in my head and I smell dihydromyrcenol, I can really understand what he means and that is only because he had said this. I on the other hand have my own story for it.
I challenge those who have matured a little bit more in their hobby for fragrances to smell with your nose but not with your eyes. You will find a lot of very interesting things the less you are influenced by the noise of marketing of today. Smell with your nose and you will find more truth. Develop your own relationships with the fragrances.
There are so many writers approaching perfumery nowadays with their own interpretation and analysis of fragrances and the industry. There are people who write just to document their experiences with fragrances. There are people who write to convince others to try the fragrances that they love. Some people are artists and historians and they try to draw a link between the artistry of perfumes with their own artistry and history with fragrances. There are writers that translate fragrances into poetry and to create dreams.
An article that really spoke to me could be found here: http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.com/20...e-galante.html where the author had caught whiff of the next Hermessence release. From the name of this fragrance and analyzing the style of Jean Claude Ellena, this author sewed together a post of history, music, food, and art as a way to make sense of this upcoming release and predict what the fragrance will be like. We will never know what the true story is if Jean Claude Ellena does not step out to explain what had inspired him to create the fragrance.
JCE is in a special place where fragrance design starts with him. However, in the mass market fragrance industry, the fragrance starts with the marketing department of the company who sends out the brief. In almost all cases, the perfumer does not know the name of the fragrance and the true story of the fragrance until it is launched.
The marketing departments are there to help create dreams to intice the consumers to buy their fragrances. Let us take a fake fragrance development as an example. The marketing department for company X had developed a story behind a man and his lover making love in a forest. However, the goal of company X is to challenge but at the same time ride the success of Chanel No. 5 on the market. A brief is sent to fragrance companies to create a more modern, green, spicier version of Chanel No. 5 as a benchmark. As the fragrance is being developed, the perfumer is inspired by a woman wearing Chanel No .5 in an Indian restaurant. The perfumer takes Chanel No.5 tones down the aldehydes, add some green notes, a tea accord, a trace of tuberose, and some spices. This fragrance design is submitted and then selected by company X.
The fragrance is launched. People smell the fragrance and analyse the fragrance ingredients from the published olfactive pyramids (rose and jasmine is not shown but only tuberose). You begin reading reviews of people who have found the sensual use of tuberose as a representation of the sophisticated love between the two couples. The greenness of the fragrance represents the the forestry and the leafy environment that surrounds the couple. The soft, cold aldehydes contrasts the warm sexual tonka bean in the basenotes. The touch of cumin detected has to be because the perfumer's wanting to protray the smell of sweat exuded from their sexual activity, etc, etc. While these reviews are helpful, this is where you notice how far the reviews have hit the mark on the fact that this fragrance is a Chanel No 5 in disguise.
I observed a group of tourists crowding a Grasse boutique store raving about a fragrance about how natural it is and how unique and special it smelled... that the fragrance represented Provence. As the crowd thinned out, I approached the bottle and smelled it. It was Le Male-type (and I do not mean type like distant cousin but more or less like twins) by Jean Paul Gaultier except it was poorly constructed and lasted on the strip for 5 minutes.
Another example is what I always mention is a popular niche vetiver named fragrance without any vetiver used!
The image and the story can lead people astray. Chandler Burr, the fragrance critique, for example describes dihydromyrcenol as "sink cleanser spilled on an aluminum counter." When I have this description in my head and I smell dihydromyrcenol, I can really understand what he means and that is only because he had said this. I on the other hand have my own story for it.
I challenge those who have matured a little bit more in their hobby for fragrances to smell with your nose but not with your eyes. You will find a lot of very interesting things the less you are influenced by the noise of marketing of today. Smell with your nose and you will find more truth. Develop your own relationships with the fragrances.
