Perfumery 101
How Perfume Is Made?
The perfume creation process
Perfume creation is the art of blending materials, natural and synthetic, in an harmonious concoction that first takes shape in the imagination of the perfumer.
It is a labor of love and patience.
The first physical compounding of the idea is always a solemn moment and the first sniff of the new blend is loaded with excitement and anxiety combined. While a well written formula can almost be smelled only in imagination by a well trained perfumer, the real thing always surprises the nose, at least in nuances. Nuances are important though, and sometimes the difference between the trial we retain and the one we dump is a 0/1000 part of one ingredient. Trial after trial, we shape and reshape, like the sculptor. It is a labor of love and patience.
Perfume creation is a matter of precision, but also of playing around with the materials and developing a « feel » for them. While most perfumers rely on lab-assistants, we prefer to compound all of our formulas ourselves, as it allows a closer connection to the materials. Sometimes we will even improvise at the scale, adding or removing something from the initial formula, just because it feels right. At the Society of Scent, artistry, intuition and respect for the product and the consumer alike, define what we call a « slow scent » movement. To us, this is far more important than efficiency, productivity and speed to market… we left that behind when choosing to found our own company…
“Perfumery is an art, not a science, as many seem to believe. A scientific background is not necessary for the perfumer; scientific knowledge may even sometimes prove an obstacle to the freedom required in perfume creation” Jean Carles (1892-1966)
Jean Carles is the Master Perfumer behind famous fragrances like Ma Griffe by Carven ( 1946) or Miss Dior (1947). Maybe more importantly, he is the founder of the Roure Perfumery School (Now Givaudan) where he invented a very didactic method for training young perfumers. Today, 1 perfumer our of 3 has been trained according to the principles of the renown Jean Carles method. At the Society of Scent, we are fighting hard to defend the artistic value of our trade, in the face of a retail culture driven by market research and large doses of BS…. Classically trained, we are striving for harmony and balance but the mavericks in us also want to make sure our blends bring something singular and creative to the market.
Made in our laboratory
Very few fragrance brands have the privilege of creating their scents themselves, in their proprietary lab, with their own Perfumers. They usually “borrow” the creative resources from a handful of multinationals, where strangely, most of the noses work. For us @thesocietyofscent, internalizing creation is a question of legitimacy, creative freedom, and honestly, although far from the truth, it is an assumption of consumers that a perfume brand has its internal perfumer(s).
We are proud to create elevated top quality fragrances for our own brands as well as on commission for clients who understand the true power of a customized experience.
Aslo read: The Society of Scent Team
