The modern process of perfume creation and the importance of “the nose”.
The job of composing perfumes that will sell is left up to an expert on perfume composition or known in the fragrance industry as the perfumer. They are also sometimes referred to as “the Nose” due to their fine sense of smell and skill in smell composition.
After having received a brief regarding what the fragrance should represent, the perfumer will then go through the process of blending multiple perfume mixtures and sell the formulation to the customer, often with modifications of the composition of the perfume.
The perfume composition will then be sold as directly as a fine fragrance or used to enhance another products such as shampoos, deodorants, shower gels etc, in order to make up an entire line of products.
- Research and time period in creating a fragrance
Developing a fragrance takes a minimum of 1 year, from the beginning of the concept, to the creation of the bottle design, tooling, fragrance creation and market testing, fragrance maturating, producing of the glass, caps, pumps etc., creating the outer packaging. Then comes the final stage of the final production where the bottles are filled, packed and cello wrapped. Creating the marketing material and launching tools are also part of the long process of a Perfume creation.
- Why do fragrances have 3 notes, the explanation of how this works and its meaning –
There are 3 types of notes to every fragrance.
- Top notes: The scents that are perceived immediately on application of a perfume. Top notes consist of small, light molecules that evaporate quickly. They form a person’s initial impression of a perfume and thus are very important in the selling of a perfume.
- Middle notes: The scent of a perfume that emerges just prior to when the top notes dissipate. The middle note compounds form the “heart” or main body of a perfume and act to mask the often unpleasant initial impression of base notes, which become more pleasant with time. They are also called the heart notes.
- Base notes: The scent of a perfume that appears close to the departure of the middle notes. The base and middle notes together are the main theme of a perfume. Base notes bring depth and solidity to a perfume. Compounds of this class of scents are typically rich and “deep” and are usually not perceived until 30 minutes after application.
The scents in the top and middle notes are influenced by the base notes as well the scents of the base notes will be altered by the type of fragrance materials used as middle notes. Perfume notes are usually presented as fragrance pyramid, with the components listed in imaginative and abstract terms.
- Match the description of a perfumes characteristic to those of our own taste/character.
Perfumes are purely a matter of personal choice in terms of the scent, but can also promoted using words such as Bold, confident, pioneering, feminine/ masculine, Sexy, Strong etc. These words that describe the fragrance brand can also connect with the personality of an individual and therefore influence purchase to a certain extent.
By Poonam Sagar
