For those of you not familiar with how fragrances are made, let me give you a grossly oversimplified summary of how it works. The fragrance world is dominated by a few very large (think billions of dollars) fragrance ‘houses’ that produce most of the flavors (yes, things we eat) and fragrances in all the products we consume. Within these fragrance ‘houses’, thousands of people are hard at work every day perfecting and improving many of the smells and tastes that you and I love, hate, or never even notice in our daily life. With so many categories and so many products, these fragrance houses are usually organized by the application in which the fragrance or flavor will be used, the most prestigious of which is fine fragrance. Within the world of fine fragrance, the most important role is that of the perfumers – the professional artists that are responsible for creating the olfactive masterpieces that you and I wear on our skin as perfume, cologne, or eau de toilette.
To become a perfumer is no easy feat. There are very few, highly specialized schools in the world that teach the art and science of fragrance. In fact, the most esteemed school in France accepts students by invitation only – carefully selecting candidates based on strong academics, creative talent, and future potential. A strong appetite for science and chemistry is a must for every perfumer because at the base of every fragrance is a foundation of chemical compounds that must be understood in order to function. For this reason the world of perfumery remains small, with the best perfumers hard to come by, highly sought after, and routinely mimicked by competitors.
The making of fine fragrance is a lot less glamorous than you might think. Very typically, new fine fragrances are actually conceptualized and carried out by large marketing companies who license brand names (whether a brand or person) and then produce, market, and sell products under those names. So many of the fragrances you may know by individual brand name (as competitors) might actually be produced and sold by a single marketing company. These marketing companies then work with fragrance houses to develop a new fragrance – and this is where the fairy tale comes to an abrupt end.
Fragrance Development
Most of the time, fragrance development is driven by a marketing brief – a lengthy and largely weightless presentation of clichés and pretty data written by a team of business people. What starts as a creative conversation quickly becomes a business decision that usually ends by asking perfumers to ‘duplicate’ a fragrance already known and successful in the market but with a ‘new’ twist. And sometimes even this twist is not left to chance - with a research team using historical data to dictate how to follow trends instead of creating them.
Once a direction is chosen for the fragrance itself, the number crunching begins. And more often than not, the real driver for what a fragrance is made of and ultimately smells like is… You guessed it. Price. So perfumers are left with the large, difficult, and often frustrating task of creating a ‘new’ fragrance that will have ‘guaranteed’ success (mass appeal) using the lowest-cost materials.
The result? A sea of fragrances flooding the market whose only point of differentiation is the box they come in. And there you have it – a backwards industry where a professional artist is told what to make, how to make it, and how much it will cost.
The Perfumer
When we first began working in fine fragrance, I was amazed at the ability of a perfumer to understand, combine, and create individual smells that have a physical AND emotional connection to us. They are artists working in a medium that speaks to a sense whose connection to our psyche and existence is barely understood. Through their creations, perfumers transport us to another time and place, change our mood, and capture our attention. Perfumery is a bizarre combination of intuition and reason and to watch perfumers work is nothing short of amazing – the way they can translate ideas, images, colors, textures, and so much more through smell. So I was shocked to see these artists, these creators, confined to such a narrow spectrum of possibilities by the very people asking them to make a difference.
Even when perfumers are somehow able to overcome these limitations and create a blazing success, they are too often left in the background as products are developed and sold. Let’s be honest, when was the last time you heard about the perfumer behind a successful fragrance? I bet everyone reading this can name at least three fragrances, but I would be hard pressed to think that anyone could name the perfumer behind them. In fact, I think most people would have a hard time naming three perfumers at all. Perfumery is becoming a lost art that has yet to be found.
Creating Le Cherche Midi Fragrances
So when it came our turn to create our own fragrances, we decided to turn the tables. Are approach is simple: who are we to tell an artist what is interesting, relevant, or acceptable? When we conduct our fragrance development meetings, we don’t tell. We ask. We ask our perfumers what THEY think is interesting, what THEY have been working on, what THEY would like to see in the market, what ingredients THEY like, and so on. And the results are amazing – exploring passionate new concepts with ingredients and ideas that have never been used before.
I could go on at length trying describing how great our fragrances are. But don’t take my word for it. If you haven’t already, try them for yourself (we have free samples for you) and I’m sure you will feel the passion, creativity, and thought that went into each fragrance. But when you enjoy these fragrant works of art, please, don’t thank us. Thank our perfumers:
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