Armpit sweat and Fragrancestein (or the 33rd BSP annual symposium)

Move over, scent strips! The new way to experience potent aroma chemicals in their pure state is…BRAIIIIIIINS!

The 33rd One Day Symposium by the British Society of Perfumers was unusually stinky this year: armpit sweat and skatole overdoses, oh my! It’s an important date in the UK perfume calendar and this year’s event was once again held at Whittlebury Hall in Towcester, to a full audience of perfumers, evaluators, sales and marketing people. I was lucky to be put in the same group as Karen Gilbert with whom we had only just sniffed some gorgeous Osmotheque recreations, so the day offered us plenty of opportunities to compare notes.

The first item on the agenda was a talk by a bright, young PhD candidate Caroline Allen, who, with the help of Kate Williams (who was elected as the new BSP president during the AGM that followed), has been researching the effect of artificial fragrances on our ability to advertise and judge body odour. A few years ago another talk at the BSP explained the human major histocompatibility complex and its role in mate selection, so Caroline’s research is a perfect follow-up. Since it’s been shown that we prefer the scent of potential mates with an MHC type that is different to our own, how does using, say, underarm deodorant affect this?

What seems to be happening is that when people are left to choose their own fragrance, they pick a scent which enhances (advertises) their natural body odour in a good way, meaning that potential mates will not be thrown off scent. If a scent is randomly allocated (you wear something your gran bought you for Christmas even though you don’t like it, for instance), our own odour fingerprint still comes through, but not as well.

Caroline roped us into helping her by making us smell cotton pads soaked in armpit sweat. By recording our impressions using descriptive words (musky, sweet, floral… or in the case of one of the samples, onion, cumin…), we were able to contribute to the odour mapping work that Kate and her team have been doing at Seven Scent.

Incidentally, sample 32 (I think) smelled of sweet musk and fruit to me, and I felt very happy sniffing it – whereas others who sniffed it didn’t have the same reaction. Everyone’s impressions of each sample varied greatly, which in itself was fascinating.

These days follow a similar format – fragrance raw material suppliers present a selection of new materials or existing materials used in new ways. Presentations include demonstration formulae in various bases (candles, body creams, shampoos, detergents, fine fragrance and so on) and some go to great lengths to be creative with the way in which they show their materials off.

None more so than PFW who always seem to come up with an off-the-wall presentation. This year, their mascot Master Perfumer, Pierre the Perfumer was the star of a truly frightening film-slash-demo formula, FRAGRANCESTEIN.

Keen-eyed readers will note the massive skatole overdose, and keen-nosed ones will know that it truly smells of excrement. Where indole has a mothball quality and flip-flops between poop and mothballs (and where with indole, once you’ve worked on enough floral accords containing it, your brain starts to construct a flower around it, so it no longer smells bad after a while)… with skatole, I am yet to arrive at such a happy state (and wonder if it’ll ever happen). It really does smell bad. So the challenge was – how to hide the ‘monster’ and create an accord that would not only be acceptable but pleasant and desirable to consumers.

Bit by bit, we followed Pierre on the silver screen as he tried to tame the monster. Body parts were replaced, the formula tweaked, and we could smell the transformation. Perhaps a little too influenced by the initial horror, many in the room did struggle to find the final accord pleasant, but that’s where being a trained nose can sometimes trip you up; if you smell the construction rather than the naive overall effect, you can sometimes miss an interesting piece of work.

I’d like to put in a request to PFW: could we see Pierre the Perfumer in “The Man With Two Brains”, please?

I missed out on a PFW goodiebag (what was in there? Dare I ask?) because there wasn’t one on my chair, but did come home with lots of goodies. BSP has its own tote bag now, too!

It wasn’t the only tote of the day; DRT, a company producing impressive volumes of a variety of chemicals all from trees gave us this lovely forest-themed tote:Two materials which really stuck in my mind from the Nactis/Synarome presentation were Oudharome and Agarome (the former having a lovely orris-type character more so than oudh, really); both made me want to rush into the lab and use them in something.

IFF‘s presentation of Amber Xtreme was another highlight of the day for me – they’d gone to real effort to make the session interactive and demonstrate the material in use. We experienced a floor cleaning application, laundry care, hair care and fine fragrance – all at different concentrations; all very effective. I was a ‘volunteer’ (read: everyone else suddenly found the ceiling really interesting). My job was to cover a large floor tile with suds.

At least it didn’t turn out to be an ice bucket challenge!

This material is POTENT. I see where the Xtreme comes in, really – a trace in fine fragrance still somewhat dominated the blend, and very small amounts had noticeable effects in other applications. I also love the jaunty whale illustration. It almost has a Japanese quality to it. “Here I am, sending my magic poop into the ocean!”

We were also given generous goodiebags with a new perfumer’s fragrance ingredients compendium, demo bottles of Amber Xtreme and a pen.

The day went by fast and I am already looking forward to next year’s symposium. There will be other BSP events before then, of course, and it’s worth keeping an eye out for additions to the calendar – even if you are not a member but happen to be interested in this crazy, poop and sweat-scented world!

Volatile Fiction shortlisted in the 2015 Jasmine Awards

This blog is a great way to write quite freely; to indulge in longer articles and anything I get excited about. I am grateful that you, the readers, keep coming back, even though you’ll never quite know what to expect.

It is fair to say that the likelihood of perfume featuring here is quite high, and this year I am delighted to be in the illustrious company of some of Britain’s best fragrance bloggers on the Jasmine Blogger Award shortlist! Congratulations to everyone who has earned a nomination this year – it is brilliant to see good fragrance writing celebrated in this way, and best of luck to all nominees.

The Fragrance Foundation is uploading the shortlisted articles here, bit by bit, so do check them out (it’s a good opportunity to read articles in the print categories as well).

The award ceremony will be held at the BAFTAs on the 18th of March. I’m looking forward to cheering my friends along again. It’s going to be a really fragrant day – I am going to a BSP lecture about the mechanism of olfaction by Charles Sell that same evening. Look out for a write-up about that here afterwards.

British Society of Perfumers Fine Fragrance Evening 2014

It’s that time of the year again – dark days, rainy mornings (afternoons and evenings), Christmas adverts on TV, and, of course, the annual Fine Fragrance Evening by the British Society of Perfumers. The London event was held at the Royal Institution (a venue which I love, probably because the lecture is held in a library). BSP events have been fully subscribed this year and the Fine Fragrance Evening was no exception – there was standing room only by the time Virginie was ready to start.

These scents were featured:

Laine de Verre – Serge Lutens – citrus, aldehydic, green
Maravilla – Bulgari – citrus, white floral, woody
Mandarino di Amalfi – Tom Ford – citrus, spicy, woody
Eau Tropicale – Sisley – floral, fruity, musk
Yellow Diamonds Intense – Versace – floral, fruity, sweet
My Burberry – Burberry – floral, fruity, woody
Karl Lagerfeld for Her – Karl Lagerfeld – floral, fruity, woody
Dolce – Dolce & Gabbana – white floral, fruity, woody
Knot – Bottega Veneta – white floral, citrus, musk
La Panthere – Cartier – white floral, fruity, chypre
Flowerhead – Byredo – white floral, tuberose, green
Narciso – Narciso Rodriguez – white floral, woody, musk
Extatic – Balmain – woody, oriental, fruity
My NY – DKNY – chypre, red fruits, patchouli
Tralala – Penhaligon’s – woody, leather, floral
Reveal – Calvin Klein – oriental, white floral, woody
Sylvan Song – Grossmith – oriental, floral, incense
Black Opium – YSL – oriental, spicy, gourmand
Bayolea – Penhaligon’s – citrus, woody, spicy
Eau d’Aromes – Armani – citrus, spicy, woody
Jimmy Choo Man – Jimmy Choo – aromatic, fruity, woody
Emblem – Mont Blanc – aromatic, green, spicy
Lavender On The Rocks – Atkinson – aromatic, leather, spicy
Karl Lagerfeld for Him – Lagerfeld – aromatic, fruity, woody
Nuit d’Issey – Issey Miyake – woody, spicy, leather
L’Homme Ideal – Guerlain – woody, fougere, gustative
Just Cavalli Gold For Him – Cavalli – woody, gustative, spicy
Bulgari Man in Black – Bulgari – woody, leather, spicy
Shisur – Molton Brown – leather, spicy, powdery

Virginie’s presentations are so useful – with over 1400 fragrances launched this year, who could possibly keep up? (Well, I know Michael Edwards does try). Add to that, the irony of a perfumista-turned-lab rat is that when I am at work, I cannot wear perfume because it would interfere with quality control and perfumery. And – AND – fragrance factories and warehouses tend to be in the middle of nowhere (read: not within easy reach of well-curated perfumeries). I am fortunate enough to have many fragrance-loving buddies who send me samples to sniff (thank you, thank you!), and every visit to London or somewhere civilised tends to include a quick visit to a perfume counter. Nevertheless, Virginie does to fine fragrance launches what my husband does to data (he’s a government statistician) – turns a lot of white noise into a meaningful narrative.

Based on the scents she had selected, it was also quite a relief to realise that despite opinions to the contrary, there really still are beautiful and noteworthy scents being launched right under our noses (sometimes it’s too easy to ‘Golden Age’ everything).

Some scents in limited distribution were included (I struggle with the term ‘niche’ these days) – and the lines between what we consider mainstream and – well – not, are clearly blurring.

Now that the Estee Lauder Group has purchased Le Labo and Parfums Frederic Malle, we’re clearly well on our way to the most popular niche brands becoming the new mainstream. Actually, this is as good a time as any to mention that I feel like the celebuscent-craze (which is still going strong) has created its own layer of the fragrance market and expanded it from what it would otherwise have been: scent as merchandise.

Back in the 80s, I would have bought a Hanoi Rocks Parfum or Eau de China Girl in a heartbeat. Instead, I had to make do with posters, sew-on denim jacket badges and pencil cases. I don’t even think we should worry too much about the monetising of celebrities and brands in this way; as consumers, we have never had it this good – there is most certainly something for everyone out there.

Even vintage-lovers will find brands brave enough to create divisive, retro-styled scents (Bogue Profumo, Vero Profumo, Slumberhouse if you want an indie edge, or Ruth Mastenbroek’s glorious chypre, Grossmith’s retro formulas and retro-styled new scents if you want conventionally created fragrances. We also still have many classics knocking around, albeit, reformulated, but still wonderful – the most popular classic Guerlains and Chanels can still be yours).

It is perfectly possible to create an aesthetically retro fragrance in today’s regulatory landscape, even if the tools aren’t quite the same. The reason we don’t smell so many of them around these days isn’t regulation (though regulation may occasionally drive a stake through the heart of a particular formula) – the reason we don’t see so many of these fragrances, is that they just don’t sell as well as a shooting-fish-in-a-barrel fruity florals and nose-hair-burning synth woods do. Since bigger brands still dominate the typical distribution channels (Duty Free and department stores), and because we’re still somewhat relying on traditional ways in which to get the fragrance under consumers’ noses, risk-taking is still a rare thing in mainstream. Doesn’t mean it’s not happening, but it’s not what dominates the market.

There’s already a new postmodern perfume culture (you heard it here first) – with indie/artisan perfumers and fragrance lovers/bloggers together doing their own thing and ignoring how Things Are Supposed To Be Done.

According to Virginie, there is a new fruit trend in fine fragrance, away from straight-up-apple (we’ve had quite a few years of perfumes with a fruity shampoo accord) – and into apple-like notes of pear, quince and fig.

Freesia, sweet pea, orange flower, jasmine and tuberose dominated the floral scene – though tuberose was not of the shoulderpad-variety in any of the featured scents, but treated in a modern way. Even though I felt Dolce by D&G was a little too predictably safe (but still pretty), I did find the story behind its creation quite endearing. Apparently the designers fell in love with a white amaryllis accord based on a headspace capture of a South African species, even though their original plan had been to launch a fragrance with another, Mediterranean theme.

Coffee notes kept popping up in masculine launches, and were particularly prominent in Just Cavalli Gold For Him. The aroma was that of dark roast coffee. Bulgari Man in Black seemed to me a little out of step with its name and imagery (a hot man in hot lava); the opening was juniper-like, green, and not the smoky, tar-type accord one might have expected. There has been much discussion about Guerlain’s L’Homme Ideal, and to me it reads as La Petite Robe Noire Pour Homme. Some bloggers love it; others wring their wrists that it’s a ‘pointless’ launch – well, I think it will be popular. It smells good on a man, and is very trendy, and done with style. Guerlain already has a back catalogue of scents in a certain style, so let’s allow them to create a couple of hit records so we get to keep buying our Mitsy.

Cashmeran was everywhere, and generally, many fragrances used a skin-scent musk accord; powdery and dry notes were also prevalent. Orris-notes were featured in several fragrances, and a few had a marine theme with a hint of a coconut note.

There appears to be a little bit of a chypre revival, and Bogue’s Maai (not featured on the night) is Kouros x Aromatics Elixir x Youth Dew (Or Kouros Pour Elle); a wonderful, retro-styled, unapologetic animalic chypre. A tamer (ironically) option would be Cartier’s La Panthere (featured on the night) – with a deceptively fruity notes listing, but being definitely of good chypre character. The bottle is innovative, too, using new kind of glass-moulding technology.

My favourites from the evening were Penhaligon’s Tralala (a bonkers whisky-aromatic-leather-floral thing, which I fear will get discontinued if all of its fans don’t rush to buy it soon), Grossmith’s Sylvan Song (such a beautiful classic-style fragrance that it almost made me melancholy), Mandarino di Amalfi (a bitter, grapefruit eau de cologne-type scent with amazing longevity; staying just on the right side of too-bitter. This will be a new summer favourite), Narciso (a woody musk sans fruit; an intoxicating skin-scent), and the surprise find, Extatic by Balmain (surprise because it opens with a nearly too sweet fruit accord, but quickly transforms to a gorgeous woody oriental, albeit still quite sweet).

It was a thoroughly enjoyable event, and I am already looking forward to next year’s! (I also now have several new fragrances to buy…).

 

BSP One Day Symposium 2014

I was at the 32nd BSP One Day Symposium last week, and it was a day packed with interesting materials and interesting conversations. When perfume raw material manufacturers show off their latest creations, it’s not too unlike a fashion show. The models (example products) are fitted out with the new outfits (new materials), and the audience (perfumers, buyers, evaluators, competitors…) gathers to admire, and learn more. And, like with haute couture, not everyone is in the position to buy the new creations straight away, and must wait until they filter down to the High Street (run out of patent and are made in bulk by others). The metaphor is somewhat wobbly, but it’s the best way I can explain the frustration of being shown a wonderful new material by a big company, only to know that the minimum pack size is 25kg (or 180kg!), and that our use of it would probably not justify such a purchase. Alas! All is not lost, because many of the presentations were also of materials entirely within reach. I orderd a few samples for our lab, and look forward to trying them out in development formulas.

What tends to happen, particularly with potent aroma chemicals (not usually with naturals), is that the perfume ingredient manufacturers create “demo formulas” – fragrance formulas representative of the scents one would find in the product category intended for the raw material. The demo formulas are then embellished with the new material(s), sometimes at different dosages, to show what effect the material has on the fragrance. There is a ‘blank’ demo formula, with none of the (new) material in it, and one or more examples which contain the (new) material(s). We were shown examples of fabric conditioners, shampoos, soaps and lotions with both Symrise and PFW.

Both presentations were engaging, and Symrise always goes out of their way to represent their ‘haute couture’ in a highly polished way (I may be able to show you their videos at a later date if I get hold of them, so more on that to follow). PFW, on the other hand, played a trick on us, and it was such a clever way of showing off a material that I won’t say more about it, should they wish to repeat the performance elsewhere (so no spoilers). PFW was also celebrating its 100th anniversary and we all had some cake during the coffee break. PFW’s own mascot, Pierre the Perfumer was there, too, of course (unfortunately I did not get a photo).

Natural raw materials tend to be shown au naturelle (pardon the pun), though the people from Axxence had set their natural aromas in coloured gel suspension, which was a safe and pleasant way to show them off. Their natural methyl anthranilate and natural indole were my particular favourites; so smooth. As an aside, sniffing and admiring the indole led to a conversation around our table, of how at one point or another, we’d all stopped thinking of indole as a ‘bad’ smell. Once you’ve been working with it for a while, your brain constructs the flower around it when you smell it in isolation. Whether you’ve been working with orange blossom, jasmine or any white flower accords, indole will have become a close ally. The synthetic version has more of a harsh mothball nuance, whereas the natural (which I smelled for the first time at this event) was much softer. I suppose it’s a fun marketing tactic to tell a sort of horror story of “ooh, aah, guess what, the jasmine you love so much contains a chemical that is also found in faeces” and watch the audience cringe; I’ll admit to having done that, too. Nevertheless, it’s nowhere near the worst material in the perfumer’s palette (never mind what the flavourists have to work with – some of the flavour raw materials are absolutely horrific; various meat, fish and cheese flavours are made up using indescribably obnoxious chemicals).

We also saw some beautiful naturals from Floral Concept, and Omega Ingredients. I was charmed by the rather animalic orange blossom absolute from Floral Concept (and I’ll admit, I seem to have developed a thing for animalic notes), and the cascarilla bark from Omega was so fascinating, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it ever since.

Penny Williams from Orchadia/The International Perfume Acedemy was also there. I am currently 1/3 of the way through her IFRA course. She provides a unique blend of consultancy and set training courses, some of which can be done via distance-study.

I didn’t stay for the dinner, but perhaps next year I ought to; it always feels like there is not enough time to finish all the conversations which start in-between presentations. The next big event in the fragrance industry calendar is IFEAT, Rome (and a lucky colleague is attending that one!).

Symrise presentation all laid out – we were shown four materials.

Materials are often shown in demo products.

Symrise always creates visually interesting displays to go with their aroma molecule presentations.

Every material had its own visual representation.

The materials from Axxence were presented to us in coloured gel suspension. It was a good way for us to experience them.

This is what we smelled.

Treatt showed us specialist high-impact natural materials.

PFW showed us a surprise material…

Omega Ingredients showed us some interesting naturals.

Aims of the BSP.

TIPA stand in the break room.

Penny Williams of the TIPA, speaking with Virginie Daniau of Parfum Parfait.

We saw some lovely natural materials from Floral Concept.

The BSP will be at House of Fraser’s AW 2014 Beauty Confidential event

House of Fraser is running its bi-annual beauty extravaganza, Beauty Confidential, again this September, and this year, the British Society of Perfumers is also involved. I will be at House of Fraser, Oxford Street, on Tuesday the 23rd of September for the evening (5pm to 9pm), to help out. Virginie Daniau of Parfum Parfait (a consultant to the fragrance industry), and John Bailey (perfumer, an ex-president of the BSP, and its current – and first – Ambassador) will also be there on the 23rd.

The other BSP evenings are:

Friday 12th of September (with guests Matthew Williams of IFF, Helen Hill from Azelis, and Karen Gilbert, a natural beauty and fragrance expert).

Thursday 18th (with guests Helen Hill of Azelis, Peter Whipps, current president of the BSP, and Virginie Daniau, of Parfum Parfait).

We will be talking about BSP’s book, British Perfumery, a Fragrant History, and there will be presentations about a new fragrance brand, Jamal, and lots of interesting fragrance ingredients to sniff (natural materials such as orris, orange flower, sandalwood and patchouli, and many popular aromachemicals such as cyclemax, a lily-of-the-valley material, delta damascone, a popular ingredient in fabric conditioners, and many more).

Special offer

During the event, copies of the BSP book are also on sale, and can be purchased for half the usual retail price of £45, for only £22.50, with a £60 spend on any fragrance on the night.

I hope to see you there, and I’ll quite probably do a bit of sneaky make-up shopping before the presentations (great opportunity…).

A glimpse into the inner workings of Givaudan

Not all perfume enthusiasts are aware that most of the events organised by the British Society of Perfumers are open to the general public. I like to attend as many lectures and events as I can, but even though I can’t personally make next week’s “Ethical Sourcing for Perfumery: Nice or Necessity” at the Royal Society of Chemistry, it could be a really fascinating evening out if you want to get a glimpse inside the perfume industry and into the inner workings of its largest player, Givaudan.

Herve Fretay, Givaudan (via Persolaise)

I must also admit that part of the reason I’d like to be there even though I can’t, is that the presenter, Herve Fretay, who I had the pleasure of meeting in one of Odette Toilette’s events, is utterly charming.

During the evening he will be talking about ethically sourcing natural perfume ingredients for Givaudan – and it’s obvious that this will be a little bit of an advertorial for the company, but you will still learn a lot and enjoy the evening if the topic interests you.

One day I’ll blog about how to get into the perfume industry but for the time being, I can share one of the tips with you right now: be curious. Attend events and talk to people who are passionate about the topic. You will learn so much and meet many interesting people. It used to be much harder to break into the industry but one does not have to be a native French speaker, male, a chemistry major or born into a family of perfumers these days to get involved (although all of the above would help immensely).

The British Society of Perfumers celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. “Ethical Sourcing for Perfumery: Nice or Necessity” is on Thursday the 7th of February.