The Fragrance Creation Process - From Start To Market

The creation of perfume is often compared to the fine finished notes of a splendid concerto or the precise fermenting time of a cherished wine.

Although both are diverse applications, they share the goal of achievement via a painstaking process that takes years to learn and perfect.

In addition to time, patience and supreme skill are required to nurture a fine perfume.

Down through the centuries, the perfume making process has undergone cutting edge advancements from the realm of industrial science, but many of the steps required to perfection have remained unchanged down through the centuries.

Early perfumes were used?to scent the air, and were usually comprised of aromatic, resins and oils that were burned to release their aromas.

The word, perfume, derives from the Latin, perfumum, which means through smoke. The ancient Egyptians were the first to capitalize on the idea of a decorative container, and many were made from stone and alabaster and adorned with bold designs.

Queen Cleopatra was known to announce her arrival to meet with lover, Marc Anthony, on a ship with perfumed sails.

The ancient Greeks created the first liquid perfume, but it was the distillation process developed by the Arabian culture that made early manufacture possible.

The Chemistry Behind Perfume Making

Enfleurage is one of the oldest known methods for preserving plant fragrance.

It is a two-step technique for extracting scents and oils from plants.

The process includes drawing fragrance into a base of either fat or oil and extracting it with alcohol. The major ingredients in any perfume are essential oils and ethyl alcohol.

The concentration level of essential oils such as: bright, fruity, vanilla-nuanced agar wood, creamy sandalwood and dry, balsamic cedar, determines how long a fragrance can last on the skin.?

Our perfumers understand that longevity of scent is also dependent on the size of the perfume molecules, which affect how quickly they oxidize.

The smaller molecules, such as light citrus, oxidize quickly but larger ones, such as musk, are known to last for days. An individual’s body chemistry determines how a fragrance will perform on human skin.

For every person it is different, but generally, scents lasts longer on moist skin rather than dry.

What Are The Steps Involved In Perfume Making?

Whether artisan or novice, the process is more or less the same. It is that extra dash of panache, supreme skill and timeless artistry that makes the difference between an okay perfume and a masterpiece.

The following represent the progression of creating a fine perfumes.

The Creative Inspiration

Although Mark Twain once remarked that writing was “10% inspiration and 90% perspiration”, in creating perfume, inspiration is more rewarding.

It can come rather quickly; a certain place; a certain mood or like that old song, a certain smile. It can also arise from other art forms such as music, literature or painting.

On a professional level, perfumers are often inspired by fragrance briefs and a particular company’s vision, which always requires significant research.

Note Collection And Definitions

The concept of the fragrance itself usually defines some of the notes, but the perfumer must decide which ones will provide the main theme and structure of the scent and which should be used as supporting notes.

This can be complicated because many notes are created with accords that contain diverse ingredients.

Collecting the elements that will be used is often decided by placing drops of ingredients onto paper blotter strips, which are known as moullettes.

The strips are fanned out so that each can be separately discerned by sniffing all the combinations and ultimately deciding which to use.

The Methods of Extraction Of Essential Oils

There are several methods used to extract essential oils. They are as follows.

1. Steam Distillation - This is a multi-stage process in which steam permeates the plant material, which transforms essential oils into gas, which is then cooled and liquified. The mixture is then collected and condensed so that two distinct layers of oil and water form. Steam distillation is often preferred when the plant substance has a higher boiling point than water, or when the material can't be heated to that specific temperature.?
2. Solvent Extraction - This method involves the application of heat via solvent that is used to separate a liquid mixture containing two or more substances.
3. Boiling Essential Oils - Perhaps the cheapest and simplest of all methods, this entails boiling a kettle of water and then carefully releasing some essential oils into it. There are two ways to to extract essential oils from plants using boiling. They include: hydrodistillation, which involves adding enough water to a container with plant material and boiling it, and water distillation for more delicate plant materials. With this method, oils are submerged in boiling water to protect them from overheating. The liquids separate and remaining water can be reused for other purposes. It is important to note that adding oil to water?does not significantly alter its boiling point, which is stabilized mostly at 100°C (212°F). Due to their diverse molecular properties, the oil and water separate into two separate layers with the oil floating on top. Chemically, this means that the water is interacting with itself and not with the boiling temperature.

The Process Of Blending Perfume Oils

Once the oils have been extracted, they are blended together.?An effective combination is usually comprised of 30% top notes, 50% middle notes, and 20% base notes.

Top or head notes are often citrusy or sweet and disappear quickly, middle or heart notes provide a warm, stable fragrance, and the dry down lasts the longest and completes the fragrance.

Writing The Initial Formula Of A Perfume

Methods vary from perfumer to perfumer. Some envision the whole?process and write everything down at once.

Others work carefully on individual scents and then tie them together one at a time.

Accords are usually added later in a formula and are worked on separately. Measurements are calculated in weight (grams) rather than volume (drops or ml) because weight is more accurate and can be easily adjusted for large batches.

Most perfumers utilize their own spreadsheet format for writing down their formulas, which are tailored to their specific methodology.

The spreadsheets calculate the weight percentage of each ingredient based on specified concentrations and amounts.

They are usually written for a total of 1000 grams (1kilo) but once the percentages are established, they can be easily adjusted to any desired amount.

Weighing Out The First Trial Formulation

Small batches begin the process of at least some of the diluted ingredients

because they conserve ingredients and save money, which is always needed to create many trial versions that are known as mods (modifications).

Our chemists always pre-dilute ingredients because even with a small amount of 10-30 grams, a single drop of some elements could be too much.

Aldehydes, for example, are always used in very small portions.

Despite many industrial advancements that provide sophisticated machines that weigh formulas and labs assistants who are always there to help, many master perfumers prefer to create these modifications by hand themselves.

The First Perfume Skin Test

Each time a formula is tested, the results must be measured on both skin and /or on paper scent strips.

After sniffing, ingredient amounts are adjusted and some new ones may be added or others removed (or both).

Every mod requires several tests, and sometimes a day or two away to keep the nose fresh might be necessary. Many perfumes work on two or more scents at a time to keep their noses free and clear.

Creating More Mods, Testing, And Feedback

There are no shortcuts to fine perfume creation, and this part of the process is exactly the same for novice, artisan and master perfumer.

One sentence fragment says it all: much patience and many, many trials. Successive modifications follow by testing on both skin and paper and then comparing them to other mods to determine the best of the lot.

At this point, perfumers will often consult the opinions (noses) of others.

This can take a while and usually includes: the opinions of professional evaluators, clients and /or creative directors.

This is a vital step because each person’s nose, skin and preferences are unique.

Feedback can be challenging and often conflicting about whether there should be more or less of a specific note or notes.

The perfumer must then make an executive decision after considering the suggested input and adjust the formula so that it will work for as many people as possible without deviating from the desired general concept.

Final Modification And Formula Adjustment

It can be difficult to finally decide when the perfume is done; it is not easy to relinquish an artistic dream. The desire to tinker and do more must always be quelled.

Eventually, suggestions from professionals will win out when a perfumer determines that the scent has met its goals and has a unique appeal.

The next hurdle is adjusting the formula to production size. The ingredients listed on the spreadsheet must conform to concentrations of 100% so that the result will be a nearly alcohol-free concentrate.

The alcohol is then added, enlarging the concentrate and enabling more efficiency than working with dilutions.

A few final mods usually follow in which small trial sizes with different portions of alcohol are added in search of the final desired concentration.

Regulatory Paperwork Involved With Perfume Creation

In countries requiring regulatory paperwork, once a formula has been established and before the scent can be released for sale, it must pass a product safety assessment, receive a certificate of IFRA compliance, and be registered.

Modifications could be required, and to prevent that, perfumers specifically formulate their scents with these specifications in mind.

Batching, Aging And Macerating

At this point, the perfumer weighs out a large, production-size cluster, which must age in a cool, dark place for a few weeks up to a month before being diluted.

This maturation process usually occurs after the alcohol is added to the formulation, after which the aging state becomes known as maceration.

This can last for a few weeks and allows for the slow and even blending of ingredients, which ultimately creates a unified pleasing scent.

Methods of maturing and macerating vary from perfumer to perfumer and can also be modified from one fragrance to another.

Filtering

This next step involves removing unprocessed elements that stockpile from natural substances like resins.

Freezing or refrigerating ingredients first for a short period of time just before filtering keeps the particulates together, as they can be released if the fragrance is subjected to low temperatures.

The Bottling And Release Of Fragrances

As soon as the fragrance has gone through all of the above steps, which takes months to accomplish, the perfume is ready to be released.

This last stage coupled with the first; namely, inspiration, are the most exciting because they symbolize reward and accomplishment and are shared with all who contributed to the final product.

In Conclusion

The process of bringing a perfume from concept to production and to market requires a significant investment of time, money, energy and patience.

In the end, it can be an ebullient experience for the perfumer, creative team, and their ultimate target, happy consumers.