Perfume Blog

When did perfume lose its scent? Choosing a fragrance has become less about aroma and more about celebrity endorsements, with Britons queuing up for a spritz of Jade Goody or eau de Jordan. In the midst of an economic slump, celebrity-scent sales have risen by a whopping 2000% since 2004. Even Chanel is more celebrated for marketing than notes, with its multimillion pound Baz Luhrmann-directed ad, the Keira Knightley campaign that triggered a Vogue fashion spread and speculation on how much Emma Watson will earn as the face of Coco Mademoiselle. And when Prada’s Infusion d’Homme launched with a bang recently there was a 500-strong party, but barely a handful of scent samples to go around.

But one brand is trying to put the fume back in perfume: L’Artisan Parfumeur, a high-end fragrance house that retails in a handful of boutiques internationally. “High profile celebrity endorsements are contrary to our policy. It’s the scent that lingers with you every day that matters to us, rather than saying, ‘if you wear this perfume, you’ll look or smell like this individual,’” explains Paméla Roberts, creative director. Celebrity culture is less prevalent in France than in the US or UK, but Paméla is quick to add, “One mustn’t be dogmatic, of course. Fragrance is for pleasure. Our way is to let you choose what you feel like, according to the seasons, the mood, the ennui of the moment.”

Her words appear to be more than empty marketing jargon. Arriving at L’Artisan Parfumeur for the launch of new fragrance Fleur de Liane (to be released next October), the store transports you back to the simple elegance of perfume houses in pre-eighteenth century France. Its front is glass and the shop is stripped back and drenched with sunlight, all polished pale woods and rows of old-fashioned bottles. The bottles are heavy glass with neat straight contours, inscribed gold lids and italic typeface. “They were redesigned last year,” Paméla tells me, “to make them more luxurious through the little details.”

When Jean Laporte opened L’Artisan in 1976, he had a very precise idea about what he wanted. And that idea was new to France and to the great traditions of the other perfumeries. It was devoted to both personal and home fragrances, which hadn’t been common practice since the eighteenth century. If you ignore the birdcalls and distracting jungle sound effects - complete with makeshift rainforest installed for the Panama theme of the new scent - you could almost be in the original 1976 store. There’s no trace of brash celebrity culture and not a single aquamarine bottle or diamante in sight.

But what’s really different about L’Artisan Parfumeur is its attitude. “No other brand or perfume inspired L’Artisan,” says Paméla. “It was so unique and took a different direction altogether.” Here, perfumes aren’t distinguished by day or night, age, culture, season or even gender boundaries. Each scent is a story. They’re titled, (mostly in French) as if Ladybird classics. The process of choosing which to buy is more like stepping into Mr Benn’s changing room than Debenhams. Self consciousness aside, standing in store, eyes closed, smelling white muslin infused with the pure fragrances before alcohol is added, you can see the logic in the titles. Timbuktu carries a waft of African market, all peppery and incense-licked with wet mangoes and spices. Thé Pour un Eté is like afternoon tea in the orient with a slug of jasmine tea and a dash of mint. Then comes a more sickly sweet afternoon tea closer to home than China, peppered with spiced cakes (Tea for Two), followed by errr… a soapy meadow, perhaps? “That one’s chasing butterflies in a field of orange blossom.” Some are more popular with men than women - Fou d’Absinthe, which recreates that feeling of hot, burning liqueur slipping down your throat, is particularly masculine, but not exclusively.

The most unusual, though, is Dzing! “It’s inspired by childhood nostalgia, trips to the circus,” explains Paméla. “Shaped by that linger of leather and sand mixed with wood chippings… and black panther. We had some trips to the zoo, to smell the big cats,” she laughs. “Small cats smell freshest but of the big cats, the black panther smells most clean. It’s a process of discovery.” The leather notes recur through many of the L’Artisan lines and are oddly wearable. More mainstream recurring notes are the woody ones, the greens and bouquets reflecting the recurring theme of nature, running through all L’Artisan scents. “I personally tend to avoid very strong marine notes that have traces of oyster,” says Paméla, but quickly adds that she constantly experiments.

Ingredients are sourced all over the world: “Some citruses are from Sicily and Northern Europe. But the jasmine, for example, comes from all over. There’s a particularly rare species from France, some from Morocco, Italy and all over India. But the story always comes first, before the fragrance itself,” explains Paméla.

Paméla won’t share her personal favourites. “I can’t possibly wear perfume any more. I sample and test so many each day, I don’t have an inch of skin left that’s not covered.” Before she joined L’Artisan, though, she wore Guerlain and Chanel (No 19). Her first fragrance was Hermès, a present “because I love horses.” So those perfume houses are your inspirations? “No,” she corrects me, ever so softly, “perfumes don’t inspire. They are simply works of art, quite simply - fantastique.”

read comments (0)

The Paris Commercial Court struck a blow against consumer choice in its recent eBay decision. Most of the commentary on the June 30 judgment has focused on eBay’s status as an electronic auction house and on the issue of counterfeit products. What has been overlooked is the anticompetitive and anticonsumer nature of the court’s decision.

In its ruling the court promotes a restrictive form of retailing, known as selective distribution, over all other considerations — even to the point of being willing to undermine real competition in the market. EBay will be locked out of the French perfume market, to the detriment of consumers and market competition.

The Paris Commercial Court has a reputation as one of the great commercial courts of Europe, so its eBay judgment could reverberate across the European Union. But other courts should have a very close look at the judgment before choosing to follow in its wake.

EBay was condemned for infringing the selective distribution systems of French perfume brands such as LVMH, Dior, Kenzo, Givenchy and Guerlain. These companies each select a limited number of distributors with the know-how to look after their perfume products. EBay, by contrast, provided another means for consumers to buy these products. The Paris judges ordered eBay to stop allowing the sale of these perfume brands on its auction site and to pay damages amounting to €40 million.

Selective or specialized distribution systems can benefit consumers. In the case of complex electronic products or products with safety issues, it makes sense to ensure that knowledgeable staff are on hand to help consumers. What makes less sense, but was accepted by the European Court of Justice in the 1996 Leclerc perfume cases, is the idea that specialized distribution systems should also apply to luxury products so that an appropriate “aura of luxury” can be maintained.

Yet the European Court of Justice also recognized that such specialized distribution systems could be anticompetitive if no room is left for any other form of distribution. It further allowed that selective distribution can lead to price rigidity across the market or make it easier for the brand owners and distributors to fix prices.

In the eBay judgment, however, selective distribution systems can do no wrong. The right of the brand owners to their specialized networks prevailed over every other consideration. A very disturbing feature of the judgment is the court’s argument that branded quality perfumes could be sold only through distribution systems which brand owners control. There was no recognition that EU law permits other forms of lawful sales. For instance, it is perfectly legal to buy branded perfume products from other member states and bring them into France, or for French consumers to simply resell the products themselves.

It is particularly surprising that a French court would ignore the dangers that stem from selective distribution in the branded perfume sector. It was only in 2006 that most of the plaintiffs in the eBay suit were fined for price-fixing by the French Competition Commission. The perfume makers in that case had threatened to remove their brands from their chosen retailers if those retailers did not keep prices high. The perfume makers also struck deals with national retail chains to ensure there was little or no price competition among the vendors or the perfume houses. In all the price-fixers were fined €46.2 million.

It is also instructive to compare the Paris ruling with the recent decision of a U.S. federal court in New York in Tiffany v. eBay. Internet hosts such as eBay have a responsibility to take down illegal products, such as counterfeit jewelry items, where they are notified. The Paris and New York cases both raised the issue of eBay’s broader legal responsibility for illegal products appearing on its Web site. The U.S. court recognized the extent to which any marketplace host can be responsible for the behavior of sellers. While eBay was required to remove counterfeits when notified, the U.S. court ruled, it was ultimately the trademark owner’s responsibility to police its trademark. By contrast, the Paris court held that eBay is liable for the behavior of sellers. The French judges were even willing to sidestep EU legislation which gives Internet hosts a degree of legal immunity.

The hosting issue reinforces the impression of a court that is unwilling to grapple with the complexities of e-commerce and which responds by imposing blanket liabilities on disruptive commercial outsiders.

Aside from the anticompetitive dangers of selective distribution and the hosting rules, illustrated by the French Competition Commission’s ruling, there is the broader issue of why selective distribution should apply to “luxury products.” Is an “aura of luxury” something that consumers really value? The entire thrust of modern EU competition law is that selective distribution is suspect, and that any special regime has to be able to substantively justify any restriction on the grounds of consumer value. It’s unlikely that any selective distribution system for perfume can make that case.

Even for products for which selective distribution could more easily be justified, such as motor vehicles — which are very complex and present a high level of safety concerns linked to their manufacture and maintenance — Brussels has recently put forward a strong consumer case for abolishing the specialized distribution rules which apply to that very complex mechanical product. If motor vehicles do not need their own special distribution rules, can we justify permitting brand owners to control the distribution of perfume via a small specialized network?

Brussels must consider urgently whether it should intervene directly in the appeal in the eBay case to keep the judgment from undermining competition in branded-products sectors across Europe. It also needs to include in its coming review of vertical distribution regime whether the rights of selective distributors need to be cut back to maximize consumer choice and consumer value.

Mr. Riley is a professor at City Law School in London and an associate research fellow at the Center for European Policy Studies.

read comments (0)

The Emporio Armani Red perfumes for men and women raise an interesting question: when it comes to perfume, can you smell ethical?

These perfumes are part of the Red campaign that channels part of the profits from products bearing the symbol into aid for African women and children with HIV/AIDS. The packaging is environmentally friendly, the red graphics are by the Ghanaian artist Owusu-Ankomah and money goes to an impeccable cause.

Other thoughts linger, far longer than the strongest scent, however. Given that these and most perfumes contain mostly synthetic ingredients, does that make them more, or less, ethical?

Synthetic scent molecules have been poured into revolutionary fragrances from Chanel, Guerlain and Christian Dior since the perfumery business kicked into high gear in the 1920s and ’30s.

In the late-19th century, volatile solvents were used to extract materials from ground plants for bottled scents. As Jean-Claude Ellena writes in his recently published handbook, Perfume: “By the end of the 1930s, the major synthetic products used today had been discovered … Today one-third of my collection [of materials] consists of natural products and two-thirds of synthetic products.” This from the man who is the nose of Hermes, a company not shy of using expensive ingredients.

Top-grade natural materials such as rose and jasmine are expensive to harvest and harder to find. As for ingredients such as ambergris or civet or musk, which used to be extracted painfully and often fatally from animals, a perfume maker would no sooner use a threatened species than hunt a Siberian tiger.

“It has become impossible to continue to use rare and endangered species,” says Frank Breen, the managing director of Australian distributor Cosmax, who has a raft of prestige perfume in his portfolio, including Bulgari, Issey Miyake, Lanvin and Van Cleef & Arpels.

“Civet, for example, nobody today would use civet; I don’t know of any fragrance that [uses natural] musk, they use synthetics. They don’t use [natural] ambergris any more. There are fragrance makers who will tell you they no longer wish to use any form of natural product that is endangered or too difficult to distil. [Perfume] is essentially a harvested product or a synthetic.”

Economics and ethics have stopped endangered species from turning up in perfume formulas. Still, there’s a romance about natural ingredients. A scent molecule extracted from the natural environment is regarded more sympathetically than a scent molecule created in an artificial environment - and somehow seen as, well, instantly more ethical.

Four years ago, a boutique Californian perfume maker captured press coverage by claiming that it “uses extracts from organically farmed plants and flowers from all corners of the world including davana from India, rose from Bulgaria and Turkey, vanilla from Madagascar, citrus from Brazil, spices from east African and orris from Albania”.

Nothing is mentioned about the conditions under which people produced these ingredients, the notion of fair trade or the distances they’ve travelled. Australians buy these US or European-manufactured luxuries with massive carbon kilometres tacked on to them.

Then there is the impact of harvesting these crops. Sandalwood oil comes from a tropical hardwood tree, Santalum album, which grows mainly in Asia and the Indian subcontinent. This soothing, warm oil has been in such high demand by the fragrance and aromatherapy industries that illegal harvesting and processing are rife.

Indonesian and Indian sandalwood forests have been ravaged, production has plummeted and prices have skyrocketed, reaching a high of $US1700 ($1773) a kilogram, before dropping back to $US1250 in February.

The world’s major fragrance manufacturers, Givaudan, IFF, Firmenich and Robertet, “delisted” Indian sandalwood and refused to buy it.

Ironically, this lamentable situation has benefited a burgeoning business in Western Australia. Mount Romance grows plantation sandalwood and processes the exotic hardwood into oil. The Albany company has penetrated the global luxury market, securing contracts with the world’s largest suppliers of perfume [see box].

As Kim Bleimann, president of Berje, a supplier of essential oils to the perfume industry, said last year: “We have not met a perfumer who could substitute it [Australian sandalwood oil] per se. But it is being used in conjunction with the myriad synthetic sandalwood chemicals, quite successfully, replacing the real thing probably forever.”

So how dangerous are synthetic processes and materials? Every molecule that comes out of a fragrance laboratory goes through toxicology tests and has to comply with regulations set by the Australian cosmetics regulator, the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme.

Then there is the controversial Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals legislation passed by the European Parliament in 2005 which has banned 26 fragrance allergens.

The British organisation Cropwatch has been campaigning for some years to reverse the “26 allergens” legislation, founded as it is on “bad science”. Tony Burfield, from Cropwatch and the Natural Perfumers Guild, maintains that not all 26 bear the same risk and cites studies that criticise the European Commission for treating them all as equal.

It’s not only the synthetics that cause these reactions, so do natural materials. Sixteen of the 26 banned materials also occur in complex biological substances. Oakmoss, for instance, has been replaced by lookalike laboratory-generated molecules, causing a furore among perfume fans who value its enigmatic presence in the classics.

The furore goes beyond olfactory aesthetics. The battle lines are drawn between various competing interests in the aroma industry, from toxicologists to the aromatherapy practitioners. This legislation affects even manufacturers of natural products. No brand boasting of its clean green credentials wants to list chemical names such as linalool and citral on the label of a product that claims to be natural.

As Helen Feygin, head of Intuiscent, an independent US fragrance developer, wrote in the online trade magazine Perfumer & Flavorist: “This alone eliminates a whole range of essential oils from the perfumer’s palette. Even if the ingredient is a natural constituent of the oil, it needs to be listed.”

It doesn’t help that the perfume industry is as secretive as Opus Dei, guarding its formulas and never bound to full disclosure.

Look at the box from your favourite fragrance (the bottle is unsullied by chemical names). Words such as citronellol, geraniol, ethylhexyl salicylate, hexyl cinnamyl, red 33 CI 60730 and blue 1 CI 42090 will appear. But the list will be incomplete. There is the mysterious word “parfum”.

This is legal under the EU Cosmetics Regulation. The European Cosmetic, Toiletry and Perfumery Association says it would be impractical to list the hundreds of constituents of a cosmetic product. It argues these ingredients are present only in low concentrations and, as the specific fragrance allergens are listed, this is enough.

All of which dovetails very nicely with the other reality: a list of chemicals and percentages on the side of a bottle would destroy the mystique and the romance of the perfume.

Or would it? Surely sophisticated consumers are savvy enough to know how their smell is concocted.

There is also the fear of copycats and counterfeits in a business that never deals in less than millions of dollars. High-tech laboratories and a booming fake trade have already made that a reality.

No wonder that not one major perfume house has yet taken the plunge and gone for complete transparency in its labelling like the food companies, though there is an interesting marketing ploy from Prada.

The iconoclastic brand’s latest offering, Infusion d’Iris, has a label pasted on the side of its bottle that reads like a combination of a travelogue and ingredients list. Ultimately, however, we are no wiser, merely entranced.

The scent of local success

THE devastation of the Indian and Asian sandalwood forests has had an unforeseen benefit for a West Australian business called Mount Romance.

Dubbed “wooden gold” as prices for the soothing oil soar, Indian sandalwood has seen demand outstrip supply and proved a windfall for Mount Romance’s subsidiary, the Australian Sandalwood Oil Company.

In 1997, the subsidiary renegotiated a contract with the WA Government to harvest wild and plantation trees, and process the wood and export it overseas.

However, until recently, Australian sandalwood was not considered good enough for the fine fragrance industry. The local tree, Santalum spicatum, is a different species to the prized Indian hardwood, Santalum album, and contains lower levels of santalols, the key ingredient.

Where there is a need, there is a way, however. Technological advances in synthetic molecules have successfully combined with the Australian natural oil to mimic the “real thing”.

Mount Romance has secured contracts with five of the six major perfume houses, Givaudan, Quest, Firmenich, Robertet and IFF, the world’s largest suppliers of perfumes, according to David Brocklehurst, the general manager of Mount Romance.

The partnership between Mount Romance and Givaudan is emblematic of the green direction that these companies are heading in.

The Swiss multinational fragrance producer has programs in place to fund sustainable projects for the production of raw materials such as the tonka bean in Venezuela.

Sceptics regard it as greenwash, an exercise in marketing.

There’s no doubt, however, that these companies have to address issues of carbon footprint, packaging, waste reduction, recycling and energy conservation.

“I think that at this point companies want to ensure that if they are ever checked they can show that they are being ethically aware,” Brocklehurst says.

read comments (0)

Find out what’s hot in summer perfumes and get great advice on how to wear your favourite fragrances without falling prey to overpowering scents

Pack up your scarves, cableknits and mukluks, summer’s coming! Oh, and pack up your perfume, too.

Yes, just as it’s time to trade in your heavy winter gear for airy dresses and strappy sandals, it’s time to switch to a lighter summer scent. “We reflect our surroundings through what we wear,” says Sixth Scents’ Marian Bendeth, an internationally known Toronto-based consultant who uses her formidable fragrance expertise to help clients build fragrance wardrobes that fit their personalities and lifestyles.

Bendeth points out that winter is all about dark colours and rich, cosy textures, and that summer is about fresh air, green grass, hot sun, cottage getaways and glowing sunsets. “We have appropriate clothing for those things; it makes sense to have appropriate scents, too.” Here are her tips for smelling scent-sational this summer.

1. Lighten up

Heavier fragrances work better in cold weather than in warm — heat activates the perfume oil to release more scent,” Bendeth explains. As the air warms up, heavy perfume can become overpowering, so consider switching to something lighter.

If you can’t bear to break from those heavier notes, don’t worry: Fragrance lines often include companion products such as shower gels and body lotions, so you can hydrate and scent your skin with your favourites without the intensity of the actual eau de parfum or eau de toilette.

2. Look for summer versions of your faves

“Fragrance companies know you have your favourites and they want to keep you as their customer,” says Bendeth. “Many, like Stella McCartney, Issey Miyake and Jean Paul Gaultier, offer summer editions of their best-sellers, lighter versions that pump up the softer notes and knock back the intensity of others. Some, like Calvin Klein with Eternity, release entirely new scents designed to appeal to a brand’s established consumer.”

3. Let seasonal activities inspire you
Summer is about sipping cool beverages, lounging in the garden, relaxing at the cottage and frolicking at waterfront picnics. “Hold off on incense-inspired, intense vanilla, very sweet florals and sweet fruity fragrances,” advises Bendeth. “Think energizing citrus, fresh white flowers, crisp green, woody or aquatic scents.”

In the citrus family, try Fresh Sugar Lemon or Elizabeth Arden Pure White Linen Light Breeze. If white flowers appeal, try Vera Wang Sheer Veil. Demeter Grass hits the green notes, and Miss Boucheron is a sophisticated woody scent. In the aquatic arena, go for Davidoff Cool Water Woman Freeze Me and L’Eau d’Issey Summer Eau de Toilette.

4. Give up the alcohol
Alcohol in your fragrance isn’t a problem in winter but in the summer, sun exposure plus alcohol can irritate the skin and make the scent smell funny. “Summer scents usually substitute water for the alcohol, so the fragrance will sit lightly on the skin,” says Bendeth. “Because these formulas are so light, you can spritz on a little more — in fact, you can spritz them all over your body.”

5. Avoid extended sun exposure
Yes, this tip is about sun damage — but not as related to SPF. “The sun can react with fragrance to discolour the skin and turn the scent bitter,” Bendeth cautions. “As well, it can attract insects.”

6. Try something a little headier for evening
Sexy and a little naughty certainly works for hot summer nights — Jean Paul Gaultier Classique Summer Fragrance or Ed Hardy Tattoo would turn up the temperature on a dinner date.

Bendeth suggests Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Figue Iris for an indoor rendevouz, and Givenchy Harvest 2007 Organza Jasmine for an evening under the stars. “Just be careful if you’re going to a night-time barbeque,” says Bendeth. “You don’t want to attract bees and mosquitoes!”

7. Um… are there year-round fragrances?
“Of course,” says Bendeth. “Soft florals are always in season, and they’re appropriate for most situations, including work.

Rose is another all-year-long scent, but those tend to be more romantic, more heady, so save those for non-work environments.” If you like soft floral scents, try Celine Dion Sensational or India Hicks Island Living Spider Lily. If you like rose fragrances, try Jo Malone Red Roses, Demeter Bulgarian Rose, Lacoste Dream of Pink or Valentino Rock ‘n Rose Pret a Porter.

Whatever your “scentsibility” (sorry, couldn’t resist), breezy summer scents round out your wardrobe of floaty frocks and kicking-back gear. More than that, they banish the last wretched threads of a most bitter winter — and who doesn’t love that?

read comments (0)