Composing a natural fragrance

Composing a natural fragrance is a totally different approach from “writing” a synthetic one.

It is important to understand that a natural perfume is not constructed by the nose but by the brain, because a perfume is a message and natural notes have meanings in the olfactory language. A brain able to think with smells is what a perfumer acquires by living with perfumes.

The perfumer who uses natural materials is working with olfactory archetypes. Smells are manifestations of the archetypes from which they originate and which they represent. For example, pine is the olfactory archetype of all trees, rose of flowers, and cinnamon of spices. Each of these odors is part of our lives and has been recorded in our olfactory memory, associated with emotions we have experienced or inherited congenitally from our ancestors.

Natural ingredients are the true archetype; they have the greatest emotional impact. Chemical notes used in modern perfumery are poor substitutes.

In literature, the Odyssey, The Little Prince, and The Old Man and the Sea are based on archetypes. To make perfumes with olfactory archetypes, the same rules as in literature must be followed. It is necessary to build a very simplified structure for the story, which must remain visible from the beginning to the end.

In “writing” a natural perfume, where the notes themselves are far more complex than the single molecules used in commercial perfumery and are so laden with evocative power, the first error to absolutely avoid is drowning the main accord, the structure, in details until they hide it.

However, the worst thing of all would be to start without a clear idea, that is, without a main accord and without a structure. The structure of a natural fragrance is the main accord.

The simplest natural fragrance will always consist of more aromatic molecules than any commercial perfume.

This inherent complexity of natural materials makes it necessary to pay close attention to discipline when composing with them. Each note must make sense within the realm of olfactory language because each odor will participate in the story we want to tell, in the idea we want to manifest.

Otherwise, we shall make an incoherent soup, certainly very nutritious but unattractive except to a very hungry customer. Simplification, purification, structuration, not losing sight of the original idea, not cheating to please others or one’s ego, and finally knowing when it is time to stop. That’s the way to do it.
This is the method.

Method means discipline, and discipline must necessarily preside over the composition of a natural perfume, or else inspiration will be misled. In the same way, life is like composing a perfume; without inner discipline presiding over one’s own life, our aspirations will be misled.