From the Fragrance Frontlines - Day 1 1/2: Sperm Whales, Donna Karan, and Virgins, Oh My!

by Sarah Cristobal (Subscribe to Sarah Cristobal's posts)
Posted May 20th 2009 at 12:00PM

Senior Fashion Editor Sarah Cristobal is on assignment this week in France to discover what goes into creating the world's top fragrances. Read her daily blogs as she travels to perfumeries in Paris and Grasse, and dutifully observes the ooh la la of French culture.

A lot has happened since my first dispatch. The IFF tour was amazing! Oh, the things one can learn about the origins of our favorite fragrances. Here are some interesting -- and rather surprising -- facts:

I am not a one-fragrance kind of gal, but Balmain's Ambre Gris is one of the favorites in my arsenal of scents. In terms of fashion, the label is currently the chicest on the market, but who knew that

Balmain's Ambre Gris, a.k.a. Eau de Sperm Whale?

Balmain's latest odour (launched in 2008) is based on the rarefied excretions of the sperm whale? The mammal is a squid eater -- bones and all -- and when the skeleton is broken down in the whale's body it is eventually compacted to about the size of a football. By the time it is passed, the crush of bones is so light that it floats on the water. Apparently, oil extraction from this extremely pricey commodity smells horrid at first but eventually transforms into a sweet earthy musk. Tres chic!

The two main perfumeries in France are IFF and Givaudan. Together they account for the creation of most of the world's fine scents. In order to win a bid on a scent, the perfumers (or "noses") are presented with a brief by an intermediary on behalf of a production and branding company such as Unilever or Coty, Inc. Teams of perfumers then compete both internally and against outside perfumers to come up with the scent that best represents the label or celebrity for which the brief was created. Whomever wins the brief takes all, and the rest are out of luck. Can you believe doing all of that legwork and then not getting paid? Insiders say that it's considered an extremely outdated model, even among top fragrance brass.

Luckily individual perfumes consist of roughly 50 ingredients rather than just one (even trendy Balmain would have trouble marketing Eau de Whale Poo). At any given time, the "noses" start with about 2,000 notes and then whittle their way down through process of elimination. The rule of thumb is, "if you don't smell it, it's out." A rose, for example, already has a complex formula in its DNA of about 50 or so salvageable natural ingredients.

If you don't have it, fake it! Headspace technology, a common practice in which a covetable scent source is hermetically sealed underneath a glass container and then gases are emitted and analyzed so that their compound structure can be replicated, doesn't just stop at the whale's body business. Donna Karan based her first men's scent (1994's DK Men) on her husband's natural musk after applying headspace technology to his neck! Also not spared over the years? Bank notes and....virgins. The former was deemed too chemical while the latter was an exercise in futility after a young celibate's lower belly failed to produce anything worth bottling. Yeah, we can just see how that marketing pitch would work. "Hello, Madonna? It's the "Nose." Look, we're going to need the rights to that song of yours, 'Like a Virgin.'"

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