What is the Perfume Project?

This blog is a constantly evolving forum for thoughts on perfume, perfume-making, plants (especially orchids and flora of the Pacific Northwest) and life in general. It started out chronicling the adventures of Olympic Orchids Perfumes, established in July 2010, and has expanded in other directions. A big part of the blog is thinking about the ongoing process of learning and experimentation that leads to new perfumes, the exploration of perfumery materials, the theory and practice of perfume making, the challenges of marketing perfumes and other fragrance products, and random observations on philosophy and society. Spam comments will be marked as such and deleted; any comments that go beyond the boundaries of civil discourse will also be deleted. I am grateful to all of you, the readers, who contribute to the blog by commenting and making this a truly interactive perfume project.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

REVELATION: WHAT IS TOO MUCH INFORMATION?


A while back I wrote about some of the elephants that chronically lounge around in the perfume community’s living room and occasionally go on a rampage, stomping around the blogosphere. I don’t think this particular one’s been active lately, but I started thinking about it last Sunday morning when I was taking pictures of my newly upgraded work area, thinking that I’d post them here. I probably will, but in the meantime I got distracted with the philosophical question of how much perfumers should reveal about who they are, where they work, the ways they work, and what they put in the bottles that consumers buy.

Judging by traditional perfume advertising campaigns, consumers want to believe that perfumers are glamorous beings who don’t engage in any of the mundane things normal people do, but instead live an unimaginably glamorous life in splendid palaces when they’re not flitting around the globe on their yacht in search of exotic new scents like angel breath, thousand year old oud trees, fresh morning dew on jet-black orchid petals, and odorless male pheromones that will hypnotize women (or men). These are the minority of consumers who are actually aware that perfumes are created by perfumers, although they may well confuse the “creative director” whose name is on the perfume with the actual perfumers who are employed by that person to make the fragrances. I suppose the majority of consumers want to believe that perfumes are actually made by their favorite celebrity or somehow spontaneously generated in the hands of a perfect, glowingly photoshopped model, who spends all her (or his) time faking self-induced orgasms with a perfume bottle. Often she's in pink or red, he's in blue or black. Keep reading. You'll see his picture, too. It just didn't fit the space here. 

Real perfumers eat, sleep, go grocery shopping, and do all of the same things that consumers do. Instead of flitting around the globe, we flit around the internet trying to find the best Boswellia carteri essential oil (aka frankincense) or fossilized hyraceum excrement (aka Africa stone) at the most economical price. We weigh and measure chemicals, filter solutions, and some of us even wash our own glassware. Do consumers really want to know this? Should we talk about such things in the blogs that we use to document our thoughts and our lives?

Traditional perfume advertising completely ignores the fact that perfumes have to be created in a lab atmosphere. The ads and the hype would have us believe that if perfumes are created at all, it happens in elegant, spacious showrooms complete with plush carpets, chandeliers, vases of flowers, relaxing music, and sparkling crystal shelves, or in a magic, fairy-tale kingdom from a children's story. Each precious bottle of perfume is prepared specially for each consumer by other-worldly blonde fairies in spotless, flowing, designer lab coats, who generate sparkling, rainbow-colored bubbles whenever they mix the magical ingredients together.

Do consumers really want to know that we indies wear ratty sweats while we work in dark, cramped spaces with messy-looking shelves of unmatched bottles and geeky equipment that looks like it belongs in a molecular biology lab? Or at the other end, do consumers want to know that the magic potion they pin their fantasies on came out of a dark, ugly, scary-looking factory, maybe a sweatshop in a third-world country, or a sterile, mechanized factory that produces thousands or millions of identical bottles, untouched by human hands, let alone pretty fairies? Probably not.

Maybe the biggest issue has to do with the contents of the bottle. Traditionally, perfume formulas are proprietary secrets, like a chef’s recipe, which makes sense given that they can’t be copyrighted. Advertising traditionally lists fantasy notes that may or may not have a lot to do with how the fragrance smells. People’s olfactory systems are so suggestible that they can usually find a note if they’re told it’s in the perfume. It doesn’t actually have to be there. They’ll perceive the promised angel skin, fresh morning dew, black orchid nectar, odorless pheromones, star dust, or rubber car tires simply because they expected to. Ads promise sex appeal, self-confidence, happiness, and the lifestyle of the rich and famous, all in a bottle. Should we, as perfumers, burst those ephemeral bubbles of harmless deception by talking about what we actually do?

For me as a perfumer and a blogger, it’s always a dilemma how much to reveal. With any art form there arises the question of whether knowledge about its creation process interferes with instinctive, gut-level appreciation of the art. Does detailed knowledge of music theory or technique make you less appreciative of the emotional effects of music? As a consumer, does knowing the technical details of how perfume is made render you less appreciative of its emotional effects and less likely to enjoy the imagery and fantasies that fragrance evokes?

For me, knowing the details may make me more critical of technically mediocre work, but when I hear a moving piece of music or smell an evocative perfume, the effect is just as strong as if I had no knowledge of the technical details. In fact, maybe it’s stronger because I’m aware of the imagination and skill that went into the creation of the art. It’s even more surprising when something that seems like technically mediocre work has a strong emotional effect or a technical masterpiece leaves me cold.

I know the answers to these questions are going to be different for each person, but it would be interesting to hear readers’ thoughts on whether knowing the details of how perfumes are made interferes with, or even ruins, the illusions and fantasies that perfume creates. Leave a comment and you’ll be entered in a drawing for a 5-ml parfum spray of the Olympic Orchids fragrance of your choice. 

[Revelation painting from Bamberg, 11th century. Perfume ads were all taken from various internet sources. I assume that no one minds given that negative or dubious attention is better than none at all.] 

8 comments:

  1. It is very hard when one is an avid blog reader not to be pre exposed to the inside(insider) stories about a forthcoming release.I try not to judge the result when I smell the perfume en vrai but the back story recited by the salesperson coupled with the pre read facts do dim the surprise quotient a tad..I try not to do that for main releases mostly because I can judge for myself ..On the other hand, I do love trying out indie perfumers from all over the world who blog(or not) and as since I have zero direct access to sniff them before purchasing(I am not making an apology for blind purchasing) , the anticipation created by reading about the development, the naming process,etc etc does make the scent more special as you feel part of its genesis.

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    1. Yash, I'm glad you like to read about the process of making perfumes and naming them. I feel the same way you do, enjoying the interaction with the people who will sample and wear the perfumes. It makes the process more special for me, too!

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  2. A lot of studies have been done (I don't have them on the tip of my tongue but I could look them up) on how highly trained musicians perceive, process and respond to music. The consensus seems to be that those with no training or just a little respond to music emotionally while those with extensive training are at once emotional and analytical. I have been studying music for 58 years and teaching and writing music since 1975. I can never just relax and listen anymore but so what! I do have a much greater understanding of what I listen to and the joy, while not so much emotional as appreciative and creative, is still there. I can still enjoy the imagery or emotion of music and at the same time analyze it and have fun figuring out how the composer was able to manipulate the perceptions and feelings of the audience. Personally I believe the more I know about how something is made the more I appreciate it. I believe the mystery and the beauty of an art is not so much in the creation but in the perception. The more I understand the broader my perception can be.

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    1. Gail, The question you answer is one that the students always bring up in my psychology of music class. Some of them are afraid that if they learn any music theory they won't be able to enjoy music any more.

      I enjoy perfume in a very different way than I would if I knew nothing about the theory and technique of making it. I'm sure my tastes have changed continuously and continue to change as a result of the learning process.

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  3. I agree with Gail. The appreciation is there as you learn about an art form (for me it's been painting), but it is quite different from the appreciation you have when you're totally ignorant of the "how-to"! As far as learning about perfumery, I was glad when, a few years back, blogs started writing about the actual perfumers. Then around 2010 things got really carried away with a lot of press about "rock star perfumers"- things have calmed down a little now, and hopefully will stay that way. I like learning about my favorite perfumers, and how they work, but not to the extent that I need to know what their favorite movie is, and what they eat for breakfast on Sundays! ;-)

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    1. Marla, I'm glad to hear that you like to hear about the process of making perfume. I think there's a fine line between educating the public, providing interesting and entertaining material for knowledgeable readers, and going into unnecessary detail, whether it be technical or about the perfumer's lifestyle. It's a hard balance to find, and one that I'm constantly searching for.

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  4. Having dabbled in perfume making for a few years now, and being a regular reader of the perfuming making group, I'm pretty well aware of the process. It's changed my perception of and reaction to perfumes some- when I see an ad for a new perfume saying "Essential oil of night blooming jasmine" I immediately start my rant about there being no such thing, and that the company is full of it, and that tends to turn me against the product. (I was already well aware of what advertisers are trying to do with celebrity endorsers, so learning about perfume didn't change in that area) But that doesn't stop me from having a visceral reaction to perfumes when I smell them. 'Coco' still seems incredibly fresh but sophisticated; the original 'Fendi' still is the 'richest'(expensive seeming) scent I've ever smelled. Anytime I smell a scent with oud & frankincense I hear camel bells and feel a hot wind. I don't think anything can stop that, at least with me.

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  5. laurie, I agree that knowing everything about how perfume is made and marketed doesn't keep me from having a visceral reaction to fragrances, along with my own unique imagery. I'm glad to see that there's another original "Fendi" fan out there! I treasure my tiny bottle of it. I should haul it out and wear it from time to time.

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