A little trip back in time to the birth of what is probably the most famous fragrance in the world: the Roaring Twenties! The jazz age is sweeping through the first dance clubs of the big cities, women are (re)discovering perfume and Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel presents the world with a fragrance that will be an icon by the time of Marilyn Monroe, if not before: Chanel No.5. To this day it is probably the most popular perfume in the world, with a bottle sold somewhere on the planet every 30 seconds. Timeless for almost 100 years now.
Nosing around.
What actually makes such a brand fragrance so incomparable, how is it put together and who does that at Aromea, anyway? For answers, you have to dive deep into the wondrous and highly complex world of scent. Only the very finest noses can create the greatest fragrances here, the kind the world never forgets. But you don’t have to be a star perfumer to understand a fragrance, because every fragrance composition follows the same trinity of top, heart and base notes. Once you have grasped the system, you will probably perceive every scent experience differently from then on. The magic clef: the fragrance pyramid.
Top note: refreshing.
The top note is the very first impression and forms the tip of the pyramid. It is perceived immediately after the fragrance composition is diffused and comes across as fresh and lively, usually with zesty nuances of mint, grasses, bergamot and citrus. The top note unfolds at once, but it is also the shortest episode of the three scent phases. It “clings” for about 15 minutes, and then it’s straight on from the top down to the heart.
Heart note: floral and aromatic.
The heart note unites all the scents (often as many as 250 individual components!) and reveals the true character of the composition. It only unfolds about a quarter of an hour after the fragrance has entered the air, when the top note has almost evaporated. The middle of the fragrance pyramid is shaped by a harmonising, warming bouquet. A truly floral affair, with notes of jasmine, roses or iris. Honey, fine spices such as anise and vetiver, and sweet berries are also popular ingredients. The heart note is perceptible for the longest and accounts for about 80% of the scent in this “magnum opus” of a creation.
Base note: woody to smoky.
The foundation of the pyramid, and of every fragrance arrangement, consists of low-volatility substances and is barely noticeable on a conscious level. These intense, animal and/or woody aromas (such as musk, sandalwood, patchouli, pine, spruce and Swiss stone pine, but also frankincense, strong spices and vanilla) can still be perceived after many hours (or even days). They round off the fragrance and give it body and lasting power in the nose. The base note also stops the top and heart notes from evaporating too quickly: it more or less “binds” the aromas into a package of scent (technical term: fixative).
Concerto nasale.
Developing a fragrance is a special art. There’s a good reason why creating a fragrance is so often compared with the work of painters, writers or composers. In the nose, a fragrance composition performs a remarkably complex concert, with the individual notes of the pyramid flowing harmoniously into one another. But there are also fragrance creations based on a “vertical or linear composition”. Here, all the nuances of the base note unfold immediately and evenly into an extravagant crescendo. In a linear creation, the cornerstone of the pyramid rises to become the most important aspect of the scent, and it can remain perceptible for up to 24 hours. The base becomes the concluding (rather than supporting) scent phase and steps boldly into the foreground.
Dance of the molecules.
A perfect fragrance composition is defined by the refined interplay of calm, powerful, attractive and seductive notes. A side note: Chanel’s world-famous Number Five was the first to do this with an opulent 1:1:1 accord of the aldehydes C-10 (decanal), C-11 (undecanal) and C-12 (dodecanal). It was created by the French star perfumer at the Russian imperial court, Ernest Beaux. To this day, countless legends surround its secret composition. In fact, it is thought to consist of 31 different fragrance components (keen noses claim that these include ylang-ylang, neroli, tonka bean, May rose, orange blossom and jasmine). A breathtaking complexity that stood in stark contrast to the single floral notes of the typical fin de siècle fragrances of the time.
At Aromea, too, the “scent keys” to the premium fragrance collection are of course a closely guarded secret. But at Aromea’s fragrance headquarters in Klagenfurt, they will at least reveal this much: “Some of the fragrances are composed and supplied by the best noses in the world according to our complex formulas, while others are blended right here in-house from the finest essences. In every case, though, the nose has the last word.” With Aromea, however, words usually fail anyway, because the nose is too busy marvelling at the concert. And if you close your eyes as you listen, you may now even be able to pick out a few individual notes.
The scent composers at Aromea
