Hint of spice

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Hint of spice

Monday, 22 October 2018 | Team Viva

Hint of spice

Fragrances are no longer limited to floral and fruity accents. Notes like coffee, chocolate and more are making their way in. By Team Viva

The source of fragrances has moved from the gardens and woods to the kitchen with gourmand elements like candy, chocolate, vanilla or honey making it into our perfume bottles. While floral and fruity notes have been dominating our olfactory sense for a long time, a wider palette including ingredients like saffron, coffee, edamame or rock salt have seeped in.

“We’ve blended spices, white flowers, oudhs with coffee, gourmet notes and fruity tones to project the right mood and bring out the true Indian essence with a contemporary mix,” said Phillippine Coutiere, perfumer at Firmenich, which is now retailing here.

More and more companies are seeking to go beyond the floral and fruity for summer and warm and spicy for winter. The fragrance notes today sound like shopping lists. Brands like Witness YSL has on its list a Black Opium with a coffee note, while  L’Occitane En Provence’s Arlésienne is saffron-spiked. There are those who are peddling mineral scents for the summer. Companies want to sell luxury in beautiful bottles but the product on offer is as diverse as the market. However, florals are here to stay and most perfumes have floral scents. Experimentation has also led to perfumes with leather and smoky scents. Subtle use of saffron is being attempted in India and it already has a strong presence in the Middle East. While its use is on the rise, it is still a very niche ingredient, perhaps because of how little of it grows in India. Adding rock salt, say experts, increases the nuance but to mention it in the fragrance note is a marketing tactic. Fragrances like green tea are being added in a higher dose in the formulations, no doubt for the same reason. Ingredients like chocolate and candy floss have been used for a long time but in perfumery parlance there is an overdose of it in the fragrances, said Rajiv Sheth, CEO of All Good Scents.

It is believed that gourmet perfumes became famous in 1992 with the creation of Angel, which had chocolate caramel accents and since then tonka beans and vanilla licorice have also made their space in luxury brands like Jean Paul Gaultier. One of the best effects that gourmet perfumes have are in decreasing anxiety rate.

There are other sales pitches too. Seasons have a profound effect on us so it’s good to change your fragrance as they change, feels Manoj Arora, managing director, Sacheerome. “We often seek different sensations from the fragrances we wear depending on the time of year. In autumn, we tend to favour scents that are cocooning and enveloping, and this gives us an opportunity to enjoy the warmth of spices combined with a woody smell or we seek the more sensual pleasures. These ingredients convey the luxuries we favour when the temperature gets colder and the nights darker.”

Another trend that has taken over the West and slowly coming to the East is customisation of the perfume. “Bespoke perfumery is expensive and limited to ocassions in India. For individuals, it has not become popular yet,” said Sheth. Perfumes are genderless, he believes and segregating them for men and women is only a marketing strategy. In his perfumes, he seeks simplicity and quality than complex notes and creates for the modern contemporary Indian. With not enough awareness about perfumery in India, there are those like Sheth who provide master classes and workshops too.

Fragrances are also healing for the body  and the mind. Their influence is not limited to the cosmetic use. For instance, sandalwood and lavender helps to calm down while jasmine helps make a person feel good.

With the global luxury perfume market expected to grow at a Compound annual growth rate of 8.33 per cent during the period 2017-2021 brands are trying to innovate themselves to create experiences, cater to the young crowd that finds appeal in the visual marketing. Since, it is an aspirational product marketing plays a very important part in sales too.

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