THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS

GO WHERE THE ACTION IS

The Sweet Smell

of Success

Lisa Gerard-Sharp

Despite the pall of the pandemic, life is smelling of roses in perfume land. Sales are booming. Even when the world was falling apart, it seemed that a whiff of jasmine or musk could boost our mood - and boost the perfume houses’ billion-dollar balance sheets.

Maison Godet interior © Maison Godet

Virtually all the top fashion brands have jumped on the fragrance bandwagon, either selling their own perfumes or licencing sales to a conglomerate. The sweetest-smelling brands range from Burberry and Bulgari to Gucci and Givenchy, Dior and Chanel. Celebrities are dabbling as “noses,” with perfumes launched by the likes of Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Beyonce. David Beckham swiftly got into the act with Aromatic Greens, a perfume evoking the English countryside. Going even Greener, Billy Eilish has produced a vegan perfume. Creativity and sustainability are the buzzwords, even for celebrities.

The old divide in perfumery used to be between the big brands and the niche players but these distinctions are now blurred. Typically, the niche perfumery maintains its identity while benefiting from global marketing, know-how and investment. What’s more, famous designers often entrust their fragrances to houses with perfumery heritage or licence their fragrances to another global brand.

Despite these turbulent times, the fragrance market is proving resilient. Perfume boasts high profit margins, especially at the premium end, in a booming market worth over $40 billion USD. At Chanel, fragrance and beauty represent over a third of its total $10.1 billion in annual revenues. For Estée Lauder, another iconic heritage brand, fragrance represents sales of just under $2 billion annually. The house owns such brands as Jo Malone but also sells designer fragrances under licence from brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Donna Karan and Ermenegildo Zegna.

Perfume has come a long way since Emperor Nero spritzed his guests with rosewater two thousand years ago. The perfume trail winds from Ancient Egypt to Ancient Greece and Rome. Cleopatra used perfume to seduce Mark Antony, with scented rose-petals leading to bed. In villas in Ancient Rome, fountains flowed with rosewater. The Ancient Greeks concocted rose,

mint and cinnamon scents in Athenian perfume shops and dabbled in animal-based ingredients, musk and ambergris, for the first time. In the royal court of France, Louis XIV demanded a fresh fragrance for every day of the year. Since then, perfumery has been a French-scented affair with `modern’ perfumery linked to both Paris and Provence. Then along came Coco Chanel and Christian Dior, and the rest is history in a bottle.

Fragrance often follows the fashion industry. As in fashion, the fragrance heritage brands ooze the sweet smell of success. Chanel N°5, launched by Coco Chanel in Cannes in 1921, is still the world’s best-selling fragrance. Based on the couturier’s brief to make a perfume that “smells like a woman,” the result is a clean-linen scent steeped in roses and jasmine. Chanel opted for a modern, abstract fragrance, going against the fashion for dominant notes. This classic “less is more” perfume was beloved by Marilyn Monroe, who declared it was all she ever wore in bed.

Dior is another iconic name, even if the house is now part of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods conglomerate. “Make me a perfume that smells like love” was Christian Dior’s command, which resulted in the legendary Miss Dior in 1947.

Model Cara Delevingne in Dior at Dior Millefiori Popup 2021 © Dior

Dior perfumed candles & floral inspiration © Dior

Old postcards flower-picking Grasse © OT Grasse.

Dior recently restored the founder’s Provencal home and created a research centre in Grasse, the world capital of perfumery. Dior’s former home is flanked by jasmine, lilies of the valley, lavender and rose centifolia, the hundred-petalled rose, Dior’s favourite flower. François Demachy, then Dior’s celebrated “nose,” drew inspiration from the spot to create La Colle Noire, a spicy, woody, musky, rose-based fragrance: “The Grasse Rose is unique, spicy, powerful, not overly sweet, with all the raw, sun-drenched beauty of this region.” Fittingly, the local growers’ crops of jasmine and roses are (once again) destined for Dior. Given that perfume profits account for over half Dior’s revenue, heritage-chasing is a smart business move. Even so, what we are really buying into is rose-tinted dreams of the good life, not perfumed lavender beds.

Across the Atlantic, Estée Lauder has proved to be an American heritage brand with staying power. Best-known as a skincare pioneer, Estée Lauder was blessed with a `nose’ for fragrance, and her fame was assured with the launch of Youth-Dew in 1953. This blend of rose, jasmine, vetiver and patchouli transformed the company into multimillion-dollar business. Until the 1950s, most women reserved fragrance for a special occasion but female entrepreneurs, such as Estée Lauder herself, wanted women to buy their own perfume and not wait for a birthday treat from her husband.

Current bestsellers include heritage classics such as Dior’s J’Adore, an opulent floral, as well as Chanel No.5 and Coco Mademoiselle, a blend of jasmine, rose and vanilla. Acqua di Parma, rich in Sicilian citrus, has represented “Italy, bottled” since 1916. More contemporary are Gucci’s funky florals, from Gucci Guilty to Bloom by Gucci, an enchanted garden created by renowned nose Alberto Morillas. Jo Malone’s unisex concoctions are also in demand, notably Wood Sage & Sea Salt, a masculine, earthy cologne. Playing up the popularity of unisex fragrances, Hermes created Un Jardin Sur Le Nil, a fruity-floral fragrance combining mango and lotus. Popular men’s fragrances number Chanel’s woody blockbuster Bleu de Chanel and Armani’s refreshing Acqua di Gio. For sheer masculinity, Tuscan Leather by Tom

Jasmine-picking 19th-century Grasse © Grasse tourisme

Vintage Cologne flasks © MIP

Traditional perfume-making © OT Grasse Gallimard perfumed rose petals ©Parfumerie Galimard

Maison Godet perfumes © Maison Godet Gallimard perfume-making © Lisa Gerard-Sharp Gallimard Enfleurage perfume process © Galimard

19th century perfume-making © Musées de Grasse & C. Barbiero Ford evokes old libraries and leather, with base notes of amber and suede - thankfully not smelling of old shoes.

After a period in the doldrums, Provence’s perfume industry is coming up roses. Grasse, recognised as the world perfume capital, won Unesco World Heritage status for its perfumemaking culture in 2018. Its status is boosted by an International Perfume Museum that reveals such secrets as how cocaine and opium can end up in big fragrances. Still today, Grasse flowers with the seasons, from mimosa in January to violets in February, orange blossom in April, roses in May. The local perfumeries, such as Gallimard, let you craft your own scent and leave with your personal flacon of perfume. Maison Godet, set in the heart of perfume country, stays true to its Provencal roots and uses Grasse flower-growers of jasmine, tuberose and rose centifolia. In 1925 the fragrance house created Folie Bleue, a bestseller bought by famous artists, including Matisse and Bonnard. Nose Sonia Godet, the fourth generation of the dynasty, recreated the perfumes using her great-grandfather’s original formulas. These starry perfumes, along with new creations, are sold in retro hand-blown bottles made by a master glassmaker. Yet Sonia is equally passionate about hand-crafting perfumes for Hollywood stars. Ultimately, the perfumes play on seduction, much like Sonia herself: “Dab on scent wherever you wish to be kissed,” Sonia smiles. You will probably leave, smelling heavenly, with your flacon of mood-changing perfume and a half-smile on your face.

Are we mistaken to romanticise the independent, niche, artisanal brands? Cynics suspect that the big brands spend more on marketing than on making the perfume itself. Perfumes are often promoted by brand ambassadors, with Charlize Theron, the face of Dior perfume, shimmying like a golden goddess, or Keira Knightley embodying a gamine Coco Chanel for Chanel. Not that bold storytelling campaigns are new. Calvin Klein became a force to be reckoned with when he launched Obsession, a smouldering oriental fusion matched by a vision of entangled, naked bodies. It was a trailblazing approach that paved the way for copycat marketing. Yet the perfume house moved with the times, with the launch of Ck One in 1994 chiming with a shift to cleaner, unisex fragrances. Since then, the company has notched up billion-dollar sales on this signature scent alone. Today, perfume is about the bigger picture, with sustainability and identity prized over pretty packaging. There is a shift towards natural, sustainable fragrances and perfume as self-expression. Millennials also want more gender-neutral, citrussy scents while, according to

top perfumer Guy Delforge, many of us “want to know the artisan making the perfume.” The main brands are increasingly conscious of sustainability, recycling, responsible sourcing and transparency over ingredients, along with moves to greater diversity and equity.

Charges of greenwashing persist but the fragrance industry is slowly delivering on sustainability, particularly premium and niche brands. Estée Lauder is proud of its policy to “reduce, reuse and recycle - and look for opportunities to share best practices.” The company has achieved zero industrial waste-to-landfill for all global manufacturing sites and has pledged to reduce petroleum plastic in packaging by 50 percent by 2030. In Australia, Estée Lauder sources sandalwood from an aboriginalcontrolled non-profit foundation. In Madagascar, the world’s main source of vanilla, the company operates responsible sourcing, tracing the supply and helping small farmers. In Indonesia, the brand works with palm oil farmers to produce sustainable palm oil, free from deforestation.

The same semi-enlightened spirit applies to philanthropy, with most big brands either creating charitable foundations or setting targets across the board. For instance, Fondation Chanel has pledged to improving women’s welfare, including supporting healthcare projects in Francophone Africa and combatting violence against women in Morocco and Tunisia. Chanel also helps sponsor Black Ambition, Pharrell Williams’ non-profit initiative designed to support Black start-ups and close the opportunity and wealth gap experienced by Black entrepreneurs.

Even if the perfume business can do philanthropy, sustainability remains a long-term challenge. Fragrances offer an invitation to dream of faraway lands but their precious ingredients must be cherished. Oud, a threatened species of agar wood, is a costly ingredient worth around $6 billion, and is more valuable than gold. Likewise, the demand for pricey yet comforting vanilla is unstoppable, even if too much vanilla makes you smell like a cupcake. As for jasmine, according to perfumer Sonia Godet: “It takes between 600 to 700 kilos of flowers to produce just a kilo of essence.”

Ultimately, the mystique of perfume means that marketing can sometimes trump ethical concerns. Visionary perfumer Frédéric Malle focuses on the fragrance alone, eliminating “everything superfluous or simply decorative” – the big launch and brand ambassadors. For most of us, perfume is a small luxury, a treat that lifts our spirits in dark times. As it’s an industry that causes less harm than many others, we can still revel in perfume’s wonder to waft us away. Perfumes can exert a narcotic power, with opium creating a mesmerising note that enriches Oriental compositions. Nose Alberto Morillas trusts in our scent bank of memories: “We all have a library of scents, associated with people, places, magical memories, adventures and food. The nose never rests.” Nor does perfumery.