A veil is lifted on the secret world of perfumery
The activity of promoting my range of perfumes inspired by travel photos allows me to meet many people who want to know more about the world of perfumery. This sector tells stories through advertisements on screens, reports on flower picking and films praising the creativity of perfumers.
But does this really reflect the world of perfumery? The answer is no.
Before entering the perfume industry and seeing this world from the inside, I only had the image of this sector that was conveyed by brands and the media.
Once inside, you realize that this mainly industrial sector tells stories, anecdotes to maintain an aura of creativity. The parallel comes to me of a brand of industrial soup that indicated on its packaging "Grandmother's recipe". We see more clearly, in the food sector, that a soup made at home and a soup made in a factory have nothing to do with each other.
The downside of perfumery is that access to perfume creation is not yet democratized. There are no points of reference, so it is easy to tell lies without being unmasked. Although, more and more consumers are now more critical of what they buy.
A question I am often asked during my activities is "What does artisanal perfumery mean? In an olfactory world dominated by the industry, the cards are blurred. Can we really make perfumes independently? The answer is yes. The artisanal perfumery that I practice means that I create my compositions myself as an independent perfumer and that I made 100% of the gender-neutral fragrances and home perfume oils in my workshop. I admit, it is not common to find yourself in front of a perfume maker. ;)
To support my point, Christophe Laudamiel, a French perfumer based in New York, and Carla Seipp, editor at BeautyMatter, co-wrote a series of three articles* published in June 2022.
This contribution is noteworthy because it expresses the reality of the world of perfumery.
In one of the articles, a table highlights the few perfumers present in the industrial groups that dominate the perfume sector. Multinationals with in-house perfumers are in dark orange in the table below. There are four of them. This means that most of the others sell perfumes without knowing what they really contain since the author of the perfume formula does not disclose its composition. But, in companies that do not give a place to a perfumer on their staff, the smell is not a primary issue, it is only one element. The important thing is elsewhere.
In the following article, Christophe Laudamiel and Carla Seipp highlight the perfume brands that have an in-house perfumer. 186 brands are identified worldwide, including my brand Christèle Jacquemin, which is very few.
Having an in-house perfumer is obviously a sign of expertise for these brands, but it does not mean that they manufacture the perfumes in-house. Their perfumers create them, but most of these brands entrust the manufacturing of perfumes to industrial companies.
At the beginning of this personal project combining photography and perfumery, my idea was to create but not to make. I contacted friends working in perfume multinationals so that they could weigh my formulas. I quickly realized that the path I was taking with this project was not compatible with the path of multinational companies. Indeed, the range of ingredients available from these manufacturers is very limited in natural products, which forced them to modify the formulas that I entrusted to them.
I then made the decision to make them myself, to buy the right raw materials for my formulas, to weigh my bases and to put them in alcohol. I do not regret this decision. It allows me today to be able to speak with full knowledge of the facts about my perfumes, knowing exactly what they contain.
* Christophe Laudamiel's dear world manifesto (1/3) · Christophe Laudamiel on perfumery's state of affairs (2/3) · Christophe Laudamiel's suggestions for a better fragrance future (3/3)