the author of this extremely fascinating nuanced and yet very very evocative account of how the perfume industry works and how it sources its natural ingredients that make up most of the sense when I think about it one of my sharpest memories of my grandparents ancestral home in South Indiais the smell of Jasmine and Tulsi holy basil that was offered at the altar in the house every day
tank don't worry you're not drinking dirt right now um into an experimentation tank with some of our Pino grapes and it did impart that perfume quality so because of that experiment they learned the soil had a huge part of that quality of the grape so we just think that these experimentsthat they're doing are constantly making us better um for our wines so that's part of our Innovation when we think
They're working with a drug company to bring that to the human market. perfume , here a certain voice, and say, oh, my wife has entered the room.
people at home when he knocked on the door were saying we really don't want the encyclopedias could we just get the perfume so that's actually how the the company began he called it the California perfume company he startedhis own direct sales company and he was uh pretty ahead of his time because he decided he was only going to hire women
side stay quiet past ry's room candles and and perfume touching my nose and now I'm getting close a bed sheet still on the screen aperfect body still on SE and wheels on
season it uh produces musk you know musk it's there in all the perfumes okay I advise people not to use perfumes which have musk because theyhave to kill the deer to take the mask anyway
in K1 in 19 38 took place just before he left for China he had been to see perfumed paper in squares large one 3 feet by two which is somewhat improbable
sense to be discovered like oh nobody even knew that there is another kind of vanilla right has that ever happened or is it all the same no no so you have to realize that the perfumer of course they would come to me every day saying what have you got that is new that the the rose oil crop in Bulgaria was good or was bad have you a different roles so different what what would it mean it would mean a different Botanical species or it could be a different uh
you can find all kinds of single molecule aromas or essential oils that are being used in perfumery and flavoring, foods, and so on. So you can buy the individual components that we usually encounter as notes in a chord,
is on the side to help you when you're stuck. And co-designing a perfume with an AI, wow.
with that hi Dominique welcome to the talk I am so excited to have you here I'm delighted to be with you likewise likewise thank you so much for writing this book Dominique I learned so much about the perfume that I saw nonchalantly spray on every morning it was it was really really insightful so maybe for our audience let's unpack this a little can you tell us what the Journey of a life of a bottle of perfume is where does the journey begin and how does it really conclude
this is this is a little silent Revolution really because the truth is this is not been going for more than 15 years these changes but it's but it's so welcomed right it's sort of like a Renaissance for the perfume industry and I'm glad it's I think it's it's completely vital for them if they want to survive they have to do that because you know people very legitimately they say okay you tell me uh vanilla in a perfume is fantastic but I just saw on TV the other day this these things about Madagascar and how the children live there and what's happening and and this and that and I want
for the perfume industry and I'm glad it's I think it's it's completely vital for them if they want to survive they have to do that because you know people very legitimately they say okay you tell me uh vanilla in a perfume is fantastic but I just saw on TV the other day this these things about Madagascar and how the children live there and what's happening and and this and that and I want to make sure I'm not part of this ugly game you know very very true so the whole sustainability and and making sure that as consumers we're not uh prop in any way further promoting
Because I just can't take the stimulation. Or I wear perfume to bed every night because I just love perfume . And these days, you don't-- I wouldn't wear a perfume to a meeting because some people don't like that.
Because what they were doing up until then, like most brands, were sticking 99.9% of their budget behind their mass market, main selling, quite reasonably priced perfume . They weren't paying much budget at all behind their Armani Prive that sold for 150 quid because, using logic, it hardly sold any units.
And Ibn Abbas was very well-dressed. He was wearing perfume . They used to have long hair in those days.
work with a Vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills area which is by Santa Barbara and the wine that we make from there has a really nice perfume quality to it and our wine makers had an idea like does this perfume quality come from the soil or does it come from The Grapes or something else so they actually took the soil from the santarita hills Vineyard and threw it in to an experimentation
She kept a rosewood box of honey caramel truffles on her coffee table at all times. She collected antique glass perfume bottles that were rounded and spiny, swirled with primordial indigo, and deep, opaque emerald. She was passionate about the Red Sox but hated the Patriots and football in general.
And so when I was on the ship, I didn't wear makeup. I never wore perfume . I'm never going to be mistaken for a man.
that meant I was tense because no one was participating or whatever maybe it was someone's perfume in the room that reminded me of when I was two years old unconsciously this is reminded me of a woman who may have said hello sweetheart
in your body always so if you should happen to run into someone or a flower with the same perfume your body will tense up okay so I'm here to say it doesn't matter why it's good to do Psychotherapy yes I remember when my father slapped me and I was two and a
hin really heav perfume of hin comes up and we start tasting the the seafood and
only about uh the half of 19th century that the synthetic molecules were beginning to be invented and and completely changed the game let's say to keep keep that again very simple that perfumers professional high-level perfumers think that they cannot create without the synthetic but because the synthetic will give some kind of structure some kind of a let's say like a skeleton to their Creations but at the same time if you go too far and if you create only with synthetics your perfumes definitely lack something and you can feel it so that's where the magic of Naturals
the book wonderful and and that's such a such an uplifting note to end the conversation on because I'm almost thinking that you know you come you if this was like a historical time segment then you know this is perfumes have started so far back and and Dominic you've uh you've basically been one of the more recent entrants in the space even with 35 years of experience right so wonderful wonderful to uh to learn all your insights I am so uh glad I had this opportunity to read the book and again for our audience this is available in in any bookstore that you go to um please do get
This included French perfumes , sauces, syrups, fans, lots of fancy objects.
But that's where I began, and the type of experiment that I used to do-- I'll just give you one example. This was for Armani perfumes . The type of experiment-- I'd set up for Armani a stall in the reception one morning, and I'd laid out a load of perfumes .
And as people came in, I said to them, look. Can you smell these perfumes ? Here's Armani. It costs 40 quid.
So that time, I said, look. Here are these perfumes . Can you rate them?
experience I also followed perfumers and I studied with Somali spent a lot of time putting bottles of things to my
expert I met experts perfumers Somali the animal tract these are not people
through the perfumed gardens of Elizabeth's Facebook.
And the way the aroma-- No perfume in the world ever matches that first rain in Kolkata after the dry spell.
so much about the perfume that I saw nonchalantly spray on every morning it was it was really really insightful so maybe for our audience let's unpack this a little can you tell us what the Journey of a life of a bottle of perfume is where does the journey begin and how does it really conclude okay so I'll try to keep this very simple and sorry for people in our audience who may be experts or semi Experts of that but um just to keep it uh simple a bottle of perfume first of
for a lack of a better word which is what will be has been created by the perfumers and which gives it its personality to the perfume so that's what's in your bottle now let's go a little bit further with that where do those 15 come from so here immediately comes something that is generally very well known is that a composition by a perfumer is a combination a mixture of synthetic ingredients and natural ingredients that's a lot of the debate and a lot of discussions around the
exploitative Behavior right so I completely and and I definitely want to ask you about that but but I guess my question is to to the initial part of what you were saying about how the methods um that were the the perfume industry is sort of almost um is is almost still a relic of how it was being done in the early in the early days of the industry right is that is that that secrecy and that uh the whole uh Mystique of it is that only limited to the whole sourcing piece of it uh Dominic or is that even how even till date as a source do you find that the the flowers are
it and and the sceneries and the running water is just it's just some kind of image of paradise you know let's face it yeah yeah totally and I wish and I wish that that image was um could be placed alongside an actual bottle of perfume that has the rose uh Rose as its prominent ingredient right but that's not the the pairing at least in my head so uh it's it's a but I'm so fascinated by what you said about the fields and like the birds and yeah very very very um yeah I I would be tempted um what what about which ingredient is uh is the most expensive to uh to source I know two a thing
it and in fact that one and the sandalwood one made me made me very very uh sentimental I understand so The Story You're evoking I think is frankincense frankincense frankincense is probably the most ancient uh perfume captured by men frankincense and Cedarwood Cedarwood okay so the frankincense you're right is a very small tree it grows on the whole of Africa it's very difficult to see grows high in altitude in rocks and then so I'm telling the whole story in the book and and yes there are tappers with a very simple knife who scratch the bark and
exploded the pistachio, and we know all the molecules, and you can buy them and maybe even mix them together to create your own pistachio. There are people in the perfume world who have tried to come up with a language for smells, like Esperanto or something like that,
Let's explore the science of perfume .
So you had a Chinese perfume that was replicated from France with a label that said French perfume .
said the name of some perfume , and then they suddenly saw the ad connected with that perfume .
"She smells like old lady perfume ." And I never went back.
I'd wear that as perfume .
And I thought it was a perfume .
But I've recently started making perfume as well.
kind of these nuances of perfume and if you look at the flower um in different
know Rose was coming from Bulgaria or turkey so the farmers are the first step the second step is completely fundamental is the people we call the producers means I'm a farmer growing Patchouli leaves in Indonesia but the perfumer is expecting not Patchouli leaves but a patchouli essential oil so the the the the the the the the transformation of the leaves or the flowers into an essential oil or an extract is fundamental because this is where the creation of the perfumer palette happens okay so we have throughout the world in many many countries the most remote and
so sometimes there these things can be mixed like some very very famous brands have their own perfumers so these last two steps will be just one you know like to give an example Chanel uh doesn't order its perfumes from an fnf house it it has its own perfumers and they create an itself but let's say that the the structure of the industry is Farmers producers composers and brands and we very fascinating and we literally have only the last quarter that we know of because we're shopping by Brands right it's exactly the only visible entity and yet and yet I wish it
the direction that the industry is going to take uh in that like do you think that there will be two categories of perfumes in the future whether to be the natural uh infused perfumes which would be very expensive and then more synthetic perfumes and so those are more affordable look at it I think we've witnessed uh changes but but not not always in the same direction as I said for a long time perfumes are only natural no discussion then the synthetic to
was such a such a poignant story about how the tree gets hurt right or whatever you need to you need to make an insertion in the tree and then it was almost like the tears of the tree is the resin that that's so perfumed right so is it did I am I mixing it up or is that a car no it's it's a long complicated story The the thing is that uh for a long time there were Hunters of Vega wood going in the white forest and looking for the proper trees because from the outside if you're not an expert you cannot see if you will find resin inside the tree or not