The World of Smells Issue 16 Home Page

Welcome to the World of Smells! Photo: Sandy Peters There are people who can smell more easily than others, but everyone can learn to differentiate odors. Javier Quintero from Colombia Most of the products you use in your home for personal or household care have fragrances. Behind them there is a big and complex industry that creates and develops perfumes for each product, having in mind, among other things, market trends, security, environmental and technical issues. Money, time and effort are needed when a perfume is being created. There are special people called “perfumers” whose job is to mix harmonically dozens and sometimes hundreds of raw materials to get the right smell, with the right “quantity of smell” to the right product. Imagine, for example, a laundry detergent. When you smell it, you associate it with cleanliness, whiteness and freshness. But how can a perfumer know what cleanliness or freshness means for consumers? Well, thousands of dollars had to be spent researching associations between raw materials and concepts. In addition, more money was spent doing technical trials in order to create a fragrance that will properly interact with the product. Photo: Sandy Peters Imagine a laundry detergent. When you smell it, you associate it with cleanliness, whiteness and freshness. But how can a perfumer know what cleanliness or freshness means for consumers? Most raw materials are “identical synthetic”; this means they are produced in labs but have the same chemical characteristics as the natural ones. Sometimes it is impossible to reproduce a natural smell and it is necessary to use natural raw materials; they are very expensive, and therefore, are used only in high cost products such as fine fragrances (perfumes). The sense of smell is the most developed one in human beings; however, only a few people are conscious of it. In order to use it correctly you must educate it. Sometimes you smell something that reminds you of a situation or a person. That is called “olfactory memory”. There are people who can smell more easily than others, but everyone can learn to differentiate odors. A first step is trying to divide a smell. You can start with your personal perfume or deodorant; try to identify if your product odor contains fruit notes or floral accords. Once you find which odor families are included, you can start looking for specific raw materials: rose, jasmine, orange, vanilla, or apple. There are several olfactory families. The most important ones are floral, fruity, sweet, herbal, leather, woody, marine and aldehydic. Start trying to identify smells and odors; you will enjoy it and will educate your “nose”. Welcome to the world of smells! Note: Javier Quintero,the author of this article worked in the fragrance industry for several years. More about smells: It Makes Sense to Use Scents | Tactics of the Fragrance | Manipulation by Smell Industry Return to: The World of Smells | Issue 16 | Home Page TOPICS Online Magazine - ©1997-2007 - Sandy and Thomas Peters - topics .mag@gmail.com