Yves Cassar, the nose responsible for the creation of colognes for the likes of Christian Lacroix, Giorgio Armani, and Tom Ford, knows a thing or two about perfumery. The master scent maker recently explained to WRG how fragrances are created and how to should go about finding your signature scent.
Building a Fragrance, Building Visual Memories
Creating a new fragrance is a marketing game before anything else, but it is also a business of colours, emotions, and memories blending together into a bottle. There are only a few rules in the world of perfumers, and once the consumer profile has been established and the basic structure of the fragrance followed, it is only a matter of etching a scent reminiscent of memorable sceneries or pleasant experiences.
Fragrances are structured around the science behind the evaporation process and a thorough understanding of the complementarity of aromas. This knowledge is commonly understood as the concept of notes, a marketing tool for high-end fragrances used to describe the different scents that make up a fragrance. Top notes are the first ones you smell when spraying a cologne. As they evaporate, they blend in with the middle notes, which form the heart of a fragrance. Altering your perception of these two sets of notes then comes the base note, which brings depth to the ensemble.
Once such practical details have been figured out, the fun starts. Perfumers like Cassar have access to databases of 500 natural raw material aromas and 2,000 aroma chemicals to create new fragrances. Every single aroma is linked to a colour, an emotion, a texture, or memories of trips to Italy or Morocco with stunning sceneries where perfumers have been to capture new scents that they will inevitably attempt to recreate in a fragrance at one point or another.
For Nautica Life, Cassar pictured a couple on a boat and the romance we all associate with Positano, Capri, Sicily. The result was a breezy and bright top note of mandarin and ginger blending with a middle note that has a nautical feel to it. Cassar chose violet leaf and sage aroma to represent the middle note colour “green, as it evokes fresh leaves, it’s more watery, and it almost has a cucumber effect.” Finally, Cassar chose hinoki, a Japanese cypress, for the base note as it’s very fresh and woody and because it evoked to him teak wood on a sailing boat. The cologne has a lot of ambery notes and a lot of musk and soft woods, which makes for a sexy, warm, and sensual fragrance in the tones of green, yellow, blue, and brown.
How does one pick his signature scent?
Understanding the process of making a fragrance is very interesting on it own, and you should use that knowledge to help you pick your signature scent. Once you are at the store you will be faced with a paradoxical choice. As mentioned above, marketing is the driving force behind every cologne available on the market. Picking a fragrance can become a challenge when you want to steer clear from scents that are too common. You want your fragrance to help you define your own individuality, a fragrance that resonates with your history, with your memories. The challenge thus becomes a matter of selecting a fragrance and making it your own. Brand it with your name despite the fact that many other gentlemen out there wear the same one as you. To stand out, Cassar recommends aiming for high-end colognes as they tend to be more complex.
Another trick to pick the perfect scent is to go shopping early in the morning, before your nose, like any other muscle in your body, gets tired after too much activity. Master noses like Cassar “like to smell fragrances in the morning, when you’re refreshed and your mindset is more open.” That way, you can smell better the subtleties of the different colognes you’re testing. Pick a fragrance that you really love and wear it constantly. Make it your own! Let the fragrance become your identity marker, let people associate you with a certain scent. Once you’ve established a signature scent, occasionally switch things around and wear a different fragrance when on vacation or at the gym. Once you’ve done that, you can pat yourself on the back: you took your style up a notch by adding a fragrant layer to your presentation.
Your fragrance completes your style. It adds a layer to your identity and the way you present yourself. Put some thought into your signature scent and make an impression!
Yves Cassar, the nose responsible for the creation of colognes for the likes of Christian Lacroix, Giorgio Armani, and Tom Ford, knows a thing or two about perfumery. The master scent maker recently explained to WRG how fragrances are created and how to should go about finding your signature scent.
Building a Fragrance, Building Visual Memories
Creating a new fragrance is a marketing game before anything else, but it is also a business of colours, emotions, and memories blending together into a bottle. There are only a few rules in the world of perfumers, and once the consumer profile has been established and the basic structure of the fragrance followed, it is only a matter of etching a scent reminiscent of memorable sceneries or pleasant experiences.
Fragrances are structured around the science behind the evaporation process and a thorough understanding of the complementarity of aromas. This knowledge is commonly understood as the concept of notes, a marketing tool for high-end fragrances used to describe the different scents that make up a fragrance. Top notes are the first ones you smell when spraying a cologne. As they evaporate, they blend in with the middle notes, which form the heart of a fragrance. Altering your perception of these two sets of notes then comes the base note, which brings depth to the ensemble.
Once such practical details have been figured out, the fun starts. Perfumers like Cassar have access to databases of 500 natural raw material aromas and 2,000 aroma chemicals to create new fragrances. Every single aroma is linked to a colour, an emotion, a texture, or memories of trips to Italy or Morocco with stunning sceneries where perfumers have been to capture new scents that they will inevitably attempt to recreate in a fragrance at one point or another.
For Nautica Life, Cassar pictured a couple on a boat and the romance we all associate with Positano, Capri, Sicily. The result was a breezy and bright top note of mandarin and ginger blending with a middle note that has a nautical feel to it. Cassar chose violet leaf and sage aroma to represent the middle note colour “green, as it evokes fresh leaves, it’s more watery, and it almost has a cucumber effect.” Finally, Cassar chose hinoki, a Japanese cypress, for the base note as it’s very fresh and woody and because it evoked to him teak wood on a sailing boat. The cologne has a lot of ambery notes and a lot of musk and soft woods, which makes for a sexy, warm, and sensual fragrance in the tones of green, yellow, blue, and brown.
How does one pick his signature scent?
Understanding the process of making a fragrance is very interesting on it own, and you should use that knowledge to help you pick your signature scent. Once you are at the store you will be faced with a paradoxical choice. As mentioned above, marketing is the driving force behind every cologne available on the market. Picking a fragrance can become a challenge when you want to steer clear from scents that are too common. You want your fragrance to help you define your own individuality, a fragrance that resonates with your history, with your memories. The challenge thus becomes a matter of selecting a fragrance and making it your own. Brand it with your name despite the fact that many other gentlemen out there wear the same one as you. To stand out, Cassar recommends aiming for high-end colognes as they tend to be more complex.
Another trick to pick the perfect scent is to go shopping early in the morning, before your nose, like any other muscle in your body, gets tired after too much activity. Master noses like Cassar “like to smell fragrances in the morning, when you’re refreshed and your mindset is more open.” That way, you can smell better the subtleties of the different colognes you’re testing. Pick a fragrance that you really love and wear it constantly. Make it your own! Let the fragrance become your identity marker, let people associate you with a certain scent. Once you’ve established a signature scent, occasionally switch things around and wear a different fragrance when on vacation or at the gym. Once you’ve done that, you can pat yourself on the back: you took your style up a notch by adding a fragrant layer to your presentation.
Your fragrance completes your style. It adds a layer to your identity and the way you present yourself. Put some thought into your signature scent and make an impression!