The Birth of Fragrance Analysis
It was only 100 years ago that a method was invented for analyzing which aromatic constituents make up a particular scent.
In 1900, the Italian-born Russian chemist Mikhail Tsvet developed a method of separating a substance into its individual components by exploiting differences in size, mass, electrical charge and other properties. This is called chromatography. The method originated in the discovery that, when plant pigments such as chlorophyll and carotene were separated, the colors separated according to the individual pigments. Various new types of chromatography were subsequently developed in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. The chemists Archer Martin and Richard Synge, incidentally, received the 1952 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for chromatography.
The type of chromatography used in the perfume industry is mainly the analytical method called gas chromatography: a technique for analyzing which aromatic constituents are present in extremely complex mixtures of natural scents, such as rose, by identifying and separating molecules with differing volatilities. Taking rose essential oil as an example, its composition was found to comprise 50 kinds of molecules in the 1950s, 200 in the 1970s and 400 in the 1990s. The technique has also been used not only for essential oils but to analyze perfume compositions and create copycat fragrances.
Analyzing the Scent of a Space
Then, in the 1980s, a technique was developed to identify the scent in the air surrounding an object, such as a plant, flower or food. This is known as headspace technology (headspace analysis). The technique could be used in the same way not only for objects, but also to analyze the scent of shops and other places. Once the analytical data have been interpreted, perfumers begin using them in their creative work.
Why did headspace emerge in this period? L’Herbier parfumé: An Illustrated Guide to Fragrant Plants explains that it was because “perfumes at the time were expected to use natural materials, and they needed to evoke imaginative experiences for consumers, such as the scent encountered when breathing the air in a garden, or the scent of vibrant flowers.”
One of the pioneers of this technology is Roman Kaiser (1945–). Kaiser has worked as a chemist at Givaudan since 1968, principally researching and reconstructing natural scents and investigating new synthetic fragrance materials isolated from natural substances.
Beginning in 1975, Kaiser used headspace technology as an adjunct to gas chromatography, applying it to analyze the air around flowers as well (and also using it to measure the scent of tropical rainforests). In the headspace method, a spherical glass vessel is first set up outdoors; a flower is then enclosed inside and left for 24 hours, capturing all the molecules released during that time. The molecules are subsequently identified using techniques such as chromatography. This method, which can obtain a flower’s inherent scent throughout its life without harming it, subsequently came to be used in many perfumes.
One example of a fragrance inspired by the scent of a place is Tommy Girl (1996, Tommy Hilfiger, Calice Becker). Becker asked a chemist to analyze the air in the Mariage Frères tea store in Paris, then combined the resulting tea base with a floral accord. Another is 34 Boulevard Saint Germain Eau de Toilette (2011, Diptyque, Olivier Pescheux), which used headspace technology to capture the scent of the boutique. Givaudan’s Roman Kaiser assisted in collecting that scent.
Roman Kaiser is a scientist, a perfumer and an artist, a master who makes the impossible possible.
Olivier Pescheux
Each company, incidentally, has patented its own headspace method. These are called Aromascope (Takasago), NaturePrint (Firmenich), ScentTrek (Givaudan) and Living Flower (IFF). Jungle Essence from MANE is an extraction technology using liquefied gases or supercritical fluids.
References
• Allure, “Five-Star Scents.” March 31, 2008 (Tommy Girl).
• Diptyque, “34 boulevard Saint Germain — Eau de toilette” (the boutique’s scent and headspace technology).
• Claire Mabrut, “Dites “34”.” Madame Figaro, April 11, 2011; updated January 29, 2020.
• Robin, “Diptyque 34 Boulevard Saint Germain ~ new fragrance.” Now Smell This, December 15, 2010.
• OSMOZ, “34 — diptyque” (the 2011 fragrance’s perfumer and concentration).
