Absolutely Magazine: March 2014: The Artistry of Scent by Lawrence Roullier White

The artistry of scent making is often spoken about in musical terms; the construction of a fragrance is described as having notes and accords. Fine fragrance guru Michael Donovan – UK spokesperson for some of the world’s most prestigious perfume brands - will often describe a complicated scent as being like a symphony; each note dependent on the notes around it, with some in the foreground and some in the background, coming together with cacophonous effect. Both these art forms, music and perfumery, are somewhat similarly intangible; one can look at a picture and perhaps imagine its starting point but to get an unimagined melody onto paper or a perfectly conceived scent into the bottle appears much more mysterious. Equally mysteriously, music is carried to the ear as invisibly as scent is carried to the olfactory glands. 

One may look at a painting and say ‘you can almost smell the flowers’, but such is the power of scent that one sniff and the mind is flooded with visual imagery. Some perfume-makers turn this on its head and choose art as the medium through which to brief their ‘noses’ – the trained professionals who take a perfumer’s idea and create the chemical the formula.

Icelandic Andrea Maack creates an artwork which she gives to her nose as the inspiration for new her perfume. Maack’s fragrances have one thing in common; her expert vision and her genius signature. The results are a testament to the success of this creative process, as Andrea Maack’s ‘Craft’ is one of the best fragrances I think I have ever smelled and has a huge following.
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Some perfumers, such as rock-and-roll maverick-maker Mark Buxton, a Yorkshireman living in Paris, seek inspiration from other art forms. Buxton’s perfumes are full of musical reference with names such as ‘Devil in Disguise’ ‘Sexual Healing’ and ‘Emotional Rescue’.  

Whilst others, such as former historian turned luxury scent maker Nicolas de Barry, create perfumes with an artistic muse in mind; ‘L’Eau de George Sand’, is a much loved fragrance created in honour of the much admired woman; the French novelist and lover of Chopin.

Perfumer Gérald Ghislain also seeks inspiration in the literary world, his brand Histoires de Parfums also carries a tribute to Sand, his scent ‘1804’ – the year of her birth – is a gorgeously fruity concoction; ripe with pineapple and heady gardenia. Ghislain’s newest release, ‘1899’ is an ode to Hemingway and his many exotic travels, underlined with the requisite Scotch.

This merging of the art form and the senses also has a science attached to it. Sadly due to its solely subjective nature this science is little understood, but it has been responsible for some major masterpieces. Synesthesia is a condition, which may go unnoticed by those that have it, whereby the physical world is perceived entirely, or partially, differently. Often one sense is muddled with another or there is a blending of all, or some, of them. David Hockney, for example, ‘sees’ music as colour, Kandinsky’s perception of sight, sound, touch and smell were all merged and composer Olivier Messiaen used his unusual perception of colour in the creation of his chord construction. Perfume curator extraordinaire Frederic Malle, has used his synesthesia to great and very positive effect. Not least in his recent range of releases for Liberty, celebrating the store’s 140 years, Malle was given access-all areas free run in the company’s archives where he was able to search out the original Liberty prints which best suited the fragrances as he ‘sees’ them. The result is a wonderful insight into the mind of a creative genius and hugely respected player, who refers to his perfume releases as editions; much as an artist or author.