Fragrance Insider: France, Experienced by a Perfumer Vol.1

Poet or perfumer, creative inspiration can come from a multitude of sources. Many times it’s the artist’s personal experiences which principally shape the sensory palette for their creations.

In particular, truly gifted perfumers look to stimulate their own senses, immersing themselves in the sights, sounds and smells of the world around them. This sensory engagement fuels their ability to design powerful aromatic experiences for fragrance consumers. The power to capture feelings, memories, times and places in a bottle comes from experience.

Fragrance in France

Lois Evans, Senior Creative Perfumer at Agilex Fragrances, believes in constantly exposing herself to new experiences, growing her knowledge of the olfactory trends of other cultures and ultimately expanding her sensorial repertoire. She recently traveled to France to soak up French fragrance trends and the overall aromatic landscape of this exciting culture known for their expertise and love of fragrance.

Below, Evans shares details of her voyage.

We traveled to Provence, France to visit a good friend. The trip was timed to see and smell the blooms of the orange flower tree she had planted in memory of her husband. We went on to visit and bathe our senses in the beauty of Mougins, Cannes, Grasse, Antibes, Vence, Arles, St. Remy, St. Tropez and Gordes.

Fragrance was in the air! It was a fantastic experience for a perfumer. The sweet scent of orange flower wafted through the air along with nuances of rose, jasmine, genet and pittosporum.

We attended the Rose Festival in Grasse. This was an amazing experience – roses were in bloom everywhere.

Of course, when in France, one has to shop. The French gift candle market is quite different from that in the United States. Fresh, natural smelling florals have a huge presence in French fragrance trends, while there is little to be found in the gourmand category. What the French consumer does find appealing are oriental notes, such as amber, rather than the foodie-oriented, baked notes that are popular in the U.S. Fragrance is very important to the French, and they are always key players in the fine-fragrance market. It will be interesting to see if the French fragrance trends I observed will result in U.S. air care fragrances becoming more natural and floral smelling, as they are in France.

Only time will tell……..seul le temps dira.