When you think of perfume, names like Chanel and Dior, Kardashian and Burberry may spring to your mind.
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These are the mass-produced ‘designer’ scents, made famous by such iconic versions as No.5 by Chanel and Shalimar by Guerlain.
Less known are the ‘niche’ manufacturers of perfume, those made by perfume houses to their own specifications and those of their clients.
In Ballarat, Kate Robinson of Sweet Fern Fragrance Boutique sings the praises of making a perfume to suit a client using the ‘fragrance wheel’.
“Designer perfumes are made by designer houses, with perfume as another revenue stream,” Ms Robinson says.
“Niche perfumes are generally family-run businesses. Some of them are 400 years old. These perfumes are made for somebody to love, not everybody to like.”
The art of making a perfume is something that a perfumier will train for at least eight years at, but prior to even beginning that training the prospective student must show they have a delicate and discerning nasal palate.
Kate Robinson utilises the fragrance wheel developed by renowned fragrance expert and taxonomist Michael Edwards.
In Edwards’s wheel, there are four main classes of fragrance: floral, fresh, woody and oriental. Beneath these are 14 families. Combining these families lead to the different scents of perfume.
Each family leads to the next, for example - Florals become Soft Florals when blended with sparkling aldehydes and balanced by a powdery drydown. Soft Florals are transformed into Floral Orientals by adding the scents of orange blossom and sweet spices.
- Michael Edwards's Fragrance Wheel
The wheel has been widely adopted in the perfume industry.
Kate Robinson hosts monthly fragrance workshops at Sweet Fern and her current workshop will feature the perfume house of Lubin.
Lubin was founded in 1798 in Paris by Pierre Francois Lubin. He was the official perfumer to European royalty in the 19th and 20th centuries.
According to the agencedeparfum website, Lubin was initiated into perfumery at the age of 10 under the apprenticeship of Tombarelli in Grasse, he then trained under Jean-Louis Fargeon in Paris who was the official perfumer to Queen Marie-Antoinette, a personal fragrance which is part of the Lubin empire today.
“After the French revolution, Monsieur Lubin’s creations were appreciated by the first dandies known as Les Incroyables and their companions, Les Merveilleuses; their extravagant way of life soon becoming the symbol of a new Parisian savoir-vivre.
“Soon creating perfumes for Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon I, Napoleon’s sister Pauline Bonaparte, later Princess Borghese, by 1815, Lubin claimed his title as the holder of the Beauty Secrets of the French Court, the legacy left by Fargeon.”
Kate Robinson says the Lubin workshop will feature film and participants will be able to try a complimentary gin fizz in honour of the fragrance created for Princess Grace of Monaco, Gin Fizz.
“I’m excited about tonight because the film will add an extra sensory aspect to the event. Perfume masterclasses are all about smell and emotion and memory, and tonight we’ll feature first the Gin Fizz, which was created in 1955.”
