Aromatic evolution – Style – Kommersant

Neuroscience, artificial intelligence and sustainable development – Kommersant Style tells what directions the fragrance industry is moving in.

The house of Gucci has released a fragrance made from 100% ethanol, obtained from recycled industrial waste. The new Where My Heart Beats complements The Alchemist`s Garden collection, dedicated to the ancient art of alchemy. It is worth noting that nothing like this has ever been released in the perfume industry and this is the most environmentally friendly fragrance created using current sustainable development technologies. The price of the composition does not differ from the others presented in the collection – the same €350.

Today, many fragrances use ethanol derived from sugar cane and sugar beets, but although this type of alcohol is made from natural materials, it still has an impact on the environment. The cultivation of sugar cane for production is carried out on such a large scale that it leads to deforestation and soil degradation, and also damages biodiversity. “Many brands are experimenting with alcohol, trying to get it in a non-standard way. But mainly, this gives brands the opportunity to beautifully write on the label that it contains more than 90% natural ingredients, and alcohol makes up about the same proportion of the contents of the bottle. It turns out that if the alcohol is natural, then the composition is the same. But globally, this does not change anything – it certainly will not save the planet. Just a small step towards sustainable development,” says Bogdan Zyryanov, an independent perfume expert and author of the Hear the Smell Telegram channel.

Fragrance as a goal

Currently, the perfume industry is developing in four main areas: sustainability, digital technology, intelligent processing and functionality.

In the first place are the features of obtaining ingredients and their processing.

For example, the large-scale perfume company CPL Aromas is currently working on technologies that capture the smell of a flowering plant in order to recreate it in the laboratory without pruning.

The demand for fragrance developers is also growing due to the desire of consumers to have fragrances with meaning: now formulas should be not just beautiful, but functional. That is why collaboration with neuroscientists is so in demand.

New era

The research company Mintel predicted the beginning of an era of innovation in perfumery last year. The catalyst for such a statement was the trends that have developed during the pandemic. Due to the intense stress and then the restoration of the sense of smell, interest has grown in aromatherapy and the development of functional aromas – those that have an impact on mood and emotional state.

The world’s largest fragrance manufacturers were the first to reflect on the changes. For example, in November 2022, the Swiss company Givaudan launched the MoodScentz+ collection of fragrances that evoke positive emotions. An individual composition is selected using a special device that records the brain’s reaction to odors.

That same year, another Swiss fragrance company, Firmenich, launched EmotiON, an artificial intelligence program that creates compositions to increase concentration and improve brain activity.

Both projects are based on artificial intelligence technologies, many years of scientific research and the foundations of neuroscience. However, even Julia Brooks, sensor science business support researcher at Givaudan, says that artificial intelligence, like other sciences, requires human intervention.

Extraction of the future

The achievements didn’t end there. In the same 2022, the perfume brand L`Artisan Parfumeur released a collection of fragrances, ahead of Gucci with the idea of ​​upcycling, that is, the recycling of materials. So, Le Potager included components under the general name SymTraps, obtained as a result of processing by-products of the food industry.

By the way, SymTrap technology was patented back in 2008 by Symrise. And its meaning is to extract odorants from any waste in the processing of vegetables, fruits and flowers, whether it be extraction or distillation. It turns out a 100% natural extract and, importantly, reused. Passion fruit was the first such ingredient, followed by onion, artichoke, garlic, asparagus and cauliflower.

Symrise perfumer Susie Lee Haley says that onions give notes of exotic fruits, and leeks give green milky hues, artichoke has a resemblance to the green notes of centifolia rose. There are prospects in this direction, which cannot be said about artificial intelligence. Bogdan Zyryanov notes that the compositions created by artificial intelligence at the Beautyworld ME exhibition in Dubai turned out to be rather mediocre – according to him, “a fruity-floral shampoo” and “a typical male fragrance.”

It is quite possible that the extraction of ingredients in upcycling technologies is the near future of perfumery, and there are reasons for this. So, last year, the farmers of Grasse, the main source of flowers for Dior and Chanel, faced a severe drought. Farmer Carol Biancalana, who grows tuberose, rose and jasmine exclusively for Dior, says her harvest was 40% less than last year. It turns out that if there are no new ingredients or not enough, brands will work with what they have and optimize processes as much as possible.

Daria Bogomolova