“I often say that I don’t care about fragrances,” says Shaping Room founder Nobi Shioya, “but I care very much about smell.”
Shioya—a surfer, sculptor, blogger (http://whatwedoissecret.org) and fragrance entrepreneur—has launched a number of novel scents over the last few years, capturing the intangible nuances of love, sex and surfing (not all at once) in a bottle. And he’s done it by marshalling the talents of some of the world’s leading perfumers, including Christophe Laudamiel, Sophia Grojsman and Alberto Morillas. Taking a cue from his fine art background, Shioya has deconstructed the conventional wisdom of perfume creation, collaborating with these noses in an intuitive, patient process that sits in stark contrast with today’s ever more harried mainstream fragrance business.

Topics in perfumery: Creating Effective Natural Fragrances (pg 26 (4 pages))
Helen Feygin, Intuiscent

What’s driving the contemporary fragrance consumer and how perfumers can overcome obstacles to deliver on the promise of “natural”

“As we stand at the brink of a second nuclear age and a period of unprecedented climate change,” the Cambridge cosmologist Stephen Hawking recently stated, “scientists have a special responsibility, once again, to inform the public and to advise leaders about the perils that humanity faces.”
With dire predictions such as this and the realities of life, no wonder that there exists an atmosphere of stress and anxiety throughout society. These issues are bigger than a single person can hope to resolve. What’s needed, then, is an individual solution that helps to alleviate stress: a lifestyle of “health and wellness.” Taking individual responsibility for managing one’s own health and opening up to broader issues of life and environmental sustainability characterizes this “conscience consumer” of the new millennium.
Growing concerns with what one is ingesting internally and applying topically are leading consumers to adapt a more holistic approach to personal health and the welfare of the planet. In this atmosphere, natural and organic products are viewed as safe, efficacious and Earth-friendly. Hence, the growth of natural personal care at a rate of 12% over the last five years compared to traditional personal care, which only grew at the rate of 4–5% during the same period. Datamonitor predicts that the market for natural personal care will exceed $1 billion by 2010. In 2002, the Natural Marketing Institute (NMI), reviewing the overall US health and wellness market, came to the conclusion that the LOHAS (lifestyle of health and sustainability) consumer segmentation constituted 63 million adults, a number that has grown considerably in the intervening years.

The insider: Putting Out Fires (pg 32 (4 pages))
Robert Siegel

A day in the life of the small fragrance house perfumer

The small house perfumer wears many hats—fragrance creator, customer liaison, writer, crisis manager, last minute shopper and more. Here, author Robert Siegel presents a frank, humorous view from the trenches, offering a look inside the ever-evolving day-to-day responsibilities, pressures and quirks of the fragrance business.

Art of perfumery: Exposing the Perfumer (pg 38 (7 pages))
Michelle Krell Kydd

What it means to be a perfumer in the information age and the need to communicate with consumers

According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, a perfumer is defined as “one who makes or sells perfumes.” This rather simplistic definition, circa 1580, offers no insight into what a perfumer actually does. Twenty years ago, it was off to the library if you wanted to know anything more than what a dictionary or Encyclopedia Britannica would tell you, but today, both professionals and hobbyists can turn to Web sites like that of Project Guttenberg—www.gutenberg.org—to download The Art of Perfumery by George William Septimus Piesse, or www.amazon.com to look for used copies of William Irving Kaufman’s Perfume. Presently, true atelier methods and the structured form of perfumery education are not public knowledge. As more information on fine fragrances and raw materials becomes public on the Internet, people want to know more about the creators behind their favorite fragrances. Not all of the information available online is accurate, which affects perceptions offline, leaching into other media, such as print. It is time for the industry to take the reigns and bring perfumers into the limelight.

Organoleptic Characteristics of Flavor Materials: CSA Round Table (pg 46 (3 pages))
Gerard Mosciano

The 2006 Chemical Sources Association (CSA) Suppliers’ Round Table was held at FONA International, Geneva, Illinois. The 12,000-square-foot FONA center was built by president and CEO Joseph Slawek in part to house FONA’S Flavor 101, Savory 201 and Beverage 201 flavor education programs. In addition, it is an integral part of one of the most modern and up-to-date facilities built to house international offices, flavor creation, flavor applications and FONA’s ever expanding flavor manufacturing requirements on its 23-acre campus.
The 110 attendees were able to evaluate and sample over 160 aromatic chemicals (both natural and artificial), botanical extractives and other natural materials, as well as evaluate finished products flavored with them.
The presenters were: Advanced Biotech, Bedoukian, Bell, Berjé, Biolandes, Cargill Flavor Systems, Danisco, Flavor Materials International, Fontarome Chemicals, International Flavors & Fragrances, MCI Miritz Citrus Ingredients LLC, Moore Ingredients, Charkrit/Oxford, SAFISIS USA, Polarome International, SAFC, Thwaites, Inc./Lionel Hitchen Ltd., Treatt USA, Vigon International/Givaudan and Wen International.
The following are but a few of the flavor ingredients presented.

Progress in Essential Oils (pg 50 (11 pages))
Brian M. Lawrence

Lawrence discusses the composition of helichrysum oil (Helichrysum faradifani) from Madagascar. He also discusses the composition of cascarilla oil and extract from West India, the Caribean, Central America and South America. Finally, he covers the composition of myrtle oil (Myrtus communis) from Italy, Corsica, Turkey, Morocco, Greece, Lebanon, Tunisia and France.