Helg of The Perfume Shrine had the wonderful idea to write a retrospective look at the Year 2008. I will not rewrite or relink my posts but I will try to show what I consider interesting or influential for this year, things that I wrote or just thought.
Reformulations - In 2008 there was no more mystery about the current state of the industry. Classic fragrances destroyed in the name of regulations with more and more ingredients removed. Bloggers learned to compare fragrances and report abuses while PR fabricated clever but false responses. One classic example is Miss Dior (I reported also Diorissimo destruction) and reading the official response it's not hard to notice that it's 100% lie. Reformulations will occur even more in 2009 as IFRA showed it's interest in eliminating as more naturals as possible. While one can suspect that's a lobby of the chemical industry to promote their molecules, the thing is far more complicated than that. The opoponax case showed 2 things - IFRA has not the money to conduct proper studies and lacks a lot of fundamental knowledge (from botany to history) and their solution is often "the Gordian knot" (eliminate what you cannot master). More suspicions appeared in 2008 on the performed tests, their protocols and the many discrepancies. It's not just the limonene (you know, the toxic orange peel that could kill you) but more complicated matters. IFRA is like a Babel Tower built on a sand ground and perfumebloggers can only but wait the next reformulated classic, the butchered fragrance, from companies that forgot to inform their loyal clients. Bad news are to come in USA, as the UE cosmetic legislation is moving slowly on American soil straight to FDA.:)
The Art of Fragrance - I started on my blog a series of posts inspired by different artistic movements and how they could inspire the creative process. It's not the "marketing stuff" but how different techniques or ideas from art history could be applied in the composition - what is a baroque perfume, a neoclassic, a minimal, etc… This was inspired by the "persona" of Jean Claude Ellena that was more present than ever in 2008 press. I assisted at his conference and I thought it would be useful to find other ways than his way. In the same time 2008 brought us several artistic projects or art inspired perfumes. The star perfumer will be more present in the next years with their own brand or just leaving the big mastodonts. Laudamiel left IFF, Mark Buxton created fragrances under his own name, Kurkdjian will release his own brand à la Guerlain. Meanwhile several suspicions appeared among us (more in private conversations) about the new niche brands. Are they "recycled perfumes" from previous projects or really artistic creations? Are they forged by marketing people working previously for big brands and seeing the niche as an entrepreneurial opportunity? The word trend could be applied almost in all sectors as ideas appear strangely but simultaneously in the creative sector. Everybody will soon or late do - a vetiver, a frangipani, a saffron, a champacca and fragrances with brandy/rhum/calvados/tequila/other alcoholic drinks.
My favorite posts
The rarest vintage Chanel series
The rarest Guerlain series
Art system & Fragrance (Classicism, Eclectism, Baroque, Manifesto, etc.)
To be continued
Other bloggers writting on 2008 fragrances
Ars Aromatica
A Rose Beyond the Thames
Bittergrace Notes
Grain de Musc
I smell therefore I am
Legerdenez
Notes from the Ledge
Savvy Thinker
The Non Blonde
Tuileries
The Perfume Shrine
Reformulations - In 2008 there was no more mystery about the current state of the industry. Classic fragrances destroyed in the name of regulations with more and more ingredients removed. Bloggers learned to compare fragrances and report abuses while PR fabricated clever but false responses. One classic example is Miss Dior (I reported also Diorissimo destruction) and reading the official response it's not hard to notice that it's 100% lie. Reformulations will occur even more in 2009 as IFRA showed it's interest in eliminating as more naturals as possible. While one can suspect that's a lobby of the chemical industry to promote their molecules, the thing is far more complicated than that. The opoponax case showed 2 things - IFRA has not the money to conduct proper studies and lacks a lot of fundamental knowledge (from botany to history) and their solution is often "the Gordian knot" (eliminate what you cannot master). More suspicions appeared in 2008 on the performed tests, their protocols and the many discrepancies. It's not just the limonene (you know, the toxic orange peel that could kill you) but more complicated matters. IFRA is like a Babel Tower built on a sand ground and perfumebloggers can only but wait the next reformulated classic, the butchered fragrance, from companies that forgot to inform their loyal clients. Bad news are to come in USA, as the UE cosmetic legislation is moving slowly on American soil straight to FDA.:)
The Art of Fragrance - I started on my blog a series of posts inspired by different artistic movements and how they could inspire the creative process. It's not the "marketing stuff" but how different techniques or ideas from art history could be applied in the composition - what is a baroque perfume, a neoclassic, a minimal, etc… This was inspired by the "persona" of Jean Claude Ellena that was more present than ever in 2008 press. I assisted at his conference and I thought it would be useful to find other ways than his way. In the same time 2008 brought us several artistic projects or art inspired perfumes. The star perfumer will be more present in the next years with their own brand or just leaving the big mastodonts. Laudamiel left IFF, Mark Buxton created fragrances under his own name, Kurkdjian will release his own brand à la Guerlain. Meanwhile several suspicions appeared among us (more in private conversations) about the new niche brands. Are they "recycled perfumes" from previous projects or really artistic creations? Are they forged by marketing people working previously for big brands and seeing the niche as an entrepreneurial opportunity? The word trend could be applied almost in all sectors as ideas appear strangely but simultaneously in the creative sector. Everybody will soon or late do - a vetiver, a frangipani, a saffron, a champacca and fragrances with brandy/rhum/calvados/tequila/other alcoholic drinks.
My favorite posts
The rarest vintage Chanel series
The rarest Guerlain series
Art system & Fragrance (Classicism, Eclectism, Baroque, Manifesto, etc.)
To be continued
Other bloggers writting on 2008 fragrances
Ars Aromatica
A Rose Beyond the Thames
Bittergrace Notes
Grain de Musc
I smell therefore I am
Legerdenez
Notes from the Ledge
Savvy Thinker
The Non Blonde
Tuileries
The Perfume Shrine
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
In New York, Chandler Burr will give a talk tomorrow night at The Times on the art history of perfume 1889-2008. Major creations in terms of art and history in a multisensorial lecture - fragrance, music, paintings - including several special raw materials. Details on 
This remembered me a
That recreation of the past by Lagerfeld made me again thinking of old and very rare Chanel perfumes created by Ernest Beaux - 
Photos
