Wednesday, November 18

Fragrance is not that Subjective

I'm one of those who strongly believe that Fragrance is not subjective & not personal (plus the beauty is NOT in the nose of the beholder) and that we should always make a distinction between we/our tastes & personal disposition and what we smell. The nose is never wrong, only the words/associations might not be precise. Of course, the perfumer like any artist should forget about any known or learnt rule to "reinvent" the scent and our evanescent universe.
Perfumers learn to smell, recognize and "see" beyond the obvious facets of a material but, beyond any artistic interpretation of a material (or if you put cyclogalbanate in the green or fruity family) the truth "belongs" to it.
Now, it seems that there is some science in that and it's less about "artistic" speculations.

"There are many fragrance lovers—this author included—who focus on the essential truth of perfume, caring little that it “smells different” on everyone. Such fragrance lovers are annoyed by the cult of subjectivity suggesting that a scent may actually smell different to Jim than it does to Jane. For such people, a recent paper by Manuel Zarzo and David Stanton reveals good news: Everything is not relative. Perhaps a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose. [...] There is a consistent basis for perfume perception and description despite variations in the way individuals experience scent."
You can read the article (under subscription) in Perfumer & Flavorist


Did you enjoy my article? Sign up for updates about new fragrances, reviews of artistic perfumes and exceptional vintage masterpieces. I would be very happy if you would consider joining 1000 Fragrances, throughRSS feed,GoogleFriend connect, Facebook (more personal), or any other way that appeals to you.
Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
Blog Widget by LinkWithin