Today most of perfumers work in front of a computer, the formula can be arranged in many ways and in many cases it is very long. Some perfumers, trained first in GC labs, have a very specific writing or arrangement. One very famous perfume on the market has at least 3 pages and even a trained nose feels lost between names and numbers. In some cases it's like Matrix but the scented version.
At first view, my old handwritten papers with notes and formulas doesn't reveal very much and the ingredients doesn't seem do be in a specific order (from top to bottom or to facilitate compounding). But everything changed when I stopped looking at the names and I focused on numbers and their relation. Like an architect or a sculptor, Ernest Beaux modulated some of his perfumes. If you find the "key" everything shows up. It is only about proportion but it was not obvious for me until I put the numbers in Excel. This "modulated writting" allowed him to rewrite the formula for any manufacturing requirements (the amount of perfume to be produced). The key number from the Chanel No5 formula is based on 5, other perfume have a different "key". But this is related more to how labs used to work and less to symbolism (it is explained by the number of ingredients and how you can modulate them). Today we weight with an electronic balance but back in 1921 it was much simpler and for the same reason the mind was more organized.
Another surprise comes if the formula of Chanel No 5 is rearranged, first according to the proportions and second, according to the main 10 facets of the perfume (including the lily of the valley that is an accord here). Every facet has almost the same weight in the formula (with 2 exceptions that can be easily explained once you learned how the perfume works and this explains also the structure of Mademoiselle No1). Each facet is made with a small number of ingredients and has almost the same power (there is no delicate versus strong impact facet). They also works from top to bottom creating links between what is volatile and what is tenacious inside the same facet. Like Coco Chanel in fashion, what Ernest Beaux wrote is about "the essential" - you cannot take out things and this is not obvious until you look at the papers. Unlike the concept expressed by Jean Carles, there are no accessories notes here, there is no ornament. The same concept applies to Sycomore (the original), Beige, Rouge, Ivoire, Bois des Iles. Also, the arrangement can be less complicated and the dynamic proportion is changed. This way of composing allowed Ernest Beaux to think his perfumes in terms of accords and "volumes" (masses like a sculptor). This type of dynamic relation reminds me Frank Lloyd Wright and the use of Froebel games. Once you know how the perfume works and how its artistic shape is constructed you can reproduce it with other materials, you can rewrite it by heart. If the legends says that aldehydes were first an accident, their presence in the formula of No5 is well orchestrated and their exact relative proportion shows how the genius worked.
When aldehydes became a trend, many perfumers started to use them but in a very different way. They placed an aldehydic bouquet over a perfume like a crown and in some cases they even used the aldehydic bases of the market. Ernest Beaux seized the importance of each ingredient, organized facets according to their importance in the composition (primary and secondary) and according to their role on a time scale.
It is not a surprise for me that the formula of several first soviet perfumes produced before the 50's were following a similar concept (first register, harmonizing notes, second register, exalting notes, etc) but with less expensive ingredients - we know little of them because we do not have access to original products or many papers.
When animalic tinctures were eliminated from Chanel No5 extract its heart stopped to beat because in the dynamic of the olfactory space they represented a lot (big proportion).
Chanel No5 was the ideal perfume of a new generation. If Art Nouveau gave birth to the beautiful Ideal (Houbigant), a perfume cherished by Ernest Beaux, Chanel No5 took this idea to a new level in the 20's. Art was more abstract, the architecture was following the lessons of Adolf Loos and his "ornament and crime" text. The masterpiece of Ernest Beaux was in fact the ideal perfume when the major facets of the perfumery were in harmony, each playing a major role in the creation. All 10 in a perfume and set to proportion as Le Corbusier would do later. The main lessons from this perfume are:
- the choice of ingredients according to their tonality, impact and tenacity
- the major chord of the perfume
- the use of a specific set of proportions and numbers
- a specific choice of facets and a clear distribution inside the perfume
- everything is essential and no ingredient repeats what others say
- the theme is present at each stage, amplified and harmonized
Unfortunately I do not know all the creations of this genius and some have vanished without a trace. How was his Chypre, how did he write the other forgotten notes from Chanel, when did he start to think perfumes and begin a new writing form in fragrance, how would he use the modern ingredients? Many puzzles to solve in this life.
Photo - Rallet, Impératrice - ad cca 1912, Moscow, an early Chanel No5 bottle
Photo - Rallet, Impératrice - ad cca 1912, Moscow, an early Chanel No5 bottle
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
