De-Classifying Fragrance Ingredients | Part Three

Starf***ers and the Rise of Celebrity Ingredients

Shepard Fairey - Rise Above | De-Classifying ingredients | Celebrity

Again, when it comes to perfume ingredients, what is often written off as harmless hyperbole in fragrance copy often ends up clouding discussion about the real value and purpose of any material’s use. Promising the rarest, rawest, most highly sought after fragrance oils may seem like a good sales strategy, but in truth, it is really just another example of sloppy marketing shorthand. This tactic is typically used to dupe people into blindly accepting a product as luxurious and special by over-inflating the value of the formula. You are told everything about this product, especially the ingredients list, is “money, money, money.” Deception of this sort caters to ego, not truth. Welcome to the wily world of smoke and mirrors, and the growing rise of ingredients pitched as celebrities.

As cast members, I agree, ingredients are the true stars of any olfactive narrative… at least some of them are. When crafting a fragrance, every individual ingredient has a role to play in the end formulation, but not all act as stars. Ingredients require direction… a stage to shine on… and support from other materials. The real magic of perfume is always revealed in the synergy of materials present in the final juice.

Take Mugler’s Angel as a prime example. Chocolate, patchouli, coumarin… these are the stars of Angel’s formula. DPG (dipropylene glycol) is not, yet serves an equally important function (by dampening down certain notes). In concert together, these ingredients make one stellar fragrance; the materials unite in perfect harmony to bring Angel’s fun fair to life. The removal of any one of them upsets the perfume’s overall balance.

Chocolate and Angel are interesting foils to consider when discussing the subject of olfactive ingredients as celebrities. The relationship between chocolate and Angel can explain quite a bit about the concepts of real and perceived value in olfaction. It also exposes the fragility that accompanies the decision to treat these materials like celebrities, demonstrating what happens when ingredient worship goes beyond the pale.

“You Are… You Are My Angel…”

Thierry Mugler’s Angel was first released by Clarins in 1992. The fragrance grew in prominence in parallel with the rise of our modern celebrity-obsessed culture (from early 90’s paparazzi stalking to today’s social media madness). Angel is regarded as chocolate’s big breakout role in modern fine fragrance. During the 24 years since Angel’s initial launch, hundreds, if not thousands, of products have been produced using Chocovan (the in-house chocolate base used), including countless Angel knock-offs aiming to capture a piece of the original’s luster. The base became a popular trendsetter, ultimately giving birth to the coining of the gourmand fragrance family. As a material, Chocovan’s perceived value in the marketplace rapidly increased well beyond its actual value of roughly $30/kg. An ingredient star was on the rise.

Now fast forward to today. What was once all the rage has lost its allure. While Angel itself has somehow managed to maintain iconic status (i.e. through the investment of millions of marketing dollars to remain relevant), the same cannot be said for our beloved chocolate note. Chocolate has arguably been clichéd to death in fragrance: a victim of typecasting and overexposure. The original Angel concept has been milked of every last drop of its initial special-ness. With so many subpar substitutes and uninspired executions, olfactive myopia has started to settle in at counter. As a result, our understanding of chocolate as a material used in olfaction (what it is, how it’s used, why it’s used…) is suffering. Worse yet, the wonder associated with chocolate’s odor is also eroding, stigmatized through such astronomical overuse. Ask yourself, how long now before chocolate simply gets banished to the back of the shelf? And what effect will that absence have on creative formulation over the coming years?

When an ingredient crosses into celebrity territory, when it becomes the “it” material, it is much harder to have an open conversation about that ingredient’s true value. Our need to feed our immediate desires overrides the rational. The real material story is abandoned for an alternate, scripted fantasy. In this instance, chocolate, a rather complex material with an even more complicated past, is reduced to caricature of itself. We sidestep its real beauty and story, tailoring it with fiction to better fit our expectations and wants.

The Plight of Celebrity

Chewing on Brain | Street Art Bushwick

In theory, turning ingredients into celebrities is not all bad. After all, the ingredient is there to play a role. If it is good at that role (or the only one capable of playing that role) it can become a powerful olfactive signature: a calling card. (Guerlainade anyone?) The problem is when that fantasy is allowed to completely eclipse reality; when import is overly inflated and the ingredient’s myth starts to be accepted as an absolute truth.

We should never look to recreate the fragile ego of celebrity culture in perfumery, but instead learn from it. That means when building myths for our products, recognizing when things have gone too far. Creators and marketers need to understand the consequences of selling fantasy as fact. If you find yourself overselling luxury, making ridiculous claims just to jack up the price of your bottle… stop. Have a little more respect for your stars (and for your craft).

What’s the point of building materials up just to watch them fall from grace?