"Perfumers are chemists no more than is the painter who manipulates chemical colors." --E. Roudnitska
"Une femme sans parfum est une femme sans avenir." (A woman without perfume is a woman without a future.) --Coco Chanel
* * *
Perhaps a bit extreme, but amusing nonetheless. Perfumery is truly a methodical art. It is really not chemistry. And actually, a woman OR man without any perfume would be totally excluded from society, which could be the same thing as having no future. Consider the perfumes in soaps, creams, gels, sprays, cosmetics, disinfectants, detergents, and other mass market goods everyone buys in order to function in today's world. Even if you buy "unscented" or "fragrance free" products, they are still perfumed in order to mask the unpleasant odors of the base chemical(s). For example, a lot of laundry detergents smell fatty or even fishy before some kind of fragrance is added. Who wants their clean clothes to smell like seafood?
"Une femme sans parfum est une femme sans avenir." (A woman without perfume is a woman without a future.) --Coco Chanel
* * *
Perhaps a bit extreme, but amusing nonetheless. Perfumery is truly a methodical art. It is really not chemistry. And actually, a woman OR man without any perfume would be totally excluded from society, which could be the same thing as having no future. Consider the perfumes in soaps, creams, gels, sprays, cosmetics, disinfectants, detergents, and other mass market goods everyone buys in order to function in today's world. Even if you buy "unscented" or "fragrance free" products, they are still perfumed in order to mask the unpleasant odors of the base chemical(s). For example, a lot of laundry detergents smell fatty or even fishy before some kind of fragrance is added. Who wants their clean clothes to smell like seafood?
6 comments:
I dont understand the people who are not chemist and they talk about the chemistry without chemistry knowledge.
I believe Roudnitska was a chemist...
How many perfumers have you met who actually synthesize chemicals? Companies hire hundreds of CHEMISTS to synthetisize new molecules (in hopes of making tons of money) and to give the perfumers upstairs another "color" for their palettes...
How I understand it is that perfumery is not a linear additive process where 1+1=2. There is a syngery (or the opposite) in combining multiple chemicals. I miss you!
Sorry, my professor told me that Roudnitska wasn't a chemist, but that he started out taking care of the storage barrels in a perfumery lab, or something like that.
However, my teacher was trained in chemistry, and happens to agree with the quote (among others...)
Interesting food for thought.
Hey, silly. You're supposed to update a blog! :)
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