On Fragrance

Did you know that New Jersey is a major center of the fragrance industry? I learned this recently when I took a workshop on fragrance. Three of the biggest companies in the “flavors and fragrance” industry have headquarters in New Jersey: Firmenich (close by in Plainsboro), Givaudan (East Hanover), and Symrise (Teterboro). According to the blog of Rutgers’ Master of Business and Science Degree, 125 flavor and fragrance companies are located in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area.

The workshop that I attended was led by a former marketing manager at one of these F&F companies. Despite not being a perfumer herself, she still had to pass a difficult test in which she recognized scents from an array of glass vials. During the workshop session, we smelled many things, including an array of lavender-scented products. On one end, the products smelled good, but smelled… purple. The workshop leader called them “fantasy lavender” – they were sweet and pleasant, but had little to do with the actual scent of the lavender that is currently blooming in a pot on my balcony. On the other end, we smelled very expensive candles that, if you closed your eyes, would make you believe you were in a field of lavender. We also sniffed a vial of a fragrance that was supposed to smell like petrichor, the scent of rainfall. I thought it smelled like a nice perfume more than rainfall, but it did smell liquid, watery, and fresh.

I signed up for the workshop because I enjoy smelling things – flowers, incense, spices, teas. If a store has candles, I will smell each one. My favorite scents to wear are woody and mossy: my favorite perfume has top notes of sandalwood and cedar, and a base note of amber wood. But I also love florals, especially rose, neroli, and lavender. I have a roller bottle of lavender oil that I bought at a local farm. If I want to give myself a moment of calm, I roll a little on my wrists, close my eyes, and smell. Focusing on our senses can help cultivate mindfulness and ease anxiety. And of course, scent is closely connected to memory. I went to the farm where I bought the lavender oil with a friend, and we took a yoga class there under a huge oak tree, walked through the lavender fields, and had a picnic. I think of that memory when I smell the lavender, and I also think of my aunt’s garden where I used to walk past a row of lavender plants to get to her gate.

If you’d like to read more about scent, fragrance, and perfume, I have a few book suggestions for you. My favorite book on fragrance is The Museum of Scent: Exploring the Curious and Wondrous World of Fragrance by artisanal perfumer Mandy Aftel. The author is the founder of the Aftel Archive of Curious Scents, which I hope to visit one day. This book is a natural and cultural history, with an encyclopedic format on the botany, history, and religious/spiritual uses of each scent.

Perhaps most people have smelled the iconic perfume Chanel No. 5, so you can probably call to mind that fragrance as you read The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Intimate History of the World’s Most Famous Perfume by Tilar J. Mazzeo. The publisher describes it as “a captivating … book that shares her journey to discover the secret behind the creation, iconic status, and extraordinary success of Chanel No. 5, the world's most famous perfume.”

For more nonfiction about perfume and fragrance, try searching “Perfumes – History” in the library catalog. Or you could search for “Perfumes – Fiction.” Among many sensuous novels, I found The Perfume Thief by Timothy Schaffert: “Clementine, sometimes known as Judge, is a 72-year-old reformed con artist with a penchant for impeccably tailored suits. Her life of crime has led her from the uber-wealthy perfume junkies of belle epoque Manhattan, to the scented butterflies of Costa Rica, to the spice markets of Marrakesh, and finally the bordellos of Paris, where she settles down and opens a legitimate shop bottling her favorite extracts for the ladies of the cabarets. In 1941 as the Germans stranglehold on the city tightens, Clem's perfume-making attracts the notice of Oskar Voss, a francophile Nazi bureaucrat, who comes to demand Clem's expertise and loyalty in his mysterious play for Hitler's favor. Complete with romance, espionage, champagne towers and haute couture, this full-tilt sensory experience is a dazzling portrait of the underground resistance of twentieth century Paris and a passionate love letter to the power of beauty and community in the face of insidious hate.”

What are your favorite scents?

• Corina, West Windsor Branch