Shawn Maher - The most transparent perfumer in history!

Hello, Fragrant Friend 👋,

(A correction from last week’s quiz: the “rare and precious substance from the sea” was Ambergris.)

🗓️ Contents of this Issue

1. Story: Shawn Maher — the most transparent perfumer in history
2. Quiz: What won’t you find in a Fougère accord?
3. Smell Business: Digitising the Molecular World (Osmo AI)

Story: Shawn Maher 🇺🇸

An interview with Shawn Maher — CaFleureBon’s Perfumer of the Year 2020, behind Chatillon Lux and Maher Olfactive. He grew up loving the smells of nature, and his music background informs his approach (base notes supporting top notes like a song). Chatillon Lux is inspired by St. Louis’s history and made accessible; Maher Olfactive is his playground for rare materials.

Weinstrasse — a fougère base with a white-wine note honouring the Missouri Weinstrasse and his German heritage. Waking Dream — a creamy Mysore sandalwood base with an iris accord and dreamy amber. Can’t Stand the Rain — inspired by Ann Peebles’ song, with petitgrain, lemongrass, jasmine, rainwater, cedar, myrrh, labdanum and oakmoss. Velouria — inspired by the Pixies’ song, with candied violet, orris and blueberry over vetiver, incense and musk. At scent-notes.com he documents every creative process, demystifying perfumery.

Smell Business: Osmo AI 🖥️

Osmo.ai is digitising the molecular landscape — specialising in the chemical spectrum of smell. Alex Wiltschko argues AI must become multimodal to truly understand the world. Citing examples like a nurse who can smell Parkinson’s and dogs detecting fentanyl, Osmo aims to surpass natural capabilities, having compiled the largest olfactory dataset in history. The goal: a world where every scent and chemical signal is readable and reproducible on demand.