Let's create a fragrance together

Hello, Fragrant Friend 👋,

Only 24h after the release of the last newsletter the tendency was clear: you want to actively participate in a commercial fragrance. We are as thrilled as you are. In the background, preparations for something big are in full swing.

🗓️ Contents of this Issue

1. Note Worthy: Fragrance growth, Inside Amouage, and Feminist Fragrances
2. Strictly Independent: Tobba
3. Scent MythBusters: The only way to compose is top, heart, base note blending
4. Quiz: Most prolific perfumer for Frédéric Malle
5. Rare Ingredients: Costus

Note-Worthy 🔎🌸

#SCENTAVIATION: Air France launches its first signature home fragrance, AF001, crafted by Francis Kurkdjian — mimosa, jasmine and rose with a musky, sunlit warmth, inspired by the Concorde era.

#FRAGRANCEGROWTH: Fragrance sales surged to $8.8 billion in 2024, a 22% year-over-year jump, fuelled by local retailers (+22.6%) and online (+21.6%). Gen Alpha drove a 40% spike in searches for “clean,” “hypoallergenic” and “for children” fragrances.

#INSIDEAMOUAGE: Renaud Salmon unveiled the operational and regulatory challenges behind Amouage’s 40%+ pure perfume oil fragrances — spray-nozzle clogs, bottle incompatibility, fabric staining, and grey-market dilution risks.

Strictly Independent 🎨 🌟 — TOBBA

A Hong Kong house founded in 2021 by painter-turned-perfumer Jasper Li and creative director Adrian Yu, blurring the lines between olfaction and emotion — perfumes that feel like wearable art. Scents: 6.

Force. A celebration of vitality: Italian cypress with mint, liquorice with cocoa absolute, and Siberian fir balsam with patchouli and leather.

Indolence. A scent that unleashes the inner self — fresh citrus with earthy soil, a hint of tobacco; within deviance lies charm.

Serendipity. A Silk Road journey: nutmeg and saffron atop Mysore sandalwood, with clove and a touch of patchouli intertwined with minerals and leather.

Scent MythBusters 🎭️

“The only way to compose a fragrance is to blend top, heart and base notes.”
Myth of the week

TL;DR

While many perfumers do start with classic top-heart-base layers, it’s not the only method. Some craft a “backbone” first, then dress it up; others assemble discrete “accords” like puzzle pieces. There’s no single, one-size-fits-all formula.

Three approaches

Traditional layering: develop top, heart and base accords, then unify — a clear framework taught in perfume schools. Backbone-first: build the core identity (base + heart) before adding volatile top notes — favoured in niche perfumery. Modular accord assembly: create self-contained mini-accords and weave them together — ideal for complex, multifaceted perfumes.

Verdict

There is no single definitive path. Skilled perfumers often blend techniques — turning perfumery into an art of endless possibility.

Rare Ingredients: Costus 💎

Derived from the roots of the Saussurea costus plant, costus was once so treasured it rivalled precious spices. Renowned for its musky, slightly animalic character — hints of damp soil, wet fur and warm human skin — it adds a haunting, intimate depth. Now restricted and often replaced by synthetics, natural costus still adds one-of-a-kind depth when used sparingly. Personality: rustic, animalic, earthy. Best paired with: incense, patchouli, rose, orris and musks. Notable examples: Senyokô La Tsarine, House of Matriarch Two of Cups, Meo Fusciuni Last Season.