In parts 1, 2, and 3 of this series, we talked about how fragrances are created by Fragrance Houses and sent to cosmetic manufacturers. In the fourth and final part we`ll talk about the issues chemists face when putting a fragrance into a finished product.

Adding Fragrance

Adding fragrance to a shampoo, body lotion, facial cleanser, or any other product, is not as easy as you might think. Chemists must first ensure that the fragrance can be properly mixed into the formula base. This may be tricky because fragrances are oily materials and may not be fully soluble in all types of formulas. If this is the case, additional chemicals called solubilizing agents can be added. (If you read the back of the bottle, a solubilizer typically looks like like “Polysorbate” followed by a number. ) Chemists must also make sure that the fragrance is added to the product at the right temperature or the scent might not smell right. Some products are heated during manufacture because many cosmetic ingredients have to must be melted before they can be used. Since fragrances are very temperature sensitive, this can be a problem. To avoid damaging the fragrance, formulators add fragrance after they`re done heating the product.

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Testing The Finished Product

Even after the fragrance is in the product, a lot can go wrong. For example, the ingredients in the formula can change the way the fragrance smells or the fragrance can cause the product to become cloudy or change color. So, once the chemist has properly incorporated the fragrance into the product, they use a process called stability testing to look for incompatibility between the fragrance and the formula. This process can take a month or more and involves testing samples that have been stored at elevated temperatures and exposed to UV light. These conditions accelerate the kinds of reactions that cause chemical changes.

During stability testing chemists look for any changes to the product. One of the most common types of change caused by a fragrance interaction is a change in viscosity. Some formulas will get thicker or thinner than they are supposed to be because of an interaction with a component of the fragrance. Fragrance can also affect a product`s appearance. Fragrances have been known to turn a body wash from blue to green, or a conditioner from white to pink. They can also make a clear product, like a hair gel, turn cloudy or hazy. And fragrances can make creamy products, like hand lotions and suncreens, look grainy or even fall apart. Of course, the formulator also has to smell the product to make sure that the fragrance is not becoming distorted over time. That can happen because fragrances contain chemicals that are very reactive like ketones, aldehydes, esters, amides and alkynes.

Trouble Shooting

Depending on what goes wrong during stability testing, the chemist may attempt to fix the problem by adjusting the formula. For example, a shift in viscosity can be compensated for by adding a thickening or thinning agent. (Common table salt is widely used to thicken shampoo and body wash formulas.) If the problem is more serious, the chemist may also ask the fragrance house to modify the fragrance oil to resolve the issue. To arrive at a final fragrance and formula combination, the chemist and fragrance house may have to experiment with several versions of the fragrance. After each fragrance revision, stability testing is repeated until the product is finally proven it`s ready to be sold.

Alls Well That Ends Smell

As you have seen in this 4 part series, creating a fragrance and adding it to a cosmetic product is a complex process that requires both scientific and artistic skills. But thanks to the diligent efforts of the cosmetic chemists in the personal care industry, we`re blessed with thousands of great hair and skin products that work great and are fun to smell!

As we saw in Part 1 of this series, perfumers design new fragrances based on a fragrance brief, a profile provided by the company requesting the new scent that describes the desired characteristics of the new fragrance. Based on this direction, the perfumers must select ingredients like those we talked about in Part 2 to build the fragrance with. As we saw, there are thousands of ingredients to choose from. In Part 3, we talk about the process used to select these ingredients.

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Selecting and Blending Ingredients

This selection process is part science and part art. A scientific background is required to understand the chemistry of how fragrance ingredients react with each other and the product they will be put into. (Remember, perfumers are not only creating perfumes, but fragrances that are used in skin lotions, nail polish removers, hair conditioners, and hundreds of other products.) An artistic flair is required to understand how different fragrance ingredients can invoke moods and feelings. As you can see, a master perfumer must be a good chemist and a good artist to get the job done properly.

The perfumer begins the process by building an accord which is the basic backbone of the fragrance that establishes its basic character Is it floral, fruity, or spicy? A complex fragrance may contain multiple accords that are layered on top of one another. After the perfumer has created this basic version of the fragrance, an evaluator assesses it to see how well it meets the requirements of the brief. In this stage, the fragrance is added to the actual product it is intended to be used in and smelled. The evaluator is looking at how well the fragrance meets the concept as well as initial compatibility with the base.

Based on the results of these evaluations, the fragrance may then go back to the perfumer for further tweaking. Several rounds of formulating and evaluation may be required before they are both satisfied with the fragrance as a viable candidate for the project.

Evaluating the Fragrance

Once the perfumer and evaluator agree that the fragrance is acceptable, it’s ready to be put through a series of additional tests. The simplest tests are consumer panels that are used to ensure people perceive the fragrance the way the perfumer intended. Other tests are used to measure the strength of the fragrance or the way it blooms when the product is dispensed. While a perfume is easy to evaluate by spraying onto skin or a paper blotter, it can be trickier to test fragrances designed for products that are diluted in water like shampoos and body washes. For this reason, the larger fragrance houses are equipped with sensory testing centers that allow them to evaluate products under a variety of conditions. For example, a shampoo fragrance can be tested in a chamber which simulates a bathroom shower. This way the fragrance can be smelled under “real life” conditions.

These test results are used to further optimize the fragrance. If the fragrance did not bloom well enough in the shower or if didn’t last long enough on skin, the perfumers can return to the laboratory to make modifications. Once the fragrance has passed all these in-house evaluations, it’s ready for the final test which is typically done with a larger number of panelists. It’s typical to have up to 100 people smell the final fragrance to make sure it meets the requirements of the original fragrance brief.

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Testing for Safety

Throughout the process, safety is a primary concern. Perfumers only use raw materials that have been pre-screened to ensure their safety. Ingredients that have serious health concerns are banned from use. Others which have no serious issues but which have the potential to induce a mild allergic reaction in some people, are identified by name. Recent laws require the listing of these fragrance allergens on the ingredient statement for the final product. This is helpful to consumers that have allergies to fragrance components, because they can read the ingredient list and avoid products that contain that ingredient.

The Final Steps

This entire development process, from the time the brief is submitted to the time that a fragrance is complete, usually takes at least 2 months, depending on the nature of the project. At the end of the time, samples of the fragrance oil are sent to the client for evaluation. In final part of this series, we’ll look at how cosmetic formulators at the client company add the new fragrance to a product.

In Part 1 of this series, The Beauty Brains shocked the world by revealing a deep, dark secret of the beauty industry: most companies don’t create their own fragrances. Instead, they hire specialized companies known as Fragrance Houses to do it for them. In Part 2 we talk about the ingredients that these Fragrance Houses use to create all those wonderful scents.

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Fragrance Structure

Fragrance notes are used to create a perfume the same way bricks are used to create a building. You start with a foundation, and you add layer after layer until you reach the top. A good fragrance is kind of built like a pyramid with a large, solid bottom layer and a smaller, lighter top.

Ingredients known as “bottom notes” form the base of a fragrance. These account for about 40% or 50% of the fragrance. Because these bottom notes are heavier, longer lasting scents you can still smell them even after you`ve been wearing a fragrance for hours.

The middle of the fragrance is the part you smell the strongest after you`ve been wearing it for 30 minutes or so. This section makes up about 30% to 40% of the fragrance and is usually a complex floral blend.

At the top of the fragrance pyramid, you`ll find the lightest, fastest evaporating scents. These “top notes” make up about 20% of the fragrance and they are described with terms like “sparkling” and “fresh.” You smell them when you first open a bottle of perfume but they evaporate quickly once you apply it to your skin.

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Types Of Fragrance Ingredients

There are thousands of fragrance ingredients that can be used as bottom, middle and top notes. Perfumers group them into the following categories :

Citrusy
As the name implies, these are derived from citrus fruits like limes, lemons, oranges and grapefruits. These are typically used as top notes to brighten a fragrance.

Floral
Flowers are the most popular of all fragrance scents - rose, tuberose, jasmin, freesia, and lily are just a few of the many possible floral notes. In general, floral notes are diffusive and natural smelling. But they are also quite diverse - floral aldehydes tend to have a fatty odor; green florals are almost vegetable-like; and fruity florals are bright and sweet.

Fougere
Fougere is the term used to describe a group of fragrance notes that include certain
citrus fruits, geranium and lavender. These notes are very crisp and clean smelling and are said to smell like fresh air or the outdoors. This type of scent is frequently used in men`s colognes.

Fruity
In addition to citrus fruits, apple, peach, berry, and melon notes are also used as fragrance ingredients. The original Herbal Essences fragrance, for example, was built on a strong green apple note. These scents are very well liked and do a good job of covering up the odor of other chemicals in the formula. They are described as being sweet, fresh, and natural.

Herbal/Green
Herbal and green notes can be made from rosemary, sage, basil, and other similar plants. These also make good top notes because they diffuse very quickly. They are often described as fresh, clean and natural.

Oriental
Oriental notes typically include amber, frankincense, myrrh, incense notes, sandalwood, vanilla and fir balsam. These are heavy, long-lasting scents so they make good bottom notes. (Note : Oriental is a technical term, not to be confused with “Asian “which is the more politically correct term to describe ethnicity.)

Woodsy
Woodsy notes smell like cedar or pine. They tend to be heavy and long lasting so they make good bottom notes too.

We`ve barely scratched the surface with this short list of ingredients, but hopefully you’ll be able to decipher at least some of the fragrance descriptions the next time you`re shopping at Sephora. And now that you understand these basic building blocks of fragrance chemistry, you`re ready for Part 3 where we`ll talk about how perfumers combine these chemicals to make us all smell so sexy!

The Beauty Brains receive a lot of questions about fragrance in beauty products so we thought you’d enjoy learning a bit more about the science behind the scents. Over the next few weeks we’ll be running a multi-part series that will discuss the chemistry of fragrance ingredients, how companies decide what kind of fragrance to put in products, and how new regulations can help protect you from fragrance allergies. Part 1 gets the ball rolling right now by describing what a fragrance is and where it comes from:

Definition of Fragrance

Fragrance is a mixture of fragrant essential oils and aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used to give the human body, objects, and living spaces a pleasant smell. In the context of beauty care products, fragrance really means two things. First, it can refer to a scent that you wear on your body like Chanel, Dolce & Gabanna Light Blue, or Donna Karan Gold. This definition is the one most people probably think of first. But the term also refers to scents that are added to beauty products to cover the base odor of the chemicals and to make the products more exciting to consumers.

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The terms fragrance, perfume, and cologne are sometimes used interchangeably but they don’t necessarily mean the same thing. Strictly speaking, fragrance is a broader term covering all aroma chemical mixtures. Perfumes and cologne describe a specific type of fragrance that is worn on the body. (The term Cologne comes from the name of the German city where it was invented.)

Where Do Fragrances Come From?

While a fragrance can be a simple natural oil, (rose oil comes to mind for example) most fragrances are compounded from many ingredients some of which are natural and some of which are not. Who creates a fragrance? You may be surprised to find the companies that sell hair and skin care products do not, in general, make their own scents. Even the companies that sell the perfumes mentioned above don’t make their own fragrances. And no, Britney Spears did not make her Curious fragrance! Instead, fragrances are developed by companies that specialize in perfumery, known as fragrance houses. There are dozens (if not hundreds) of these companies around the world. The largest global fragrance suppliers include companies like Givaudan, International Fragrances and Flavors, and Firmenich. (By the way, these companies not only create fragrances but they are also responsible for developing most of the flavors used in the food industry today.)

Fragrance houses work with finished product manufacturers to create new scents for all kinds of beauty products. They are involved in every aspect of fragrance creation: from predicting the next hot fragrance trend, to understanding the science of chemistry, to consumer testing of new fragrance/product combinations. In most cases, this development work is carried by under the direction of the finished product manufacturer.

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Beginning the Creative Process - The Fragrance Brief:

A brief is a document the finished product manufacturer provides to the fragrance house to direct the fragrance development. It establishes the objective of the project, the conceptual direction, and pricing parameters. In other words, tt tells the fragrance house everything they need to know to be able to create a new fragrance.
Once the direction for the project has been set, the actual fragrance development can begin. This work is done by highly trained perfumers who use a pallet of aroma chemicals to create new scents in the same way that an artist uses a color pallet to create a painting.  In Fragrance Science Part 2 we’ll discuss how this fragrance creation process actually works.