art of perfumery

Mood effect Haute perfumes

Perfume is no longer meant to just smell good. Its abilities to create positive emotions are more than ever solicited.

Thus, perfume has become the new mood booster, especially since the pandemic. And the industry that has exploded like never before, is now capitalizing on it. We imagined way before our perfumes as seductive yet with a specific feel good effect as we believe in the power of scent on the brain. To us, perfume is not just as a projection of our personality but can also be an allie of our inner well-being. And given that our perfumes are made with essential oils, it naturally made even more sense to create this type of fragrances and not just pretty scents.

Understanding the sense of smell

Smell is our strongest sense yet the least known as it is regarded as our most primitive sense, when our early ancestors used it for survival (foraging, hunting, eating, mating). It is said that later on, humans operating in extreme environments such as sailors, explorers, aviators used odours and their sense of smell to navigate. Some indigenous groups such as hunter-gatherers in Malaysia, the Jahai people, still have a "special" if not superior sense of smell, with an ability to name hundred of smells like we would do for colours in our smell impoverished world.

So, what is "olfaction" and how does it work? Olfaction is the process of smelling. Smell is triggered by odour molecules and passes through our nasal cavities. These molecules are identified by receptors that send signals to our olfactory bulbs located between the nasal passage and the brain's frontal lobe. Olfactory bulbs are part of our limbic system, the area of the brain that processes emotions and learning. Hence, the connection between scents and memories or emotions.

Olfaction, a vital sense for humans

Olfaction is so vital to humans that its loss can ruin our life or even end it. And in this time of covid, we all heard about anosmia (partial or complete loss of sense of smell), and many affected by covid, experienced anosmia at some point and even could recovered from covid by reeducating their sense of smell. Elderly people have a less acute sense of smell and the complete loss of it due to age or some conditions such as Parkinson, can slowly shut down vital organs and lead to death. So, sense of smell is vital to humans and it is important to maintain it.

Perfume and emotions

Scent, emotion, and memory are intertwined. Understanding how smells affect our emotions helps to create fragrances that make us feel a certain way (confident, elegant, sexy) and induce certain mood effects (relaxation, joy, energy, coziness, connection, well-being, happiness).

We all have a personal olfactory language triggering memories and emotions. No need to be a perfumer for that. Think of the smell of sharpened pencils or vanilla reminding of childhood, Christmas time, family gatherings, or suntan lotion, fresh cut grass and strawberries evoking summer time or a grandmother's garden. You can educate or re-educate your sense of smell by smelling intensely fruits, veggies, food, spices, herbs, fresh air, bath and body products, and even educate your kids and create sensory memories with them.

But do you know that the perfume industry has separated our already disconnected sense of smell into separate segments?

Functional vs fine fragrance vs aromatherapy

Up to now, the industry has separated commercial fragrance into two segments: functional vs fine fragrance. Aromatherapy is a completely separate segment that is not part of the beauty sector but the wellness'. The difference is their respective role but also in their composition.

Functional fragrance: It belongs to the home scent or home fragrance segment:

This type of scents has a sort of a “planned” effect, an intentional function or a quick fix for the users, to triggers happy memories, energizing feel, sensation of coziness, sense of cleanliness.
The composition is made with cheap synthetics (musks) or low-cost naturals such as lavender, citrus, lemongrass.
Scents in this category: Home scents (room sprays, candles, diffusers), soaps and detergents (laundry, cleaning), bath and body (shampoos, shower gels, body lotions or powders).

Fine fragrance: It belongs to the personal fragrance segment or perfumery.

Fine fragrance is used for sole purpose of the scents. Meaning that the fragrance serves as the sole functional purpose or raison d'être of the product.
The composition is more refined than functional fragrance, using better or finer ingredients, whether naturals or lab-made.
Scents in this category: Alcohol-based perfumes (eaux fraîches, eaux de toilette, eaux de parfum), oil-based perfumes (perfume oils, solid perfumes), and recently water-based perfumes.

Aromatherapy is the practice of using essential oils for therapeutic benefits in use for thousands of years. Modern aromatherapy was invented by in France by René-Maurice Gattefossé, in his book Aromathérapie : Les Huiles essentielles - hormones végétales (1937), promoting the use of essential oils to treat infectious diseases.

When luxury meets function

Fine fragrance and functional fragrance are not strictly separated. They can collide when a brand decides to create ancillary products such as body lotions, hair perfumes, soaps, candles or even car scents, as luxurious add-ons to extend the use or longlastiness of your favourite scents but also as a way to make more profits.

These products are under-appreciated but they are not your regular body or home products and contain a percentage of the same fragrance oils used in their fine fragrance counterparts (around 2%, similar to an eau fraîche). They are more subtle and intimate or are used to replace a louder eau de parfum.

Our innovation: Mood effect haute perfumes

We have combined the properties and roles of fine fragrance, functional fragrance and aromatherapy to create mood effect haute natural perfumes. It means that not only we seek to create the most beautiful scents with the finest ingredients but also each of them is selected for the mood effect sought-after. Which makes our art even more challenging and complex yet so unique and meaningful.

Each of our fragrance produces one or more mood effects. The categories we've invented are:

Uppers: Uplifting, vivacious perfumes (chypré, fougère, citrus, woody, leathery notes).
Downers: Relaxing, meditative perfumes (woody, vanilla, earthy notes).
Players: Playful, mischievous perfumes (heady florals, ambery notes).
Shakers: Audacious, unexpected perfumes (non-conventional notes).
Connectors: Cozy, memory-triggering perfumes (vanilla, earthy, green notes).

How to use our mood effect haute perfumes

Simply wear them as regular perfumes, however use them preciously and mindfully:

Think about the prima materia in each fragrance or the plants, the soil and the terroir, the origin, the ingredients, the producers.
Think of the slow perfumery art that takes us hundred of steps and long months to achieve them. Exactly like fine wines.
Think of the alchemical process inside your bottle as our perfumes are living fragrances that evolves with time, weather forecast, humidity level in your area, your current mood, hormone level, skin type or even health conditions.
Think of the positive vibes that it will create on and in you.
Think of the smelling good, feeling good and doing good as each sale will contribute to back sustainable programs in Madagascar to save the endangered biodiversity and alleviate poverty.
And think of our community of passionate perfume and nature lovers and the growing family we are building together and the universe you are part of.

That's our innovation! Embrace it and shop our feel good haute perfumes.