The made-to-order perfume to 'reveal' who we are

The fragrance we wear tells us who we are and what our state of mind is. It describes a mood, or a place dear to us; it can arouse feelings, make us relax, express what we are: our sensuality or our sweetness. Perfumes stimulate the nervous system and release hormones, and this is one of the reasons why more and more people want a tailor-made perfume, choosing the ingredients themselves. Fabrizio Tagliacarne, Fragrance Designer and Founder of Omnia Profumi, explains how it works: “Usually people who approach this world always have a starting idea. It can be a memory of something they really like, also from the emotional, or the desire to create something new starting from a known perfume on which additions are desired. Basically, a person ends up asking for a tailor-made perfume to create a fragrance that represents him.”

What is the first step to creating a fragrance?
“We start from an olfactory idea. The master fragrancer who composes the fragrance has the task of giving expression to what is usually a story from the customer. A good “nose” must therefore be able to translate the sensations that people describe in words into perfume. This is why it is necessary to have great sensitivity, to satisfy people by creating a fragrance that is different from any other.”

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In the laboratory where personal perfumes are created with the advice of a maître parfumer

We asked the nose Nuria Du Chêne de Vère, who creates ‘unique’ fragrances in Milan in her Nur atelier (Largo Francesco Richini 2), to tell us how the steps of creation take place and why more and more people desire a personal perfume.
“When I thought of opening a laboratory to create ‘tailor-made perfumes’ I paid great attention to the involvement of the customer in the entire creative development of the fragrance, especially in the choice of raw materials. For this reason, during the first appointment I work closely contact with the customer to identify his olfactory pleasures. In this way he can follow the creation step by step, smelling the raw materials and deciding which ones to use, and in what proportions, depending on his own preferences. Obviously it is not easy for a non-expert person to understand the raw materials, because being concentrated they often have unexpected smells, but my job is to guide them and in the end we always manage to create a harmonious and personal fragrance. I must say that the discovery of fragrances is my favorite moment because I always see great enthusiasm and amazement from customers, amazed to see the ‘behind the scenes’ of such a little-known and complex job, that of the nose” Nuria tells us.

The olfactory organ of the Nur laboratory now contains almost 400 raw materials

What are the useful characteristics for understanding what type of fragrance to create? What questions do you ask customers to get started?
“As mentioned, the first appointment is used to conduct a kind of interview to get to know the person in front of me. I ask a series of questions of various kinds, to understand what fragrances the customer has used up to then and therefore intercept his tastes ; then I continue with questions regarding personal olfactory memory or more abstract ones, which allow me to make associations. Through the answers I can define a draft olfactory pyramid which will be used as a guide for the creation phase of the olfactory organ”.

What leads people to invest in a made-to-order perfume?
“Definitely the desire to have a unique and exclusively personal perfume as for many of my clients perfume has an identity value. Most of my clients are passionate about perfumes but it happens more and more often that people arrive convinced they have never found their own perfume and want to find the most suitable accords for them”.