Insights: Fragrance Development
Composed with passion
Perfume creation – how olfactory works of art come into being.
“Creating a fragrance can be seen as a form of art where emotions, dreams and wishes are transformed into scents that beautify our lives,” said Alexandra Kalle, our company perfume developer. At Mäurer & Wirtz, we create fragrances that open unique worlds as well as awaken longings and forgotten memories. All these can be triggered by exciting scent compositions – substances that can neither be seen nor touched, but still tell us fascinating stories. Our love of fragrances, which stems from expertise developed over 170 years and uncompromising quality standards, is the pillar of our fragrance manufacture. We also have a keen sense for trends.
The birth of a fragrance
“As an interface between our marketing department and the various fragrance houses, the perfume development department performs the fine tuning of the brand and fragrance composition together with the perfume houses or for example, Geza Schön, who is known for creating according to his own rules. This is incredibly exciting.”
The creation of a perfume is an intriguing experience. With watchful eyes and a curious nose, we observe which topics in the areas of lifestyle, fashion and society are interesting and inspiring. From this analysis we develop concepts that our perfume development department translates into thrilling worlds of fragrance. This requires a high degree of sensitivity and an exceptionally trained nose – to recall such a broad pallet of learned scents and describe which scents are contained in a fragrance. After all, at this point the fragrance exists only as an idea. The briefing is then given to the dedicated hands of internationally renowned perfume houses – it serves as a foundation or canvas for the first olfactory version of the perfume. Together with our perfume development department’s expertise, the work of art is eventually completed.
A fascination with scents
“Not a day passes by where I do not use my sense of smell. Something would be missing if this were not the case. It is similar to a painter’s need to reach for their brushes.” The fascinating process of taking individual ingredients and making a harmonious whole, takes time, an enormous amount of concentration and a whole lot of feeling. Each individual nuance or note contributes to the perfume as a whole and gives it that special something or its unique character. One also needs to have a sense of when a composition is actually finished. Through our cumulative competency of fragrances and passionate quality assurance on site, we ensure that these requirements are met. We let ourselves be constantly inspired – by nature, places and especially by our love of fragrances.
Aesthetic diversity
The aesthetics of a perfume ultimately depend on the person smelling the fragrance. In terms of fragrance preferences, there are international differences which are influenced by climate and social conditions. We know this and develop special products for specific markets, so that we can reach each nose and delight them with perfumes. Just as different styles of art appeal to various people, each perfume enthusiast should be able to enjoy fragrant works of art – so that they can find their dreams and wishes in a fragrant perfume that makes their everyday life a bit more special.