Smell of Success

(continued from page 103)

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Created from flowers collected at dawn,
when the scent is its strongest and most pure,
rose oil is expensive. One pound of rose oil
can cost anywhere from $3,000 to $7,000. Or
consider jasmine. It takes 5,000 flowers to
produce 1 pound of jasmine oil, and 800
pounds of oil to make 1 pound of jasmine
absolute, which Fabulous Fragrances author
Jan Moran says can cost between $10,000
and $20,000. (Absolute oils are distilled di-
rectly from flowers.)
A single oil can form the base of the scent,
but it's the unique combination of more than
100 to 500 different fragrances, from a vari-
ety of sources, that creates a distinct perfume.
Many of these sources are familiar: flow-
ers, of course, and fruits, like lemon and or-
ange. Herbs like rosemary and anise also may
be included. Less expensive fragrances of-
ten employ synthetic aromas — eschewed,
of course, by those who produce perfumes
only with natural ingredients.
To the untrained, a lemon is a lemon is
a lemon. But to the wise "nose," this is any-
thing but the case. The fragrance of a lemon,
or any other scent produced in nature, can
be affected by everything from soil changes
to the amount of rain a season.
Once the final product is created, fra-
grances are categorized "based on the main
theme of the scent," Jan Moran writes. Cat-
egories of women's perfumes are floral, such
as Joy, Delicious and White Shoulders; Ori-
ental or musky, as in Opium, Youth Dew
and Cinnabar; chypre or woodsy, in Mit-
souko and Coriandre; fougere ("fern" in
French), the base of Jicky; and green, an
herbal scent found in Pheromone and Rever-
ie.
It may be such chemistry that interests
the "noses" of the business, but it's often
the search for a different kind of chemistry
that lures women and men — to the per-
fume counter.
Think of Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman,
who could not forget the delicate aroma of
Fleurs de Rocaille, created in 1933 and still
available from Parfums Caron.
"Neiman Marcus fragrance expert Bun-
ni Nance says: 'Many times, when a male
customer encounters the scent of a perfume
once worn by a loved one — mother, wife,
girlfriend, grandmother — they are over-
whelmed to tears. The memories flood back,
and they simply must have that perfume
again."' 1l