Today I watched the final episode of the perfume documentary I have been watching as part of my reading week studies. This episode 'The Smell of the Future' predominantly focuses on how our choice of perfume is determined by where we are, when we are and our culture. For example, 5 years ago back when this documentary was filmed the Russians craved rich and heavy scents, the Chinese light and airy, the Brazilians lusted over fruity fragrances and as for the Arabians, they were all for musky oriental scents which were popular back in Victorian England.
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| Anne Gottlieb |
Above is Anne Gottlieb, this episode followed her on a couple of professional jobs, giving viewers an insight into the career of a predictor of global scent. Gottlieb's New York based office is bursting at the seams with perfumes she has been behind the creation of, many have gone on to be some of the most succesful fragrances around such as, Obsession for Calvin Klein and J'adore for Christian Dior. Within this episode, Gottlieb works closely with mens body spray brand, AXE which you or I would know as Lynx. The documentary follows her journey as she attempts to produce a fragrance for the brand, to be aimed at the Brazilian market.
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| Brazil |
This episode delves deep into the Brazilian fragrance market which I found particularly interesting as I wasn't aware of just how prominant it is. From car showroom aroma to toilet cleaner and from Tutti Frutti scented footwear to perfume, it became clear to me from watching this episode just how important fragrance is to the Brazilians. It is no surprise that Brazil is the fastest growing fragrance market on earth, which is why within the documentary Lynx as a brand chose Brazil as the country their next body spray would be targeted at. Fragrance is so big over in Brazil due to the simple fact that is the warm climate. Those living in Brazil not only apply more product initially but also take more showers meaning that the product is washed of and needs to be reapplied on a more regular basis, which as you can image causes the countries fragrance market to thrive.
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| Simon Brooke - Grossmith |
During the film viewers are introduced to Simon and Amanda Brooke, a couple who with a helping hand from perfumer, Roja Dove have recreated Victorian perfume company, Grossmith. The couple are direct ascendants of the Grossmith family and have access to the book of fragrance formulae which belonged to John Grossmith, who originally started the perfume house over three decades ago. Recreating the company was risky for the Brooke couple as the Grossmith scents were not at the time popular or in demand like they were back in Victorian England. Having said this, during the summer months women of a middle Eastern clientele who crave the dark, musky scents offered by Grossmith are attracted to the fragrances, one client even ordered a collection of fragrances which equated to a hefty sum of £6000!
Hopefully these BBC Perfume documentary posts have been of some interest. There are plenty more fragrance based posts to come in the near future so keep checking up on my blog for these!
Love, Isabella x
Photo Credits: Google images
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