THE PERFECT SCENT

Evening Star, Issue 20256, 17 August 1929, Page 5

THE PERFECT SCENT

RARE AS A WHITE BLACKBIRD HOW TO TELL A GOOD PERFUME What makes a good perfume? -It is a question I am often asked by my customers nowadays, for women are beginning to take more, interest in their perfumes and beauty products than they ever did in the past—and, incidentally, now that modern chemistry has stepped in to refine .the perfumer’s art almost infinitely, there is much more to, know about perfumes to-day than there ever was before (states a writer in the ‘ Cape Times.’) A good perfume? The answer seems simple. It is a scent mixture which smells nice. But actually there is so much more to a good, perfume than its agreeable odour that - 'it is worth while to discuss some of the other qualities so that a woman who reads this article may, when choosing a scent for herself, bo able to make her own tests and determine for herself whether a perfume has high quality. If all there was to good perfume was nice smell, then every woman could have her own scent, and smart perfumes would be as varied as smart dresses. The experts in any good perfume laboratory could find fifty new and pleasing scent combinations every day, if they chose. But if they left these new mixtures in test bottles over night, the chance are that next day not more than half of them would still smell as they did when they were first mixed. Some would even have developed disagreeable odours Some of the rest would not smell the same upon two different surfaces, such as the back of one’s hand and the corner of one’s handkerchief. Some would evaporate completely from any surface in a few minutes or hours; others when evaporating might leave a scent that would be unpleasant, and so on. , MONTHS OF TESTING.

In short, there would not bo one chance in a thousand that even one of these fifty mixtures could survive the most rudimentary tests of a good perfume. Even if one did survive, then it would have to face months of testing and observation under laboratory conditions; and the. mortality ot experimental perfume formulae in this stage of the discovery process is terrifically high. It is so high that though every year a number of new perfumes of fair quality are discovered the perfect scent—one that satisfies every requirement of the connoisseur —is as rare as a white blackbird. Now while the numbe ot definite qualities required to make a good perfume is considerable, there arc- threeprimary qualities that everyone can learn to recognise. They are (1) Fragrance. (2) Constancy. (3) Tenacity,

As to odour, something more is required than that it is merely a 'pleasant one. Every perfuna is affected to some extent by the personal odour of its wearer. People generally perhaps do not realise that they have personal odours. The perfumer does not, however, doubt it. He meets the fact as a phenomenon in his own calling. He has known the experience of an otherwise good perfume varying in its scent upon' the perspns of different wearers. It is being affected by these “invisible” but nevertheless existing personal influences. THE PERSONAL INFLUENCE. Incidentally, the personal influence of an individual upon a perfume is an important point for the women of fashion' to understand. Perfumers sometimes advertise a fine perfume as “exclusive” and some who read the advertisement think ho is using the word very loosely, for, aftei all. the perfume is on sale and therefore how can it be exclusive if anybody can buy it? But, actually, because of the subtle effect ou the body of a tvearer upon a fine perfume, it is exclusive, in the exact sense of that word. These variations are as yet little understood, but the fact remains that they exist. Fin© perfume has tho quality of adapting itself to the person of the wearer, thus giving her a scent which is individual and original. The same cannot be said for a poor perfume, which is too harsh and bold in its effects to be influenced by such evanescent factors. The good perfume, however, is so delicate that it will respond to its environment. „ , , However, the periume maker does not want this variation to be too wide. The perfume must always have the same essential identity and thus to find-a delicate scent which vanes to a minimum degree upon differen

wearers, offers one of the . greatest technical problems in perfume making. It is a problem, because it women are to have the advantages ot the advance in the art of perfumery, individual perfume mixtures, to Be good, must ho good also as commercial propositions. Experimentation in perfume is so costly and so speculative that it out of the question for oven _ a very j rich woman to have an exclusive per-: fume created for her personal use. She must profit with the others by the experimental work of the professionals, who themselves could not afford that experimentation if they did not find marketable commodities. Thus if a woman finds a perfume in which the nuances of variation upon different wearers are subtle and delicate, she may take this as a signpost pointing to the probability that the formula has been well studied, and that the other essential qualities are equally good.