When IFF did the headspace of a young girl skin (later idea used by Laudamiel in Le Coffret inspired by the movie Le Parfum), the resulting scent was described as soft, peachy, aldehydic.
On the skin layer the lipid surface is made of free fatty acids, mono / di and tri glycerides, sterol and its esters. The difference between a fatty acid and a fatty aldehyde is … a chemical function (to keep simple I do not enter deep in chemistry). After several steps you can turn an acid into an aldehyde or vice versa. It is also one of the first industrial methods to obtain the so famous fatty aldehydes (C10, C11, C12 and so on) used in classic aldehydic perfumes.
While the fat/oil that often turn rancid in a bottle (with its particular smell) is something we want to get rid off … the aldehydes became a symbol for purity and clean.
(Many of those aldehydes are present in nature, in citrus or rose products)
When you iron a shirt or when you let to dry clothes in the sun (washed with unscented products!) there is a particular smell floating around. It smells like a dilution of 0,1-1% of C11 and C12L aldehyde! I'm not sure what are the real molecules in both cases (ironing and drying in the sun) but from this basic chemical reaction (of fats) we can explore an entire symbolism.
This side of the aldehydes was "recognized" many years after their first use.
Fatty aldehydes (there are more besides the classical No5 examples) are used today in many products to give a fresh and clean feeling. Of course in a different environement than that used in classical perfumery (no more indolic jasmine or chypre ambery). One of the best examples when their use is related to the name is - White Linen.
Aldehydes, lily of the valley/rosy and very green molecules are today the summum of cleanliness as used in many personal care products.
It is also interesting to quote one of the many stories around No5 - the clean note of the soap used by Emilienne d'Alençon - in the skin chemistry with aldehydes and oils.
The smell of aldehydes depends on dilution (as they are strong molecules) and context. Many fatty aldehydes have a waxy note than can make you suspicious about the clean aspect.
Some examples:
There are aldehydes (a chemical function) and aldehydic (a type of smell related to fatty aldehydes).
Aldehyde C9 (very green), Aldehyde C10 (orange, rose), Aldehyde C11 undecylic (classic rich aldehydic), Aldehyde C11 undecylenique, Aldehyde C12 laurique (iron shirt), Aldehyde C12 MNA (a fresh slightly ambery and incensy note but also ozonic), Aldehyde C13 (waxy grapefruit), Aldehyde Supra (9-undecenal, extremely clean and fresh citrusy), Mandarine aldehyde (2-dodecenal, very strong fresh mandarine), Intreleven aldehyde (isomerizes C11 undecylenic, less fatty),
From the many fresh aldehydes some more stable versions were prepared - the acetals and the nitriles. We find them in many personal care and functional products.
Some nitriles correspondent to the aldehydes like Ozonil, Clonal
And aldehydes from a different family than fat aldehydes: Farenal (2,6,10-trimethylundec-9-enal, leaf like and sea breeze), Florazon, Profarnesal
I know that clean and dirt can have many meanings because of culture, personal taste or experience. I will talk in next post about some perfumery notes that are clean/dirty for many people, beyond the personal belief.
There is an interesting book on human scents that I reccomend you:
The Scented Ape: The Biology and Culture of Human Odour by David Michael Stoddart
Further information on
fatty acids (Wikipedia)
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
This forgotten house still holds some masterpieces to be rediscovered.
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I've read in some fragrance descriptions this amazing phrase "volcanic musk". Well, it's not the fantasy of a marketing guy dreaming of musk effects on a hot skin ... but a molecule from Firmenich, quite new and called - Vulcanolide - a very strong musk.
"It's sensual, it's mystique, it goes back to the roots of perfumery, it's Arabian, it's skinscent…." I've heard many symbolic discussions around musk oils (from Kiehl's to Narciso Rodriguez, from the cheap drugstore to the exclusive ones). They are false in my opinion or at least they show the gap between marketing / history / science, between facts / fiction / fantasy.
An ad from 1951 for Roure - the producer of rawmaterials and fine fragrances. It's from an american trade magazine... just to show again the fascination with everything from Paris (it was however Dior's epoque). Before IFF entered the game, most american perfumes or scented products were still produced by French perfumers (working in France or NY).
Around 1880 a new class of heterocyclic aromatic molecules was discovered by organic chemists and some of their members became very soon of a great interest for perfumers. The quinolines are virtually the 2 rings of naphtalene where one atom of carbon is replaced by nitrogen. The smell of their derivates is strong, earthy, smoky and very soon they contributed to new leather notes in perfumery. Iso butyl quinoline or IBQ is maybe the most famous today (after the overdose of Germaine Cellier) but other quinolines had also their moment of glory. They were part of many forgotten bases and contributed to several notes that are no more in favor these days: tobacco, mosses, animalic flowers.
Estée Lauder was known not only for the quality of her products and the great sense of business but also for the stories she invented. Like Chanel most of things that Estée Lauder said to the press/public were a mixture of facts and fiction - factions as would have said Diana Vreeland. This is a small part of an interview given in 1982 in France.
