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Training the ABC's of Perfumery by Stephen V. Dowthwaite, PerfumersWorld, email: "perfumer@PerfumersWorld.com" "Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy" Introduction The training of any discipline is never an easy task. This is the case even when there are clearly defined rules and parameters such as in language training. Perfumery is one language in which even the most basic concepts have not yet been clearly defined, leaving us without definitive understandings of perfumistic terms. An individual's understanding of odours, smells or aromas is usually the result of his culture, personal experience and environment rather than training. There also appears to be an underlying feeling that until the biological mechanism of smell is fully understood then a unified language is perhaps impossible or of limited use. However, try describing 'Debussy's - L'Apres-midi d'un faune' in terms of wavelength, pitch, amplitude or Van Goughs "Sunflowers" using the RGB colour system. Our true understanding is not as greatly enhanced as we might hope, in knowing and being able to measure the science of sound and light objectively. I contend in the art, or is it science? of perfumery that it is not necessary to wait for the coffin to be closed on the precise anatomy of olfaction and gustation before we can make good use of a language of smells. essential oils A language hoping to be useful should be relatively easy to grasp and learn, be flexible, offering the user a tool for deeper research and understanding. The seeds for the system that I have been teaching since 1992 are based on old knowledge and follow the general principle laid out in Haarman & Reimer's "Book of Perfume". Without a mention of benzyl salicylate (orchid) or cis-3-hexenol (leafy-green), the book showed us that the words and terms for adequate odour description already exist in the English language without requiring the use of new words or chemical nomenclature. Whilst looking for common ground amongst many languages upon which to base it on it became quickly apparent that all students were been able to recite the English alphabet, A-Z, consistently, even some students who had had only 6 years of compulsory schooling behind them. So combining the two factors, H&R and A-Z. I have been teaching an odour classification system based on 26 easy key words running through the alphabet A-Z. These act as aide memoirs and overcome to a large extent the problems that some researchers have come across in their attempts to give labels that are easy to learn and remember. Odour descriptions can suffer damage from grammatical rules imposed by the English language, in particular I refer to placing an adjective before a noun so that the secondary classifier comes before the main classifier. This means that in the following description "modern fresh aldehydic floral" the main classifier is "floral" followed by aldehydic then fresh and modern. I recommend that my students, describe in a manner that demonstrates a quantifiable element and gives a more precise picture of their appreciation of the smelling experience. The result is that the above description is written Floral, aldehydic, fresh, modern. Descriptions in this form translate across cultural and language barriers far more successfully than flowery English descriptions. The system goes on to teach students to take the quantifiable aspect a few stages further by applying proportionate values to the descriptive terms and relative values for intensity. By adding quantifying factors to the odour description (sub-classification, intensity and length of life) the description becomes far more vivid than a simple verbal description and makes way for some fairly advanced manipulation of the description for analytical and creative purposes. The approach adopted here is a pragmatic one, born of the desire to teach the art of perfumery systematically. It has been developed for its speed in training and it's flexibility in use. Whilst we may wait for a perfect understanding of the mechanism of smell I suggest this workable approach can lead to a reasonably complete odour classification system for use in initial perfumery training and as a tool for more advanced activities. This is merely one contending voice to describe a hundred flowers. Most students starting training are initially aware of only "like" and "dislike", a few are able to relate to specific food, flower and household smells but within a few hours of using the system most can classify odours qualitatively and quantitatively. Step 1 : Let's start at the beginning with the "a-b-c" 's : The A-Z system originally began as a way to avoid unnecessary duplication of work by perfumers, so that when perfume samples were archived according to their smell characteristics (jasmins sitting next to other jasmins on the shelves), staff were more likely to consider a wider range of alternatives to fulfill an enquiry. The system also gave perfumers quick access to similar, previously completed fragrances, allowing them to learn from archived samples rather than continually re-inventing the same wheel. It was then that raw materials could also be grouped in a similar fashion, so that for example, woody smelling aroma chemicals were kept with other woody smelling materials. As I became increasingly involved in training, I looked for a simple nomenclature that non-native English speakers could adapt to quickly. These groups were listed from A-Z, and the terms went through a period of evolution until it was found that certain names were easy to understand and remember, ensuring that the full range of odours could be covered by the system. It was found that they could also be arranged roughly in terms of their appearance in the evaporation stages of a perfume. A-H loosely represent notes apparent in top notes. I-S represents middle notes T-Y represents the later stages of evaporation. However, as in any two-dimensional representation of a multi-dimensional property, it can never be completely accurate at every level, and a little latitude is requested. Names were chosen to be general rather than specific ("dairy" rather than butter or milk) to avoid having too many specific connotations (Butter with butyric esters, milk with lactones etc.). To be too specific would be too create such a long list of groups that it would defeat the purpose. Names were modified not only to fit conveniently in the A-Z arrangement, but also to indicate the wider meaning of each group. The term "aliphatic" has been chosen rather than "aldehydic" to represent the "fatty" characteristic of straight chain aldehydes, alcohols and fatty acids. Herbs are differentiated from spices as cool or hot respectively to help students separate them as two distinct groups, rather than confusing both as condiment smells. Jasmin, Muguet (the French is used to stop the confusion with other lily species) and Rose are kept as specific groups because, not only are these odours well-known and recognised, but they also form the central theme in the clear majority of fragrances. "Queen" of the Orient was chosen to embody the concept of the rich, exotic character of benzoin and other resins. Solvents and other low-odour additives, such as anti-oxidants were relegated to solvent with a "Z" ("Zolvent") to ensure that they could be conveniently grouped together at the end of a formula in line with the convention of formula writing. SYSTEMATIC ODOUR CLASSIFICATION GROUPS FOR PERFUMERY A-Z Classification Common Description Key Reference Materials A ALI-FAT-IC Fatty, Waxy, Soapy, Clean Aliphatic Aldehydes, Alcohols B Berg - ICEBERG Cooling, Borneol,Mint,Camphor Menthol, Camphor, Eucalyptol C CITRUS Sour, Sharp, Citrus peel Citral, Orange, Lemon, Lime D DAIRY Milky, Cream, Butter, Cheese Diacetyl, Butyrate,Lactone,Valerate E EDIBLE Vegetable, Nut, Fish, Meat Thiazoles, Pyrazines, Sulphides F FRUIT Sour, Sweet fruits, Strawberry Allyl caproate, Verdox G GREEN Cut-grass, Leaves cis-3-Hexenol, Triplal H HERB (Cool) Cool Herbaceous notes Lavender, Sage, (Terpene based?) I IRIS Orris, Violet Ionones, Methyl Ionone, J JASMIN Fruity, Oily, Narcotic, Jasmin HCA, Benzyl Acetate K KONIFER Pine, Pineneedle Terpineol, Bornyl Acetate L LIGHT Chemical Floral Fresh light floral chemical Linalool, Vertenex, DMBC M MUGUET Lily of the Valley, Green, Fresh Hydroxy, Lilial, Lyral N NARCOTIC Heavy Sweet Florals, Absolutes Narcissus, Ylang Ylang, Tuberose O ORCHID Aromatic, Deep floral Salicylates, Benzoates P PHENOL Phenol, Medicinal, Honey p-Cresol, Ethyl Phenyl Acetate Q Queen of the ORIENT Resin, Balsam Benzoin, Tolu, Terpenes R ROSE Rose Otto, Absolute, Geranium Citronellol, PEA, Rhodinol S SPICE (Hot) Hot Culinary, Spice Clove, Cinnamon, Thyme, (Cyclic?) T TAR SMOKE Smoke, Tar, Burnt Cade, Birch Tar U Urine Faecal ANIMAL Animal, Faecal, Leather Civet, Castoreum, Ambergris V VANILLA Sweet Edible, Vanilla Vanillin, Coumarin, Heliotropin W WOOD Wood, Oily, Cedar, Santal, Vetivert, Patchouli X X-rated MUSK Sexy, Musk, Sensual, Sweet Musk Ketone, Galaxolide Y EARTHY MOSSY Yeast, Fungal, Moss, Marine, Oakmoss, Calone Z ZOLVENTS Odourless Solvents, Solubilisers DEP, DPG, IPP, Ethanol,PG