Olfiction

Stories Through Scent

Ford unveils fragrance for all-electric Mach-E GT

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Olfiction perfumer Pia Long was commissioned by Ford to create a fragrance to celebrate the launch of the new all-electric Mustang Mach-E GT, for those who “hold a fondness for the evocative smells of traditional petrol cars”.

The Mach-Eau fragrance was created by Olfiction perfumer Pia Long, with ingredients that each add a specific element of the scent’s story. Ford revealed the fragrance this weekend at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, an annual event that attracts petrolheads from across the globe. The scent, which is not available to buy, is part of Ford’s ongoing mission to help dispel myths around electric cars and convince traditional car enthusiasts of the potential of electric vehicles.

Pia’s starting point was to look into the chemicals that are emitted from car interiors, engines and petrol. This included benzaldehyde, which is an almond-like scent given off by car interiors, and para-cresol which is key in creating the rubbery scent of tyres. There were blended with ingredients like blue ginger, lavender, geranium and sandalwood that added metallic, smoky and further rubbery accents, as well as an overdose of Timut pepper, utilising the petrol-like topnote. An ‘animal’ element was also included, to create an impression of horses and underline the Mustang heritage.

In a Ford-commissioned survey, one in five drivers said the smell of petrol is what they’d miss most when swapping to an electric vehicle, with almost 70 per cent claiming they would miss the smell of petrol to some degree. Petrol also ranked as a more popular scent than both wine and cheese, and almost identically to the smell of new books.

The new scent is designed to help usher these drivers into the future of driving through their sense of smell. Rather than just smelling like petrol though, Mach-Eau is designed to please the nose of any wearer; a high-end fragrance that fuses smoky accords, aspects of rubber and even an ‘animal’ element to give a nod to the Mustang heritage.

Ford Mach-Eau perfume activation at Goodwood Festival of Speed. Photograph by Christopher Ison ©

“Judging by our survey findings, the sensory appeal of petrol cars is still something drivers are reluctant to give up. The Mach Eau fragrance is designed to give them a hint of that fuel-fragrance they still crave. It should linger long enough for the GT’s performance to make any other doubts vaporise too.”

                                                           Jay Ward, director, Ford of Europe Product Communications

Zoologist Chipmunk launches in August 2021

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Olfiction Creative Perfumer Pia Long has worked with Victor Wong of Zoologist to bring a new cute animal to the collection: Chipmunk! The perfume features oak absolute, spices and a green hazelnut accord (not a typical gourmand, more as you would find in nature).

This is what Victor has to say:

The lush green of the treetops fades to a dull gold. What seems a peaceful transition actually raises a blaring alarm to the creatures below. Time is running out. But for generations, mighty oaks have fulfilled a promise to provide, and leaves are not the only bounty tumbling to the forest floor. Chipmunks scurry among the detritus in their quest to collect the plumpest acorns. They eagerly gather what they can and, cheeks bulging with nuts, scamper home to line their snug burrows before falling leaves give way to biting snow.⁣
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Zoologist Chipmunk captures an autumn forest bursting with ripe nuts. Juicy quince, dusted with cardamom and nutmeg, dangles tantalizingly among naturalistic woods and green, milky kernels. Chipmunk invites you up into the branches, offering a dazzling vantage point from which to enjoy the rich golden and russet hues of the changing seasons.⁣
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TOP⁣
Quince, Pink Pepper, Red Mandarin, Cardamom, Nutmeg⁣
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HEART⁣
Camomile, Hazelnut, Fir Balsam Absolute, Oak Absolute, Earthy Notes⁣
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BASE⁣
Cedarwood, Amyris, Patchouli, Vetiver, Benzoin Resin, Opoponax, Guaiacwood, Animal Notes⁣

Chipmunk will launch in August 2021 and samples are already in circulation.

Olfiction launches Boujee Bougies

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Last week saw the launch of Boujee Bougies, a collection of five scented candles we’ve created as a perfumery playground and Olfiction’s brand debut.

The collection includes Queen Jam, inspired by a Finnish conserve, Gilt, a golden confessional, Cuir Culture, like leather in a library, Succulent, an ode to juicy cacti, and Hellflower, a sulphuric grapefruit-magnolia.

A collaborative full team effort to create, with perfumery by Pia Long, creative direction by Nick Gilbert, words by Thomas Dunckley, and illustrations by assistant and trainee perfumer, Ezra-Lloyd Jackson. We’ve worked with our clients (and friends!) at Parks London Ltd to bring these to life, and of course the fragrance oils are supplied by our partner Accords et Parfums.

Discover the brand and our playful fragrances at
www.boujeebougies.com

BeauFort London launches Terror & Magnificence

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Last weekend at Pitti Fragranze’s 17th edition, BeauFort London launched their latest perfume, Terror & Magnificence, created by Olfiction perfumer Pia Long. The fragrance has already drawn praise from the perfume community, with Sergey Borisov of Fragrantica naming it among his favourite launches at the show. Below, Pia shares her notes and thoughts on the creative process.

Terror & Magnificence by BeauFort London
Terror & Magnificence by BeauFort London

Terror and Magnificence – Perfumer’s Notes

Leo Crabtree’s creative ideas around perfumery are larger-than-life, with gothic horror, punk and metal influences. The fragrances he has thus far coaxed out of perfumers have had enormous presence. The idea of something that forces you to pay attention to it; wearable art – these have been the underpinnings of BeauFort London. We happened to meet through some other work we were doing together, and Leo smelled an accord I’d created of concrete and hyper-real brutalism. Of course, there is no “concrete essential oil”, yet somehow, I’d managed to create a smell that made sense as wet concrete and towering brutalist architecture.

We started working together on some concepts, and I developed a smoke accord for Leo, which felt at once enormous and transparent. This sparked something.

My style of perfumery is probably best described as magic realism. I like to create something hyper-real, and then push it to be more than the real thing, and add fantasy elements. When Leo’s concept for Terror & Magnificence landed on my desk, I immediately felt what the idea’s texture had to be. Darkness of the kind that makes you doubt your own senses. The new scent is based on the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor – and Leo’s brief introduced semi-mythologised elements of Egyptology into church settings; the fantasy elements of mummies about to crawl out of the ground just beneath the apparently civilised surface.

I used smells of the church itself – incense, the wooden pews, the stone floors, and added a sinister, unsettling presence with an accord of a stone cellar that has a whisper of decay. The brief contained a wonderfully evocative sentence: “And one is caught off guard by a vision of Rameses II, almost as if his spirit is trapped somehow beneath the church floor.”

Terror & Magnificence by BeauFort London
Hawksmoor’s Christ Church features on the bottle of Terror & Magnificence

For the darkness, I blended the smoke accord from our earlier meetings with tar, myrrh, benzoin, styrax and a kyphi accord I’d been researching for a while. I like to build individual pieces of the perfume like scenes in a story, and then do multiple trials of them together at different proportions, and once I’m set on an overall harmony, I’ll tinker with the composition to fine tune it until the idea is fully realised. In working with Leo, there is definitely a case of two creative minds trying to bring something into the world, rather than one artist who is being instructed. Leo’s direction and his instinct for what would communicate his vision perfectly was very important.

I listened to a lot of music that set the mood for me during the creative process for this – I think especially Sunn O))) and Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard both had the kinds of tracks that felt right for this perfume’s mood.

The perfume that we created feels like it always existed, as though we’ve conjured a myth into being from the ether. It evolves on each skin I’ve tried it on – some bring out more of the incense, for some the resins and leather, some the myrrh and smoke.

Terror & Magnificence will be available at BeauFort London stockists in the coming weeks.

Olfiction Creates The Signature Scent for Beached Beauty Products

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Beached is an all-natural beauty brand founded by Australian entrepreneur Meg Gallagher. For Beached, Meg has captured the easy-breezy beach culture of her homeland in a trio of products for hair, skin and body, that celebrate a natural approach, both in terms of their effect (the brand’s strap line is “bare beauty”) but also the ingredients used. Whilst Beached seems cheeky and fun (and it is) it’s also a brand that takes a serious approach to quality, blending excellent, purposeful ingredients to make exceptional products that firm, texturise and bronze.

To scent the Beached products, Meg approached Olfiction, briefing our perfumer, Pia Long, to create an all-natural fragrance that matched the vibe and ethos of the brand. Pia worked closely with Meg to compose a beachy-floral scent that blends the hot, tropical nuances of ylang ylang with the zesty, juicy quality of yellow mandarin and the warmth of Australian sandalwood, which pays homage to Meg’s Aussie roots, but also adds a touch of sunkissed skin. Incorporated into the products (specifically the Bondi Bum body firmer and Urban Waves hair texturiser), this fragrance brings Beached to life, evoking endless days spent at the beach under the sea spray and hot sun.

The Beached fragrance contains notes of:

Bergamot
Mandarin yellow
Roman chamomile
Australian sandalwood
Ylang extra

“Meg’s brand ethos really resonated with me because she wanted to create lovely, effective products that felt good to use – and that was entirely her focus, not the naturalness of the brand; the natural part just “is” because those were the materials in the formulas that appealed to her aesthetically. So, I wanted to go along with this concept, too, and create a fragrance that mirrors this feeling.

The perfumery challenges were mainly that to get something recognisable as a signature scent but still conveying the natural brand signals that you’d expect to find meant working with some key notes and clever twists to combine the best of both worlds. Additionally, Meg was in love with some citrus accords I’d created but citrus is problematic for anything to be used in the sun, so I chose furanocoumarin-free materials and used them at the maximum sensible level. I wanted to send out a subliminal message about being on the beach – that’s the theme after all! – so the floral aspect being ylang ylang made complete sense as a natural component of ylang oil is benzyl salicylate which was traditionally used in suntan lotion as a core ingredient, and so people associate the smell of it with being on the beach.

We’ve ended up with a sophisticated, caring natural fragrance that matches the feel of the products really well.”

Pia Long, Olfiction Perfumer

The Beached collection consists of three products:

Bondi Bum, Natural Body Firmer (£21.95/175ml), a body lotion designed to naturally firm skin, leaving it smoother and tighter. Featuring a fragrance created by Olfiction.

Urban Waves, Natural Hair Texturiser (£18.95/175ml), a sea salt spray that adds volume to hair as well as conditions featuring a fragrance created by Olfiction.

Rays for Days, Natural Bronzing Serum (£22.95/45ml) to be used on its own, mixed with a base or as a highlighter.

To read more about Beached head on over to beached.com.

At Olfiction, we specialise in perfumery and can work with you to create a unique fragrance for your brand, whether that be for a fine fragrance, home fragrance or cosmetic product. If you’d like to talk to us about how we can develop a fragrance for your brand, drop us a line to get in touch.

Penhaligon’s Portraits Instagram Adventure

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Portraits is Penhaligon’s latest collection of fragrances, which tells the tale of a fictional aristocratic family that thrives on drama and scandal. Set in the Victorian era to play on the heritage of the brand, the tongue-in-cheek branding is matched with twists on classic fragrances. [Read more…]

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