perfume reformulation: 2 posts

Do you think only perfume lovers decry reformulations and look for the “vintage” blends, with all of the good things still intact? Elisa found a terrific cocktail blog by Paul Clarke about the reformulation of Lillet, a refreshing French aperitif, and she wanted to share it with you.

“Lillet is still in production, and is a lovely aperitif wine, but a reformulation in 1986 removed the product’s quinine bite (along with the quinine-related “Kina” from the name), in the process altering the flavor characteristics Lillet delivered when mixed in a cocktail. To read the rest, continue here.”

It looks like quinine is the oakmoss of the cocktail world!

” ‘Eau Sauvage was a real chef d’oeuvre in its original form,’ retired perfume-maker Pierre Bourdon, who created Dior’s Dolce Vita and Yves Saint Laurent’s Kouros, said of the 1966 scent. ‘It used to be very green and fresh. Today, it has been replaced by something softer and duller,’ ” from EU threat spotlights perfume makers’ secrets.

All my life I’ve been hearing that things used to be better in the past. Paris used to be more exciting, Rome cleaner, New York cheaper. When I began exploring the world of perfumery on a professional level, I was told by many older colleagues that the golden age of fragrance had passed. Talk about curbing one’s enthusiasm! Despite these warnings, I persisted with my perfumery training.

But you need not be inordinately nostalgic to realize that many perfumes used to be better before many classical materials were banned or restricted and before fragrance companies started reformulating en masse. There is something fascinating about the delicate and precise balance of essences. Even the smallest changes can have dramatic consequences. Imagine what happens when a perfumer is told to remove whole building blocks of a composition or to make a chypre (a mossy perfume type) without moss.

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