forget grasse! the future of perfumery is in indiaš les parfums d_'isabelle

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Forget Grasse! The future of perfumery is in India…

Herbs and spices of India

2 years ago, I exchanged communications with Anya McCoy, President of the Guild of Natural Perfumersabout the future of perfumery and Grasse. My belief was that Grasse would eventually lose its reputationas the capital of perfumery and one would have to look somewhere in Asia (China and India) to bringperfumery back to the future!

The main reasons that led me to think this way were mostly the tightening of EU regulations and themadness of IFRA (International Fragrance Association) standards that have killed the Art of perfumery,transforming artist perfumers into nothing more than bureaucrats having to fill tons of documents to attaindistribution’s status… Octavian Coifan, the Paris-based perfumer and historian of perfumery qualifies theactions of IFRA as being ‘a cultural genocide’ in his post entitled ‘Is fragrance Art social?‘ whileRoja Dove, the British fragrance guru and French independent perfumer, Serge Lutens have all joined thecondemnations of the restrictions dictated by IFRA in the name of ‘Health & Safety’…

But 2 events I read of recently, make my prediction even more real. First, the leak of aluminium toxicwastes in Hungary despite the approval of the EU! Who can trust the EU when their scientists,toxicologists and other experts are so biased that they refuse any kind of independent reviews? It seemsobvious that they have closed their eyes on the potential dangers of this obsolete factory in Hungary and Iwould not be surprised to hear that some independent scientists had warned against this danger…

Back to IFRA, the restricted or prohibited materials such as essential oils of oak moss or costus arenatural but yet, IFRA promotes the use of aromachemicals to replace them! Once again, IFRA is only thepuppet of a consortium of lobbyists protecting the interests of the major chemical and cosmeticsconglomerates thanks to whom IFRA has its raison d’être. The madness of this association goes as far aswanting to ban the use of citrus or basil… However, nobody prohibits their use in food. Not to mentionthe poor bergamot which has now been so deprived of its furocoumarin that its use in perfumes isequivalent to adding kernels of olive without the olive in a Greek salad!



Grasse has not been spared by the murdering of the Art of perfumery. In fact, going to Grasse nowadaysis like visiting Pompei in the aftermath of the volcano eruption… The past jasmine and lavenderlandscapes are being replaced by luxury property developments; the rose de Mai (centifolia) is becominga rarity and the plantations are reduced to a few such as La Bastide du Parfumeur (now know as‘Museum of International Perfumery’)with a meagre 2 hectares of cultivated land left and the onlylandmark of Grasse being the mostly obnoxious odors of the fumes from the 100s of laboratoriessynthesizing raw materials… Small artisan perfume studios that used to work from the back of theirgarden or their garage outside Grasse, in the Valley of Vesubie have all closed down because they cannotcomply with the diktat of Brussels both financially and technically…

One of those traditional artisans explained to me that he is closing down because he has been asked byH&E to replace the rose petals he used for his rose Eau de toilette by synthetic equivalents that aresupposedly safer and more stable (during the laboratory tests!). The problem was that his eau de toilettehad a shelf life of no more than 1 year because of the fresh botanicals he was using! Distributors wantlong shelf life and huge profits and using ancient methods such as enfleurage or distillation are costly…Quality has not been the name of the game for many years in most of the Houses of Parfums in Grasse. Ofcourse, the city has not yet lost its reputation as the place to go to for learning everything about the historyand the making of perfumes but this is about to disappear as well.

View of Grasse – Where are the fields gone?

Because the second event that tells me that Grasse is on its way out, is the creation by Symrise of aPerfume Academy in India… Now, to me any corporate of this size that invests millions of dollars in anemerging country is basically saying to industrialised countries that they have gone past the sell-by-dateand that it is time to go ”back to the future’‘…

It has always made sense that a country like India should become the place for perfumery. After all, it hasa young and dynamic population, a growing emerging middle class that will want to spend more and moreon luxurious goods but above all, its access to all the plants and flowers for essential oils and botanicals isunlimited… For sure, plantations in India are more than the tiny 2 hectares left in Grasse! Flowers areused for every occasions: Buddhist festivals, births, weddings and any rituals… Spices of all colours andsorts are added to yummy and scented meals and herbs are used in Ayurveda medicine… Nature andbotanicals are part of the Indian way of life! Besides, the links between India and Africa have beenestablished for many years and Indian perfume and flavours laboratories are already setting up incountries like Nigeria : they extract the wealth of botanicals available in Africa (I recommend you read



the blog African Aromatics by Sophia for an expert opinion on these) and develop fragrances adapted toboth markets

But in my view, the main reason why India is set to become the next capital of perfumery, the next‘cosmetics valley’ of this world is that maybe (just maybe), it will allow old or vintage perfumesformulations to be recreated and relaunched in order to be sold in the growing markets of Asia and theMiddle East WITHOUT any regulator on your back telling you that synthetics and GMO are the bestoptions! Because India is a sovereign country and does not bend to any diktat but their own… Theircloseness to Nature will probably make them realise that regulation kills industries like ours!

As small artisan perfumers, we are unlikely to be able to compete with the likes of Symrise but I see anopportunity to position ourselves by helping smaller communities to develop and produce essential oils.Symrise and the other big ones are only interested in big scale production and in chemistry graduates…These companies are miles away from restoring the Art of Perfumery as they will carry on producingsynthetics and creating new odours to fulfil the demand of the industry and keep up to date with moderntechnology.

Our objective should then be to focus on rural farming communities, helping them set up essential oilextraction plants for smaller scale yields and ensuring they gain from the rise of perfumery in theircountry through education about the traditional Art of perfume making, sustainable agriculture and socialenterprise.

Rural life in India/Photo courtesy of Gautam

forget grasse! the future of perfumery is in indiaš les parfums d_'isabelle

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