Givaudan’s new fragrance concept is all about food

19-Feb-2018 - Last updated on 19-Feb-2018 at 19:14 GMT

The global flavors and fragrance company announced its new Delight collection this month, bringing to market fragrance molecules and bases developed in tandem with Givaudan flavorists. It’s a project that’s novel for both this cross-division collaboration and for focus-group testing that relies on body language rather than conventional feedback to assess the success of any given scent.

The company has been hosting press and industry insiders at its offices in New York City to discover the new project, and Cosmetics Design visited the company late last week to do just that.

Delight is a project that has been some 2 years in the making. Emily Bond, Givaudan’s regional head of fine fragrance in North America, explains that the Delight project is another way for the company to “own pleasure.” The fragrance team worked with Givaudan’s flavor division in hopes of linking texture, taste, and salivation with olfaction, according to Bond.

Flavors

So far the partnership has added “over 60 new bases to the perfumer’s palette,” says Karen Flinn, creative vision director of fine fragrances at Givaudan.

The bases that the team shared with Cosmetics Design and other members of the press are an assortment of comfort foods and health foods: Macha, Beet, Toasted Bread, Pastry Cream, and Bacon.

And there was a finished fragrance built around each of those, respectively: Machata; Beet It; Fougassette; More, More, More; and Flesh & Flower.

Gestures

To gather insights and rate the bases and fragrance blends coming out of the Delight project, Givaudan enlisted Marina Cavassilas, an expert in semiotics and nonverbal communication who’s collaborated in the past with luxury fashion and skin care brands. Using a grid of visual facial responses to scent, Cavassilas essentially quantified people’s response to each base and each fragrance to determine if and just how much the scents delighted them.

Using “nonverbal consumer methodology,” says Flinn, is a great way to determine which flavor molecules and effects can readily be incorporated into the perfumers’ palette. And Givaudan is now touting itself as “the first Fragrance House to use body language research to understand the pleasure felt by consumers when wearing perfume,” according to press materials announcing the Delight project.

Consequences

This month’s unveiling of the Delight project is only just the beginning, according to the team at Givaudan. More bases are in development; and the company is already working in partnership with fine fragrance brands to bring the Delight concept to consumers.

As Felix Mayr-Harting, global head of fine fragrance, tells the press, the concept is about making fragrance that’s enjoyable as well as visible: “Project Delight is all about exploring the concept of pleasure in fragrances. Perfumers and flavorists have combined their unique skills together, and thereby we have been able to create new fragrances with more impact and more pleasure. How do we know? Because we see and measure it in their body language.”

---

Deanna Utroske, CosmeticsDesign.com Editor, covers beauty business news in the Americas region and publishes the weekly Indie Beauty Profile column, showcasing the inspiring work of entrepreneurs and innovative brands.