Chen Zu-ying, Perfume

When I was a teenager, a friend of mine always wore a distinct cologne. After university, we lost touch. One day in Hong Kong, I walked passed someone wearing the same cologne, my head turned instinctively and memories of my friend came rushing back to me, in high-definition technicolour. I was shocked that a scent can be such a potent cue for past events. The power of fragrance to elicit emotions and memories is probably why people are so fascinated, or even obsessed by perfume.

To learn more about perfume, I recently took a perfume mastery class with a third-generation French perfumer from Grasse (the French perfume capital), Olivier Funnel. Funnel spoke of many things regarding perfume which I never knew before. Since this is a column, I am going to put some of what I've learned in Trivial Pursuit format and I invite you to give these questions a shot. I will come back with the answers later. 

1. Do you know how many petals are required to make one kilogram of rose essence? (Hint: Think big)

2. Do you know how many different ingredients are used in a perfume? (Hint: Provide a range, a wide range)

3. Do you know what type of fruits can be made into a scent? 

Perfume-making is both an art and a science. For example, Olivier discussed the 'architecture' of a perfume. I initially thought that you just mix different essences together to create a scent that you like. As it turned out, the architecture of perfume comprises a top, middle and base note. The goals are to have the mixture come together in a way that brings out the best of a certain chosen scent (or a combination of scents) and to make this scent last the longest on a person's skin. A certain essence in the mix might not belong to the scent at all, rather, it simply functions as an enhancer to bring out the strength of another essence.

After Funnel went through the history, story, savoir-faire in making a perfume, it was our turn to concoct our own unique potion. The task was simplified because we were given only 20 essences to choose from, instead of some 2000 essences available to professional perfumers in the industry. I was obviously not nosy (a "nose" is the nickname of a perfumer) enough: compared to my classmates, I took twice as long and double the number of attempts to come up with my own fragrance. By the fourth try, I was already very confused. After eight rounds of experimentation, I finally came up with a scent that I was sort of happy with and decided to name it "Lost in Confusion".

From this class, I learned what Mr. Guerlain, another famous perfumer, meant when he said that a perfume maker should not only be called "Le Nez" (the nose) but also "Le Cerveau" (the brain).

Le French May will present Exhibition: Perfume Tales and Legends 3 Jun (Fri) to 16 Jun (Thu) at Garden Court, LG1, Pacific Place; Free Admission