A perfume almost always starts with a brief written by a fashion house or a client, not with a bottle already imagined. The perfumer receives an idea often expressed in abstract terms — a mood, a memory, a season — and a price ceiling per litre of concentrate, which tells them from the outset which raw materials they can afford to use. From there, the process moves through the selection of natural and synthetic materials, the construction of the formula in layers of notes, a period of maturation and filtration, and only at the end comes the bottling of the approved composition. Each stage leaves its mark on the final scent, from the density of the base notes to the clarity of the liquid in the bottle.
- It all starts with a brief and a price ceiling per litre of concentrate, not with a fixed recipe established from the outset.
- Raw materials come from two families — natural, extracted from plants, and synthetic, obtained through organic synthesis — and they are usually combined, not kept separate.
- The formula is built in layers — top, heart, and base notes — and can go through months or years of refinement before final approval.
- After approval, the composition is macerated, filtered, and only then bottled.
It all starts with a brief
Before there is a formula, there is a brief. Most often, it comes from a fashion house or an external client and describes the desired perfume in abstract or even poetic terms — an emotion, a place, an imagined person — along with a price ceiling per litre of concentrate that effectively determines which raw materials can go into the formula (source: Perfumer – Wikipedia). A smaller budget rules out some rare natural ingredients from the outset, which is why the price of a perfume also depends on what the perfumer is allowed to use, not just on marketing. If you’re wondering why some bottles cost considerably more than others, the reasons behind the high price of some perfumes explain the connection between materials and cost in more detail.
The perfumer doesn’t deliver a single winning version on the first try. Starting from the brief, they propose several trial blends, and when the client approves one of them, the perfumer has “won” that brief — but refinement often continues for months or even years, guided by a panel or an artistic director who requests successive adjustments (source: Perfumer – Wikipedia).
Who gives the brief: a fashion house, a client, or even the perfumer themselves
The brief may come from a fashion house looking to launch its first perfume, an external client commissioning a composition for their own brand, or, more rarely, the perfumer themselves, who puts an idea forward to a house. In any of these situations, the starting point remains the same: a description of the desired mood, not a list of ingredients.
Raw materials: natural and synthetic
A perfume generally combines natural materials with synthetic components, and the two families don’t exclude one another; they complement each other. Natural materials — flowers, citrus peel, resins, woods, seeds, roots — are obtained through solvent extraction (maceration), steam distillation, or mechanical pressing, in the case of citrus peel; the old extraction technique of enfleurage has now been largely abandoned (source: Perfume – Wikipedia).
Synthetic components are obtained through organic synthesis, and some of them, such as linalool or coumarin, also exist in nature but are produced synthetically because the result is more consistent from one batch to another and more affordable. Synthetic musks have also almost entirely replaced the animal-derived musks once used in perfumery (source: Perfume – Wikipedia). This doesn’t mean a synthetic note is inferior to a natural one; it simply means the perfumer chooses the right tool for the formula’s stability and cost.
How natural materials are extracted
Each natural raw material calls for a method suited to its structure: delicate flowers are often extracted with solvents, woods and resins through steam distillation, and citrus peel is mechanically pressed to release the essential oil without heating it.
Why synthetic components also appear in the formula
A synthetic component appears in the formula either because the equivalent natural material is rare or unstable, or because the synthetic version offers a consistent concentration, batch after batch — an important advantage when a perfume needs to smell identical in every bottle produced.
The formula: how a perfume is built in layers
Many perfumers don’t start from scratch with every component; they use “perfume bases”, prefabricated and reusable blends, to sketch out a concept quickly before developing it in detail (source: Perfume – Wikipedia). Once the direction has taken shape, the formula is organised into three layers that reveal themselves over time as the composition dries down on the skin: the most volatile top notes emerge first, within minutes; the heart notes develop next and form the perfume’s central character; the most persistent base notes remain last and support the scent for hours.
The transition from the first version to the final formula isn’t a single step, but a process that takes time. After the client approves a direction, the perfumer continues to adjust the proportions, sometimes for months or years, until everyone involved considers the formula ready for production.
Top, heart, and base notes
The three-layer structure explains why a perfume smells different after ten minutes than it does after three hours: the top notes fade quickly, the heart notes take centre stage, and the base notes remain the most noticeable towards the end of wear.
From the first version to the approved formula
Approval of a formula doesn’t mean the work is over; it marks the beginning of finer refinement, as the perfumer adjusts small amounts of one ingredient or another until the composition responds exactly to what the client wanted.
Maceration, filtration, and bottling
Once the formula is approved, the perfume oil is mixed with ethyl alcohol and water and left in tanks for a few weeks so the ingredients can bind together; only then is the composition filtered to remove sediment and remaining particles before being poured into bottles (source: Perfume – Wikipedia).
The proportion of perfume oil in the final liquid is what broadly distinguishes Extrait de Parfum from Eau de Parfum and Eau de Toilette: Extrait de Parfum generally contains around 15-30% oil, Eau de Parfum around 15-20%, and Eau de Toilette somewhere between 5-15%, with Eau de Cologne much more diluted, at around 2-3%. These ranges remain approximate and vary from one brand to another, so the label alone doesn’t tell you how intense the scent will be (source: Perfume – Wikipedia). If you want the full details on what an Eau de Parfum concentration actually means, the article dedicated to Eau de Parfum explores the subject in more depth.
Why the composition is left to mature before filtration
The maturation period in the tank allows the ingredients to blend fully with one another, so the final scent is uniform, rather than an overlay of separate notes that haven’t yet “settled”.
Filtration and filling the bottles
Filtration removes the fine particles left behind by the natural materials, so the liquid that reaches the bottle is clear and stable over the long term, with no visible sediment at the bottom of the bottle.
The perfumer’s signature: three examples from our portfolio
The process described above remains abstract until you connect it to real names. Three perfumers behind compositions that you can also find among our decants show what the journey from brief to bottle looks like in practice.
Francis Kurkdjian and the Baccarat commission
Francis Kurkdjian trained at ISIPCA, graduating in 1993, and made a name for himself by composing Le Male for Jean Paul Gaultier in 1995. In 2013, the crystal house Baccarat commissioned him to create a composition for the house’s 250th anniversary, initially sold only in crystal bottles (source: Francis Kurkdjian – Wikipedia). The result of that brief is Baccarat Rouge 540, the perfume in the example below.
Dominique Ropion and Frédéric Malle perfumes
Dominique Ropion trained at the school in Grasse, now run by Givaudan, and has worked at International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) since 2000. His compositions for Frédéric Malle include Portrait of a Lady, launched in 2010 (source: Dominique Ropion – Wikipedia).
Quentin Bisch and Amouage’s open brief
Quentin Bisch, a perfumer at Givaudan, received an open brief from Renaud Salmon, the house’s creative director at Amouage, with no imposed olfactory direction. The result was Guidance, later described by the house itself as the most successful composition in its history (source: Quentin Bisch – Wikipedia). Amouage remains a niche house, and if you want to understand more precisely what this category means and how it differs from designer perfumes, niche perfume explained goes into detail.
Conclusion
Once you see a perfume as the result of a brief, carefully chosen materials, and a formula refined over months or years, the bottle on the shelf takes on a different meaning: it isn’t just a pleasant scent, but a concrete creative decision made by a particular person at a particular moment. A decant lets you experience that “formula” day after day before deciding whether you want the full bottle, and if you want to know exactly how the decanting process works at our store, the how it works page explains the steps. And if, after wearing a perfume that convinced you, you’re wondering how to recognise an original bottle from one that merely imitates the formula, original perfume explained is the natural next step.
