Perfumer's view, advice

Sophie Labbe is Senior Perfumer at IFF. She talks us through the latest trends in perfume:

"After years of fresh, fruity scents, what women now want are textured, rich perfumes with an air of mystery and high quality. The success of Clinique's Elixir, thirty years after it was first created, just goes to show the current mood. Women want new emotions: they want a distinctive scent that sends out a real message, which means beautiful floral scents, new versions of vintage classics, or contrastings scents made with the finest of ingredients - pure luxury!

Today, perfume is going back to its roots and reinventing them, which means a return to source materials produced in a different way using modern technology. IFF uses extremely high quality ingredients in its LMR laboratory. We've seen heart notes of patchouli in women's fragrances at Prada, and an exceptional floral 'harvest' at Givenchy as well.

Male scents are also seeing a return to fine, quality perfume. They've borrowed major trends like floral from women's fragrances; Iris by Dior Homme is one example. We're also seeing a lot of reworked classics, as with women's scents, with a more floral or fruity bias. 

In a nutshell, we're seeing similar trends for masculine and feminine perfumes: a focus on fine ingredients, and a focus on one major ingredient or strong element with innovative ingredients added. We're playing with contrast a lot to create new sensations, arouse new emotions and surprise.