The story of Geza Schoen’s Escentric Molecules

Perfumer Geza Schoen is creator of Escentric Molecules, a series of scents which have revolutionised fragrance. He talks to MARIAN BUCKLEY about his molecular mission.

Geza Schoen is a Berlin-based perfumer, a man with an amazing nose and equally formidable nous. He was trained by Haarmann and Reimer and spent 12 years gaining experience in Argentina, Singapore, London and Paris. The story of his influential range of molecular scents began in 1990 when he isolated a single molecule, Iso E, an ingredient found in many commercial perfumes, but as Geza recalls, “I just fell in love with the way it smells on its own. I had smelled it in many perfumes before, but I had the idea then for a perfume with just one ingredient.”

In 1994, Geza Schoen was working on a project for Diesel and offered his Iso E scent to the sales rep.”He thought it was too way out even for Diesel,” Geza recalls with relief. Having established an enviable reputation within the industry, Geza became jaded by the marketing approach to perfume manufacturing. “What goes into the bottle can come as an after-thought,” he explains. “The industry works so quickly, they create a scent, market it, make it into as many versions as possible and dilute the original idea completely. It’s like being a chicken in a box producing eggs.”