Why I describe perfume through feelings, not notes

By Arthur Cukier

Short answer: because nobody falls in love with a list of ingredients. People choose a perfume for how it makes them feel and who it lets them be. Notes matter to the perfumer. Feelings matter to the person wearing it.

I learned this from Chantal Roos, my mentor. She taught me two things I still use every week. Describe a perfume through emotion, not through a pyramid. And protect the DNA of the brand, always.

Notes are a technical language

Top, heart, base. Mandarin, davana, vetiver. This is useful in the lab. But read a pyramid out loud to a friend and watch their face. It means very little. Most people cannot smell davana in their head.

A story is something you can feel

For Borsalino we built the Art of Love Collection as a story in acts. Act I, Black Iris and White Iris, is a first date at the cinema. Act II, Amber Note and Rose Note, is about music and moves to a listening bar, the moment when attraction becomes something deeper. You do not need to know what cypriol smells like to understand that.

It changes how we work

We brief perfumers with a scene, not a formula. We train beauty advisors to tell the story first and the notes second. And we judge a fragrance by one question: does it make you feel what we promised?

Questions we often hear