How do you create a perfume?
Coralie Frébourg
4 years: that's the average time it takes to create and launch a new perfume. Why does it take so long? Here's a rundown of the creation process, and how we do things differently at Versatile.
1. The concept
The name, the universe, the perfect idea that will make people dream.
Example: create the new feminine perfume for young women seeking femininity, with a very pink universe, and call it "Rose en fleurs du mois de mai".
2. The brief to the perfumers
Olfactory family, target, ingredients… That's right: apart from a few big luxury houses (Chanel, Hermès, Dior, Guerlain, Cartier…) that have in-house perfumers, brands call on fragrance houses to create their perfumes.
There are several types: Givaudan, IFF, Firmenich (the leaders), Symrise, Mane, Robertet, Takasago (specialized in niche, naturals…) and independents like Flair or Maelstrom.
Some brands give perfumers carte blanche, others write very detailed briefs. Example: "Mystique" vs. "A fruity floral because it's the trend of the moment, with the most beautiful variety of rose. The target audience is 18-25 years old. We want an Eau de Parfum concentrated at 15% with a formula at €80/kg."
At Versatile, all our perfumes are composed by the independent studio Flair. Discover the portraits of our perfumers: Amélie Bourgeois, Anne-Sophie Behaghel and Camille Chemardin.
3. Consumer testing
Perfume is first and foremost a business. Brands tell beautiful stories to make people dream, but the goal, at the end of the day, is to sell.
Forget naivety: most perfumes on the market are tested, reworked and retested in different strategic countries and cities, to reach the widest possible target: you, your mother, your sister, your friends, your grandmother and the rest of the gang.
One of the best-known perfumes, with its star-shaped bottle, required more than 694 trials before hitting the market. Given its success, OK, it was worth it.
4. Storytelling
It's the story told around a perfume: the creator's life, their scent memories, their ideas. Everything is carefully crafted to make you want it, to sell you that famous slice of dream that makes us feel we belong to another world.
5. The 360 mix
- Advertising: press, media, TV, street marketing
- Digital and comms: website, influencer marketing, social media, events
- Packaging: gifts with purchase, outer box, bottle, gift boxes
- Retail: stores, pop-ups, store layout
- Operations: expansion into strategic countries
6. Regulations
Every cosmetic product is tested and strictly controlled before it's placed on the market, in line with the EU Cosmetics Regulation and IFRA standards (International Fragrance Association).
Toxicity, stability, product information file: nothing is left to chance to guarantee consumer safety. Testing takes between 3 and 6 months. Even when perfumers formulate in line with IFRA recommendations, the regulatory team can reject a non-compliant formula.
The "regulatory package" costs around €1,500 per product: a big investment for a young brand.
Flankers and limited editions: how brands keep going for 4 years
To protect their image and margins, brands launch limited editions (often in summer) or flankers (variations on variations of the original perfume). Then come: L'Eau, L'Absolu, L'Essence, Nectar, Intense, Gold, In Joy, EDT, EDP, Parfum…
Built around the original scent with a slight twist, these perfumes can pass themselves off as new launches while the juice stays almost the same.
The result? Shake this cocktail = standardized, cloned launches and never-ending catalogs. A real olfactory uniformity, where most of a brand's budget goes into advertising and media.
At Versatile, we do things differently
In the age of individuality, we felt it was essential to break free from this institutional process that aims to please everyone.
We don't run consumer tests, and our perfumes are developed in less than 6 months. Each launch is a one-shot, never spun off, with original, modern and genderless olfactory choices. That's the whole idea behind our Blacklist.
The result? Perfumes inspired by food and everyday moments, like Croissant Café, It's a Match-a or God Bless Cola. Discover all our Extraits de parfum.
Photo: Versatile Paris
