From craftmanship to science: A toolbox for sensory analysis in perfumery

The art of perfumery was historically based in the creativity and sensitivity of talented individuals and on the use of primarily natural extracts, in order to manufacture products that were only available for a wealthy minority. With the advent of industrialization and mass production, perfumery has become a commodity affordable for the common citizen. Such change from craft to industry has sparked the necessity for standardization and quality assurance concerning olfactory traits of both raw materials and marketed products.

A combination of sensory and molecular analytical techniques provides a more complete answer to the typical questions any R&D department in the scent domain might be confronted with (product formulation, performance trials, off notes detection, etc.). Olfasense is equipped with an array of inhouse developed instruments, such as the Pure Sniff that facilitates the blind sensory analysis of gaseous samples. Furthermore, our LiGaVa (Liquid-Gas Vaporizer) is able to completely vaporize any liquid sample into gas for its assessment. The sensory performance of test products may also be assayed directly onto the human skin, thanks to our Scent Sampler that allows collecting air samples in a standardized fashion. Once collected, samples might be subjected to dynamic olfactometry analysis (EN 13725), which is very useful for determining the olfactory threshold value (OTV) of any odorant. Such analytical pipeline can also be completed with the integrated sensory/molecular profiling by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry analysis coupled with olfactometric detection (GC-MS/O).

Thanks to the application of these techniques in several case studies, we have gathered an extensive library on a wide collection of volatile organic compounds (mass spectra, OTV, sensory descriptors, etc.). These techniques are widely used for the evaluation of consumer goods and we are increasingly applying our knowhow and instrumentation to perfumery applications.