2 the end of Chanel No. 5 was near and that “twentieth-century perfumery [is] history”: See, for example, the online discussion by perfumer Octavian Coifan, “1000 Fragrances,” http://1000fragrances.blogspot.com/2009/04/ endangered-fragrances.html.
3 Word spread that the notorious forty-third IFRA amendment would limit jasmine to 0.7 percent: See IFRA, “Standards,"www.ifraorg.org/Home/Code,+Standards+Compliance/IFRA+Standards/page.aspx.
4 “When the new IFRA standards were issued we immediately checked the percentages of jasmine grandiflora and [jasmine] sambac“: quoted in Katz, “Allergen Rules May Alter Scents of Great Perfumes.”
5 the scent of warm, clean skin: For a discussion, see, for example, Burr, Emperor of Scent, 216.
6 the world’s first “nitro-musk”: For an excellent discussion, see Turin and Sanchez, Perfumes, 35; also Burr, Emperor of Scent, 216. As Turin explains to Burr in The Emperor of Scent, today perfumers work with a new generation of synthetic musks, and there have been several stages in the evolution of these materials.
The first substitutes for the original nitro-musks were a family of synthetics known as polycyclic musks, which didn’t have the nitrogen-and-oxygen combination that made the nitro-musks unstable. In fact, that was precisely the new dilemma they posed: they weren’t biodegradable, making them less than ideal environmentally; Burr, Emperor, 217.
The next–and current stage in the development of synthetic musks–are a group known as macrocyclics and, more recently, alicyclics, which are safe, sustainable, and increasingly affordable. The macrocyclics, in particular, have the distinctive smell of natural musk and sometimes an additional fruit aroma. See Philip Kraft, “Aroma Chemicals IV: Musks,” in Chemistry and Technology of Flavours and Fragrances, ed. David J. Rowe (London: Blackwell, 2004); and Till Luckenbach and David Epel, Marcus Eh, “New Alicyclic Musks: The Fourth Generation of Musk Odorants,” Chemistry and Biodiversity, 1, no. 12 (2004): 1975–84.
7 Today musk ketone is still permitted only with strict limitations: See annex III of the European Cosmetic Directive.
8 As Christopher Sheldrake explains, while those nitro-musks were wonderful, powerful, and inexpensive: Christopher Sheldrake, Chanel, interview, 2009.
9 And, as perfumer Virginia Bonofiglio quips, “You can’t make cheap that smells like Chanel No. 5”: Virginia Bonofiglio, Fashion Institute of Technology, interview, 2009.
10 Polge tells a story about how his predecessor, Henri Robert, used to watch Ernest Beaux correct an entire batch of Chanel No. 5 perfume in the production facility: Jacques Polge, Chanel, interview, 2009.
11 Responding to this threat, in the early 1980s Chanel brokered a long-term agreement with the Mul family: Chanel, interview, 2009; also reported in Roberts, “The Sweet Smell of Success.”
12 Soon, Chanel hopes simply to have resolved the problem of jasmine sensitivity entirely: Christopher Sheldrake, Chanel, interview, 2009.
The Secret of Chanel No. 5 Page 31
