Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Perfumer's Point of View

The Green Nose applauds Jeb Gleason-Allured for starting a forum and providing coverage of sustainability issues for the past two months. A Senior Perfumer, Pascal Gaurin responded to "The F&F Horizon: 2009 and Beyond" posted by Mr. Gleason-Allured 12/17/08.  Mr Gaurin reply is titled "Perfumer POV: An Opportunity to Reinvent the Fragrance Creation Process". 

The reply was thoughtful and reasonable and explained the reality of the environmental toxicity circumstance (and other issues) that the Perfumer must contend with when deciding what raw materials are available to use. 

Understanding opportunity vs renunciation is a wonderful step in this process of setting responsible standards. As mentioned in my post of 1-24-09 "Sustainable Fragrances for Cleaners", we are finally getting closer to our goal. If we can count on Perfumers to grasp the simple concepts we are there.  

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Sustainable Fragrances for Cleaners

All fragrances are created and do not have mysterious origins. No matter what marketers want you to think fairy pheromones are not scraped off the wings of a butterfly into a perfume bottle and a rainbow's essence has never been successfully evaporated into a magic decanter of dishwashing detergent. Fragrances for cleaning products are simply chemical compounds added to a product base that ultimately are flushed down the drain and into our water supply. This means that these compounds have come under more and more scrutiny by governing agencies leaving suppliers to justify safe toxicity in the environment.

Many Fragrance Houses argue that creativity will be compromised due to the upcoming EPA's DfE criteria and the resultant non-acceptable lists. They also state a lack of known material substitutions for the Perfumer's palette will result in an inferior product. With the new DfE module finalized this Spring and the conference on how to develop responsible sustainable formulas this June, the Green Nose would like to contribute to the dialog by providing a demonstration fragrance compound developed from ingredients that complied to 2008 DfE criteria, as follows:

Fresh Herbal Floral GPF-0411

          [Fresh Notes]
parts            Name and CAS#
01.3     aldehyde c-10     112-31-2
00.5     aldehyde c-12 lauric     112-54-9
00.5     aldehyde c-12 mna     110-41-8
01.5     citronellyl nitrile     51566-62-2
11.2     dihydro myrecenol     18479-58-8
02.0     ethylene brassylate     105-95-3
20.0     tetrahydro linalool     76-69-3

          [Herbal Notes]
02.5     amyl salicylate     2050-08-0
01.0     camphor powder     76-22-2
01.0     dimetol     13254-34-7
00.2     estragole     140-67-0
00.3     ethyl amyl ketone     106-68-3
01.0     eucalyptol     470-82-6
04.0     iso bornyl acetate     125-12-2
09.0     terpinyl acetate     80-26-2

          [Floral Notes]
02.5     benzyl salicylate     118-58-1
02.0     cyclacet     5413-60-5
02.0     dimethyl octanol     151-19-9
10.0     hedione     24851-98-7
05.0     koavone     81786-73-4
10.0     lilial     80-54-6
03.5     linalyl acetate     115-95-7
01.0     methyl napthyl ketone     941-98-0
04.0     terpineol alpha     98-55-5

          [Green Notes]
00.5     cis-3-hexenol     928-96-1
00.5     cis-3-hexenyl acetate     3681-71-8
00.5     liffarome     67633-96-9
01.0     triplal     68039-49-6
00.5     undecavertol     81782-77-6
01.0     viridine     101-48-4
------
100.0

When formulating fragrances for a cleaner intended for DfE approval, Perfumers must depend on what they know thus the importance of the new module and the agreements that should be forged at the June conference. This will facilitate the cleaning product manufacturers to require environmental safe cleaners.

There is an apparent need based from recent trade reports to mention the difference of creating a safe fragrance for skin products like perfume or lotions. For these assignments, the Perfumers enjoy a power of mystique, naivete and experimentation. The Perfumers have access to thousands of materials that help the artistry of the craft. An entirely different set of toxicity reviews and risk assessments guide the safety of those products prior and after consumer market introduction.

My faith and personal experience in the fragrance industry based on past actions, is they will embrace and promote the new environmental interpretive skills to their suppliers and their clients in the future. The time for prevention is now and responsible sustainability is the answer.