Behind the world’s fragrances sits a shadowy oligopoly

Damp carpet and outdated espresso. That’s how a perfumier may need described the “prime notes”—business communicate for the preliminary olfactory expertise—at SIMPPAR, the annual fragrance-ingredient expo held this month in Paris. It’s the place distributors from Sicilian dynasties to Japanese chemical corporations collect to showcase their components. Some are pure. The centifolia rose, a fantastically pungent pink flower harvested at daybreak, at its peak efficiency, makes for wonderful advertising materials. Much less romantic however extremely profitable are the artificial components. These molecules enable their makers to isolate particular smells, spare the animals as soon as killed for his or her secretions and provides fragrances endurance.