PERFUMER & FLAVORIST VOL. 33 - OCTOBER 2008 - Fragrance Creation - Finding Signature - Perfumer Cecile Krakower

Sep 29, 2026

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PERFUMER & FLAVORIST VOL. 33 (OCTOBER 2008) explores how perfumers shape a recognizable olfactive signature and why texture, emotion, and polarity matter in fragrance development. Cecile Krakower discusses building woody softness, appreciating edible and juicy notes, and using panel testing to translate consumer reactions into competitive advantage. She also details the creative process under shrinking timelines, mixed-market messaging, and industry pressures that can dilute originality.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLifestyle

FormatPDF

Pages2

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Finding Signature

Olfactive identity and textures

Love-hate dynamics and panel testing

Tenacity and Competition in the Creative Process

28 PERFUMER & FLAVOR IST VOL. 33 OCTOBER 2008 Fragrance creation Finding Signature Perfumer Cecile Krakower discusses olfactive identity, the complexities of the development process and decoding fragrance vocabularies Mane perfumer Cecile Krakower laughs when asked if she has an olfactive signature.“I’ve been told that all of my fragrances are very textural,” she says.“I find it funny that people can recognize [my scents.]” For example, she says,“I work on making [woody fragrances] so soft and silky that they feel like just another layer of skin.” The New York-based French ex-patriot, whose portfolio includes Vertigo (Vertigo Parfums) and Yu (Mane), notes that her relationship to fragrances is less about analyzing each component material than it isabout the textures and feelings they impart.“I like it when something is ‘plump.’ I’m very sensitive to that.” And though she strongly disliked fruity notes when she first entered the industry, she has steadily gained an appreciation for renditions of edible concepts such as pear—so much so that they are now part of her signature.“I like juicy scents—the ‘velvet’ feel of a peach, the fresh and watery texture of a litchi. Those sensations are amazing.” Meanwhile, Krakower keeps an eye on signature in her compositions. The perfumer believes in leaving a bit of her personality in her creations and that identity is a key component of that. Comparing overly safe scents to dull, forgettable people at parties, Krakower says that balanced polarity can achieve interesting love-hate relationships with consumers.“If you [merely] don’t like someone, you don’t care,” she says.“There’s no feeling and energy. The more people that hate something, the more potential there is for a lot of people to love it.” Customers that carefully employ panel testing, she adds, will be able to harness this type of reaction in the service of competitive advantage. Too often, scents that are widely liked but loved by few sail through the evaluation process, ensuring little longevity. Here, Krakower cites the famous (and rare) case of Angel, which has always enjoyed broad story.” She describes recent successes of clothing retailers H&M and Target, which have successfully created mass clothing with a sense of individuality and exclusivity. As she puts it,“Just because you purchase mass-market clothes doesn’t mean you can’t have a personality.” Tenacity and Competition in the Creative Process “I always wanted to be a perfumer,” says Krakower.“I was doing my little mixes since I was seven and my dedication and passion for creating fragrances hasn’t changed.” Yet Krakower, who describes her entry into the industry as “a big shock,” has made necessary adjustments to fit into the fragrance world’s competitive atmosphere.“When young people ask me what they should do to be a perfumer, I say you have to be a little bit of a masochist.” She laughsnow about her naiveté at the time: “I don’t think I ever envisioned it would be such a huge industry, money-wise.”But the biggest acclimation involved the way in which perfumers work on projects. “When young people ask me what they should do to be a perfumer, I say you have to be a little bit of a masochist.” The perfumer’s job has only gotten more difficult over the years as timelines continuously shrink and many fragrance concepts and marketing plans lack perceptible originality. As a young student, Krakower had imagined herself happily creating fragrances and being lavished with positive feedback. The reality is that the perfumer forever begins with a blank page that must be quickly filled on a tight deadline.“You start working on your vision, translating it, and have it compounded in the lab,”she says,“Then it comes back—well, it’snot exactly what you were thinking of. Then you tweak it for the feeling, the texture you scorn and devotion alike—to great effect. In Cecile Krakower addition to panel testing, globalization has exacerbated safe scent

FAQs

What does Cecile Krakower mean by finding an olfactive signature?

She describes a signature as an outcome of textures, sensations, and identity embedded in the fragrance rather than analyzing every component in isolation.

How does panel testing influence fragrance success, according to Krakower?

Careful panel testing helps harness reaction patterns—especially strong love or hate—to create competitive advantage, since overly liked but rarely loved scents may still pass evaluation.

Why does Krakower say the creative process has become more difficult over time?

Shrinking timelines and many concepts lacking clear originality push perfumers to start from a blank page quickly, repeatedly tweaking for the right texture and feeling.

Sep 29, 2026

Upload by awa