Michael Edwards has become such an authority in today's Perfumery industry that the BSP was genuinely happy and proud to welcome him to its April's meeting. It was a fine spring evening and Michael Edwards enchanted us with his theatrical voice that can fluctuate from lyrical bird whispers to imposing tenor tones... Passionately, he talked about his career and the stories behind the success of all his works: books, classification and Internet sites, and we all followed him, captivated, round the leafy detours he took us, some involving smelling very old memories.

Michael actually started in the marketing and sales department of one of the companies of the Beecham group, working on toothpaste and shampoos. But at the time, no new active ingredients were new or exciting enough to sustain, let alone create, sales. However, searching for alternative product "pluses", he soon started to be fascinated by the power of perfumes... Change the fragrance (and only the fragrance) of a product and you can completely change customers' perception of it!

In the mid 70's, Michael attended a seminar led by Firmenich where he discovered how fragrances were organised into families. He was fascinated and Firmenich's own classification book " le bouquet de la Parfumerie" became his bible. In the meantime, the scene had evolved. Women had started wearing perfumes during the day. Jovan Musk (1972) and Charlie (1973) symbolised this new freedom...
Later Michael Edwards joined Halston and moved to Paris where he kept using the Firmenich book as a tool for his sales staff all around the world. In 1981, he asked Firmenich to update and condense it (its publication had stopped in 1978). Permission was granted. At the same time, in the eighties, big houses started to see that interest in fragrances was potentially very lucrative. The extremely successful launch of Giorgio at Bloomingdales, New York, in 1983, which turned into the event of the year certainly confirmed that they were right to think so. But a book to help sales staff with their sales was still missing, the Haarman & Reimer classification was getting very technical and so difficult for sales and marketing people to use.

In 1983, business went into turmoil: Halston had to pull back due to bad management of its licences... but every cloud has its silver lining and Michael then decided to go solo and concentrate on the writing of his guide. Although he had started with the perfumes families' old structure, he chose to simplify it to make it understandable to everyone. He stripped away all perfumistic jargon. Thus floral aldehydic became soft florals; chypres, mossy woods; leathers, dry woods; and semi-oriental, soft oriental... which did not imply that customers were only getting "half" of something! Besides, female and male fragrances were matched; apart from fougères that were a combination of all the other types. He kept this original and abstruse name, as they indeed, represent quite an abstract accord. On top of this, intensity and sophistication were cleverly coded by a series of "tones": fresh, crisp, classic and rich e. g. for the floral family: muguet is fresh, gardenia, crisp, rose, classic and tuberose, rich. One can easily understand the meaning of each tone... and get an idea of the smell described. A brand new system of classification was born: Michael's own. In 1984, his first guide was published. It was aimed at retailers, which gave them expert advice and suggested alternatives when an asked for fragrance was not stocked. Michael chose Australia in which to settle. It was the ideal test market, as it had very aggressive sales and marketing strategies. Moreover, he was in "neutral ground" as America and France are where most of the Fine Fragrance creations happen! So, he went down under for the most logical of reasons... but stayed for the most extravagant one: he just fell in love with Sydney!

In the middle of the '90s Michael had been captain on his own ship for nearly 10 years. He was still as passionate about perfumery and perfumers as he was when he discovered their world many years before. However, at the time, there was no book where the perfume creators spoke out about their job... and their "babies" and Michael was keen to tell the world about them. All the contacts he had made while in Paris were very useful but he could not have done without the help of Edmond Roudnitska and Guy Robert who enthusiastically welcomed his idea. Thanks to their support, doors opened wide for him and he wrote "Perfume Legends" ¹, which tells the story behind the creation of the classics that we all love.
However, his main job was still his guide! Paradoxically, as fragrances turned into a commodity, creativity and activity are now seen in niche and mass markets rather than within well-established brands. That's why Michael Edwards' guide lists them all, including limited editions. When evaluating a fragrance Michael never makes up his mind straight away, he likes to keep the smelling strip for at least a day, to wear the fragrance and to discuss its smell with the people involved in the creation. Today, this makes his guide the only one checked with perfume houses and perfumers.

With this classification², Michael Edwards managed to turn perfume search into a child's game... and a very enjoyable one too: as well as being extremely useful, his annual publications always feature the most delightful pictures. So far, Michael and his team have evaluated thousands of fragrances and since they started, perfume launches have increased exponentially (37 in 1984, 147 in 1997, over 350 in 2003) No wonder that most perfume houses have also adopted the guides. For those involved in perfume creation, he has actually improved them by creating a website³. All fragrances are indeed listed and classified (as they would be on the paper print) but almost everything you want to know about each fragrance has been added: house and corporate group, perfumer, bottle designer, olfactive pyramid and even pronunciation! A wealth of knowledge that an industry professional would be stupid not to subscribe to.

Also, another site⁴ was set up to help perfume lovers (or retailers) to easily find perfumes they like in an increasingly overcrowded and confusing market... By entering a fragrance, one gets 3 suggestions (that are in the same family, as most people tend to have favourite families of perfumes) that are likely to be appreciated. All these were developed thanks to the great feedback he got from all the retailers who took the guide on board from its early stage. They kept asking for more. More fragrances to be listed, more details given, more search criteria... Now, 20 years on, Michael sits on a massive, yet very user friendly, database of more than 3500 fragrances that can be listed by bottle designer, perfume house, brands, etc... and last but not least, by creator. For the very first time, this gives us an incredible tool with which to follow the evolution a perfumer's work in term of creativity.

Our excitement had been maintained during this presentation: discovering history, stories, anecdotes and all those fabulous tools Michael & his team had developed for us... Yet, our noses had been idle! However, to demonstrate the capability of his database, Michael had a fabulous surprise for us: some of Edmond Roudnitska's fragrances in their original formulations! We were taken back in time. Greedily, we smelt ourselves drunk as we re-discovered in chronological order the major creations from this genius of Perfumery: with Femme 1944, Moustache 1948, Diorama 1949, Eau d'Hermès 1951, Eau Fraîche Dior 1953, Eau Sauvage 1966 & Eau Sauvage Extreme, Diorella 1972 and Ocean Rain 1990.

For Michael Edwards, and probably for all of us who are in awe of fragrances, these are liquid emotions. And it is probably because of his vivid, unwavering fascination for Perfumery, that he has succeeded in creating a classification that is very thorough & technical but still keeps all the myths well alive. One can only admire his work and just to confirm this, in a typical David and Goliath scenario, Fragrance of the world. info received the 2004 FIFI Award for the technological breakthrough of the year in front of IFF & Robertet! Congratulations to the happy winners: Michael Edwards and his 5 member team, Pankaj & Satis Patel of 3P Marketing Sydney (who developed the computer program). And we wish, as perfume developers, to be always inspired enough to create fragrances worth dreaming about, and even making dreams come true for others.

1-Perfume Legends English edition 296p ISBN 0 646 27794 4 £85
2-Fragrances of the World 2004 160 p ISBN0 9587419 9 9
3-www.fragrancesoftheworld.info 12 month subscription £200
4-www.fragrancesoftheworld.com

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