This year, 2004 "One day Raw Material Symposium" was held at Milton Keynes Hilton, in Bedfordshire, UK, on the 20th May. It was attended by over 100 delegates.

Some major Fragrances companies Frutarom, Givaudan, L. Hitchin (for the first time), Quest International and R C Treatt presented, within the usual 45 minutes time slot, some of their Fragrance Ingredients.

Other firms had stands and displays to tease and feed delegates' curiosity: Allured Publishing, the newly created Pandora Ltd and Streatley Software Solutions.

A quiz organised by Wessel-Jan Kos with Firmenich support was set up to keep everyone smelling even during their free session!

And finally, Martin Holme, employed by Quest and running his own company Spider as well, was in charge of the closing conference speech whose surprising title "the Cool Blue River" kept everyone intrigued until 5pm.
 

Frutarom UK Fine Ingredients Division

Carmel Fullam, David Brassington, Guy Birch-Jones, John Heffernan, Rachel Price, Stephen Ayles

A brief overview of the company was given and four products were presented.
Chocarom, a nature identical pyrazine (found in potato skin) reminiscent of the warmth of cocoa in high dilution (0.1%). It has a slightly musky animalic side with vetiver & patchouli undertones and a mentholic note.
Olibanum Oil Daniel distilled, has a strong pinene top note with a rich balsamic body and slightly smoky accents: a product with a good overall intensity and not much colour (appearance: colourless to pale yellow). A variant of this material was also presented; Olibanum Oil-FH; this material had milder top note with heavier incense-noted body.
Thiocineole, a nature identical sulphur compound (found in grapefruit and other citrus) and Grapefruit mercaptan, another nature identical sulphur compound (found in grapefruit juice). With extremely low detection threshold (respectively 9 & 0.0001 ppb), they were shown in different Cologne accords where their incredible strength and diffusiveness could be evaluated. Thiocineole is described as grapefruit, fruity, exotic, green sweet and catty whereas grapefruit mercaptan is less complex and more straight strong grapefruit.
 

Givaudan

Antoine Gaillard, Patrice Poirot

3 products were presented with demonstration formulae.
Javanol, a newly launched aroma-chemical patented by Givaudan. It belongs to sandalwood family and although, it is by far the most powerful in strength and tenacity (olfactory threshold is 460 times lower than sandela and more than 10 times lower than ebanol), it has the same creamy, velvety character as the natural oil.
Methyl-laitone 10% DPG, another recently introduced aroma chemical patented by Givaudan, is a "lactone with a twist": a spirolactone, more powerful than linear lactones such as . -nonalactone or . -decalactone. Its coumarin, Tonka, coconut milk character both fruity and creamy effect can help to boost coumarin notes or help with its substitution.
Oakmoss Givco 214, a synthetic oakmoss reconstitution that is not restricted by IFRA but faithful to the typical Oakmoss extracts from ex-Yugoslavia oak forests. It has characteristic fungal, undergrowth (humus), leather, dry wood and algae notes.
 

Lionel Hitchin (Essential Oils) Ltd

Anne Kimber, Bridget Skill

A brief overview of this family owned, UK based company was given as it was their first presentation to the BSP. Six products representing most areas of their expertise (distillations -steam, high vacuum or molecular-, chromatographic separation, solvent extractions and liquid CO2, their newest addition) were shown. Blood Orange fresh FN12564 a high vacuum distillation product from the whole fruit is fresh, very juicy, quite aldehydic, soft and sweet.
Lemon Oil 5 fold Special (low citral) HD4736 is quite nice, juicy lemon, pithy and zingy.
Lemon carbonyls FN12231 (terpenes <5%, citral ~40%) obtained by chromatographic separation, has a distinctive citrus, citral-like character.
Super-soluble Cassia FN10745 processed with molecular distillation and has a rich, cinnamic aldehyde, powerful, balsamic character.
Propolis Extract HD4566, a solvent extraction product. It has a honey, medicinal character and rich spicy accents like isoeugenol.
Black Cumin Seed Extract FN12545, a CO2 extract from Nigella Sativa, is phenolic with leather, castoreum, almost medicinal notes and earthy, oak moss, tobacco undertones.
 

Quest International

Caroline Spencer-Tanner, Les Small

Their « scentsations » presentation started with some of the findings from the ICI Secret of the senses report: multi-sensorial experiences can bring benefits to our life as they are more stimulating and memorable. In an eye-led society, touch and smell are worth being stimulated as they are key emotional drivers.
Then 4 ingredients were presented with a corresponding material to touch ad libitum.
Silvanone Supra (mixture of cyclohexadecanolide and cyclopentadecanone), a macrocyclic musk recently introduced by Quest. It has a sweet powdery, almost nitro-musk effect. A piece of white fake fur was used to illustrate its soft musky character.
Mefranal, a refreshing, lemon note with an aldehydic floral muguet heart was symbolised by bubble wrap. This could be heard being "popped" throughout the presentation!
Felvinone, a soft woody cedar note with hints of balsam and amber was linked with Hessian.
Dupical, a powerful, fresh, transparent aldehydic note with floral muguet character; its electrical side was illustrated by an original "Misty" accord: a damp humid night with an electrical storm brewing.
 

Treatt PLC

Andrew Campbell, Vince Skeels

They presented the company and reminded us that RC Treatt is a manufacturer; specialising in natural fractions/ isolates, concentrating essential oils, blending specialities and aqueous extracts, before being a retailer (as it is often seen in the public eye). They then showed 5 of their specialities.
Black pepper distillate, a speciality different to the oil or oleoresin also easier to use than the oleoresin from Piper Nigrum; it has a characteristic spicy, warm (resin) black pepper note with chocolate and clove aspects.
Germacrene D Natural 40% PC192, a natural speciality derived form an essential oil. It has a beautiful floral character with wisteria, wallflower, carnation notes as well as fruity berries or melon accents and spicy, cinnamon tones.
Lemon HV Treatt, a natural speciality produced by capturing the high volatile component of lemon peel. It smells like grated lemon peel, very "peely", very natural.
Lime oil Roses Type 001 is a natural speciality that combines the odour of concentrated fresh peel of Citrus Latifolia (Persian or Tahiti type lime) enhanced with the impact of concentrated distilled oil of Citrus Aurantifolia (West Indian, Mexican or Key Lime). Unlike traditional expressed grades that are dark green, the colour of this product has been removed (colourless to pale yellow/ green product). It has a fruity, zesty tangy lime note.
Orange Terpeneless allergen free* NI is a product geared towards fragrances that should not have any allergen labelling. It has a strong aldehyde C10 character, fresh but slightly soapy. *limonene and linalol present at non detectable levels
 
 

MARTIN HOLME AND HIS "COOL BLUE RIVER"

Let's set the scene by trying to introduce this quite unusual character... One can say, he works for Quest and runs his own company Spider as well, but this does not tell much. The fact is that Martin himself gave up the idea of having a business card because he could not make up his mind what to write on it... It does prove that this man is slightly difficult to be put into any box of our traditional fragrance companies' hierarchy. However, the word alchemist was whispered and I feel this is a good hint... I hope that for those who did not see his films (he actually did not speak much and let the videos he had made do the talking for him), this will make you wander a long time in fantasy lands and for those who attended, it will bring back the magical fresh air, Martin offered us that afternoon.

The "Cool Blue River" is a project that has been running at Quest for the last 3 years and came out of a wider programme to encourage and stimulate perfumers. Its origins came at a time when the industry was wondering how to create a difference and to share its passion with consumers an issue explored by Jean-Pierre Houri (Quest's CEO) back in 2001 at the World perfumery Congress. Quest recognised that somehow, perfumers were often too busy to think "with an edge", they needed to be taken away from their daily environment and to experience new things and to be sent to different places, where new circumstances could free their creativity. Martin took them to crop circles, gardens, forests... anything that would trigger different behaviours from their daily routine and therefore, different ways of doing... and thinking.

Martin had met a Royal Academy trained artist called Peter Feroze who was running a company called the Creative Knowledge Company which ran schools programmes aimed at releasing kids' creativity via drawing and painting. After a lot of close collaboration and forging new ideas specific to perfumers and flavourists the idea of using art as a way of "capturing" experience was introduced to Quest. There is much written about the process of creativity within visual art which can then be transferred directly to perfumes and flavours. Painting becomes the doorway to releasing new creative thinking.

Martin has introduced other "co-conspiritors" in stretching people's thinking and uses drummers, a poet, sound engineers, didgeridoos to encourage people to really experience something different and powerful. The "Cool Blue River" was not a project for Perfumers though... it was specific to Quest flavourists whose main job was to create flavours for oral care... i. e. to play with mints and mint and mints again. The core question was how after years of doing the same basic flavours over and over again, one can create a different mint! So, Martin took them to the Ice Hotel in Sweden to make them encounter the freshness in a new way... How would a real encounter with minus 26 degrees change their perceptions about "cool mint" or "ice mint" to name just two... They had to "meet" it and understand it with all their senses. Sleigh rides, long ranging exciting trips on ski-mobiles, continuously breathing in the biting cold, seeing the aurora borealis (northern Lights) they lived an outstanding experience. As well as experiencing new sensations, they had to express them in colours and forms. Painting became another way of describing their reality both physical and emotional. Exploring this new way of closer observation and "capture" has definitely changed them: it has enriched their understanding and their ability to communicate. Being able to see from a different point of view has enabled them to create a difference because now, an iced mint has more than one meaning, more than one face, more than one taste. The reality itself is unchanged but new interpretations are possible thanks to the fresh look flavourists can give it.

I do not know if Martin can really turn lead into gold but if self development techniques and corporate capitalism can be mingled into a toothpaste and make it taste better, that definitely shook quite a few of my prejudices! This was a very bold, brave and mind opening presentation.

I can only wish that more businesses would come to understand the deep value of this kind of approach and thus find these kinds of adventures worth spending money on.

Could this save us from the painful explosion of clone like fragrances that have inundated our stores? I can only hope so and thank Martin warmly for a tooth brushing experience that freshened our minds!

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