Similarity of Perfume Formulas

As everyone knows, my perfume formulas are inspired by famous fragrances. I do use chemical analysis and extensive perfumery knowledge to develop them, but I can’t always reach a very high similarity. That’s why I call them “Type”, rather than clone or replica.

Sometimes, even though I’m able to identify more than 90% of the aromatic compounds of most perfumes, some important ingredients may be missing such as captives molecules, proprietary bases, essential oils and absolutes; unique ingredients in which some I couldn’t even replace and expect a similar odor without them.

Not all the ingredients you see in my perfume formulas, were found in their analyses. Several ingredients are added by me to enhance and complement the fragrance, bringing it closer to the original scent (and sometimes it gets even better).

Another important factor for similarity is that I have worked with different laboratories in the past, which had different methods, equipments and databases; resulting in formulas with different quality standards. Currently, my analyses are centralized in a single laboratory to ensure a high quality standard for all formulas and I’m slowly updating the old ones.

Perfumes can also have different batches with different compositions. The smell of the Hacivat and Aventus I know might be slightly different from what you know. And I don’t always have the Batch number information, because I only buy small samples (decants) and not full bottles/box.

From October 31st, I have decided to include a “similarity” information in all perfume formulas, to help you customer clarify this question before purchasing. My method for calculating the similarity number is:

  1. Use the percentage of identified aromatic compounds as the base number. Our latest formulas got between 92% and 99%.
  2. Compare our sample with the original perfume sample, after 2 weeks of maceration, in paper strips.
  3. Adjust the percentage up or down by nose evaluation of top, heart and base notes; scent tenacity and sillage.
  4. Round off the percentage number.

My goal is to bring high quality perfume formulas with good similarity and I’m committed to doing this; but please, keep in mind that this will not always be possible for the reasons mentioned above. I will also never publish a formula with less than 90% similarity.

The process of developing these perfume formulas is time-consuming, expensive, exhausting and labor intensive; some took dozens of trials, tests and adjustments to get to the final published version. I hope that the fact that sometimes I can’t reach a very high similarity, doesn’t overshadow all the effort and dedication I put into them.

Filipe L.
Creative Formulas Owner and Perfumer