On paper, the divide is clear. Mainstream fragrances are those produced and marketed to mass audiences by large corporations who devise their latest releases according to consumer trends and panels. Niche ones are created by independent houses with smaller circulation figures, working to their own creative briefs and distributed at selected retailers. The recent explosion in demand for the latter has muddled these divides, the acquisition of indie brands by luxury conglomerates notwithstanding.

Thanks to online portals into the heart of independent perfumery, scent exploration options are infinite.

As fragrance commentator Lizzie Ostrom notes in Perfume: A Century of Scents, niche fragrance first came to the fore in the 1970s, but flourished with the rise of the internet. Nowadays, sites like Basenotes or Fragrantica offer a vast universe of discussion forums, fragrance reviews and extensive scent directories. Thanks to these online portals into the heart of independent perfumery, the scent exploration options are infinite.

Fashion theorist Carol Tulloch first discussed style narratives, or an expression of one’s history and identity through fashion. Borrowing from this concept, fragrance functions as an olfactorial fashioning of identity. Independent brands have an undeniable advantage over their mass market counterparts for those who see individuality as a core element of this display of self. “The creators of niche fragrances offer different narratives for thinking about our sense of smell, a form of intellectual enquiry,” Ostrom writes. “We live, today, in a perfume fairground with a ride for every persuasion, whether play-it-safe or daredevil.”

In creative industries, an increase in popularity or brand expansion is often equated with selling out or losing sight of one’s original vision. On the other hand, one could argue that a superbly crafted product is bound to gain a large audience, in large part due to the aforementioned digital channels that offer amplified promotional opportunities. While a tendency of disdain towards mass popularity may exist, the real defining characteristic of the niche industry is its unbound creativity, which should be protected at all costs.

Back in 2008, Marina Geigert noted: “The history of fragrance in the 20th century follows the same model as fashion: from exclusivity, high price and made-to-measure quality to the focus on middle market, mass production and democratisation.” If one looks at the infiltration of athleisure at heritage fashion houses, and similarly, perfume underdogs sitting alongside established names in fragrance retail, one thing becomes clear: the game rules have changed.

The defining characteristic of niche is an unbound creativity, which should be protected at all costs.

The niche industry’s tune hasn’t changed, it is simply playing to a larger audience.

In his speech at the World Perfumery Congress, entitled Niche 2.0: The Future of Niche Perfumery and its Search for Meaning, journalist Eddie Bulliqi stated: “Niche is only a symptom and coincidental expression of a much larger and more powerful cultural weather system that is shifting the way we engage with scent…People want their fragrances to make them feel more, stimulate them more specifically and exercise them more intellectually than ever before, exacerbated by society’s search for anti-digital antidotes to electronic ways of life.”

A Global Fragrance Market report states that artisanal scents are the fastest-growing segment of the fragrance industry. After several high-profile niche brand acquisitions, Estée Lauder saw a 24% annual increase in sales. In the digital age, no industry can stay inside its own isolated bubble forever, and the clear demarcations have been replaced with increasing fragmentation. This doesn’t mean that independent perfumery is doomed, quite the contrary. Expressed as a musical metaphor, the niche fragrance industry’s tune hasn’t changed, it is simply playing to a larger audience. Now more than ever, it’s an opportunity to amp up the volume.

You sit in a white, technical environment, but you feel you are being taken deeper and deeper into a primitive forest. You are taken there by the scent created by Geza, green and resinous – the smell of the branches - but also slightly sweet, woody and rotting - the smell of the forest floor. At the same time you are surrounded by sounds recorded in seven forests round the world by Chris Watson, who is probably the most renowned field recording artist out there. You’ve got an Australian eucalyptus forest, the Masai Mara in Kenya, the Finnish taiga, and an ancient English greenwood, all delivered on a 16-channel sound system.

The secret of Escentric Molecules is the way the Molecules tell me how to create the Escentrics. Each Molecule fragrance is a composition of one. But these molecules are special. They don’t have just one note like most molecules, they have three or four notes to them, like a musical phrase. The Escentric fragrances are my improvisations on these molecular riffs.

Everything that is in the fragrance is there because it plays with the molecule itself

The beating heart of Escentric 01 is Iso E Super, a molecule that is like nothing else out there. Everything that is in the fragrance is there because it plays with the molecule. And there is a huge amount of the molecule itself in there too, 65%.

Iso E Super is olfactory chocolate, you want more and more of it

When people smell Molecule 01 they are drawn to it and then – poof! it’s gone. It’s like olfactory chocolate, you want more and more of it. But imagine if you were addicted to chocolate but could only ever have one square at a time. That’s Iso E Super. You can’t keep on smelling it. It vanishes. It comes back. It vanishes again.

That’s where Escentric 01 comes in, it allows the effect of the molecule to extend past where you can smell the molecule itself. It does this by translating the qualities of Iso E Super into other ingredients. One of the special aspects of Iso E is its velvetiness. I extended this aspect with a pair of musk ingredients that coalesce into something incredible when you put them together.

When we smell a strawberry, we think, yeah that smells good. But that’s it. A strawberry doesn’t carry meaning

Iso E Super has a powerful magnetism for many people. They have to get near it, it's so cocooning. In Escentric 01 I translated this aspect through the balsamic ingredients, incense and mastic. Maybe it’s because our connection to balsamic notes goes back to when we first burnt them in our temples thousands of years ago, but we have an almost genetic connection to them. When we smell a strawberry, we think, yeah, that smells good. But that’s it. A strawberry doesn’t carry meaning. But incense has a mystical quality to it, a depth. Just as it added a new dimension to religious experience over generations, so it adds another dimension to a fragrance.

The secret to Escentric 02 is in the precise amount of AMBROXAN™ in the fragrance: 13.5%, the maximum you can put in a formula before it starts crystallizing out of the liquid. AMBROXAN™ is nature-identical. It is the finest of the molecules found in ambergris, a substance produced naturally by sperm-whales and the most mysterious ingredient in perfumery.

It’s like a dildo –soft and well-rounded with a really nice touch

For Escentric 02 I wanted a fragrance that is super-fresh but sexy. This endless freshness is something only AMBROXAN™ can deliver. Added to that is a huge chunk of muscone, a nature-identical ingredient originally isolated from musk. And of course there’s a big slug of Iso E Super.

You know that smell you get when you unwrap a brand-new Apple device? It’s like a dildo – very soft and well-rounded with a really nice touch. That’s the topnote of Escentric 02, plus I added the elderflower freshness of an Austrian lemonade called Almdudler.

We all know the attractions of vanilla, grapefruit, musk, but some ingredients take time for people to understand. Vetiver is one of these. It is a Marmite ingredient, you either love it or reject it. I love it. So of course I wanted a vetiver molecule for Escentric.

Vetiver is a Marmite ingredient, you either love it or reject it. I love it.

The molecule in Molecule 03 is vetiveryl acetate, a hybrid of nature and chemistry. To make it, vetiver oil is acetylized, a process which strips out its smokier, leathery side. The result is a molecule that retains the woody, slightly grassy scent of vetiver, but smoother and more sophisticated.

There are three incredible roots in perfumery: vetiver, ginger and orris. Escentric 03 is an homage to these roots. Vetiver is the root of a tropical grass, orris is the rhizome of the Florentine iris, and ginger we all know. I have always loved the combination of vetiver and ginger. Then I added the third root, orris, to see how that worked. I couldn’t believe how beautiful the three roots smelt together.

A touch of floralozone which smells like a swimming-pool

Hedione is one of my favourite materials, it aerates a fragrance. It flows all the way through Escentric 03, giving space to the other ingredients. The topnote is simple: lime, pink pepper, black pepper and, of course, ginger. Plus it has a touch of floralozone, which smells like a swimming-pool.

Molecule 04, Javanol, is a transparent sandalwood molecule with a grapefruit top note and a touch of creamy rose. As always it was the molecule that dictated the formula for the Escentric 04 fragrance. But I gave it a kick by really maxxing out the grapefruit aspect.

I gave it a kick by maxxing out the grapefruit

It’s got a massive topnote popping with the fizz of hyped-up grapefruit together with blood orange oil. The grapefruit is methyl pamplemousse surrounded by my own combination of grapefruit isolates. Too much grapefruit can be kitsch. You need to accent the bitterness of the rind. The pink pepper in E04 has a greenness that brings out this bitter side, together with a special molecule that has a funky herbal marijuana note.

A special molecule with a herbal marijuana note

Escentric 04 is an extravagant powerhouse with a near-psychedelic freshness. There’s none of that suffocating sticky sweetness of many sandalwood molecules. Javanol, the molecule it is based round, is super-sheer. That freshness is the holy grail for me. I am always looking for clarity, for spaciousness.

The molecules in the Escentric Molecules fragrances are in a special category. Most aroma-molecules are great for special effects, but they have a linear scent-profile. This means they lack the complexity and beauty of a natural extract. A natural extract is like a fully-formed fragrance designed by nature. It can have anywhere from two to a hundred or so different molecules in it, all contributing to its scent-profile. The molecules I choose for Escentric Molecules are nuanced and complex, and in this way, more like natural extracts. They are rare, which is why I have always said that the Escentric Molecules series won't go on forever.

The molecules I choose for Escentric Molecules are nuanced and complex – this is rare

Iso E Super is in a class of its own. This is partly down to its radiance, the way it warms up with your natural body chemistry and hovers around you the whole day. It’s pretty unique in the palette of perfumery ingredients, and inspires intense devotion in those who can smell it (some people can’t).

AMBROXAN™ (Molecule 02) is a little less complex than Iso E but it has this special touch - an enormous mineral freshness. AMBROXAN™ is nature-identical, which means it is created in the lab but is identical to a molecule found in nature, in this case a molecule found in ambergris, which is a substance produced in the gut of sperm whales and found floating in the ocean or washed up on beaches. Ambergris is no longer used in mainstream commercial perfumery. There’s simply not enough of it to guarantee supply, so you find it today only in niche fragrances. It is an unusual animal ingredient because its sensuality is very refined, very elegant. AMBROXAN™ is by far the most beautiful of the aroma-molecules that make up ambergris, that's why I chose it for Molecule 02.

Molecule 03 has the necessary complexity to stand alone because it is half-natural to start with. It is vetiver oil which has been acetylized to take away the leathery, bitter aspect of vetiver. The acetic acid also gifts something new to the vetiver in the process, a grapefruit note. This I love, especially in the way the grapefruit blends with the woody, warm character of the vetiver itself.

Javanol is a remarkable molecule – fresh, radiant, powerful, rosy and creamy

What’s outstanding about Javanol (Molecule 04) is its almost psychedelic freshness. Natural sandalwood is heavy, a base note, whereas Javanol is a sandalwood-type molecule that acts like a topnote yet is super-longlasting. It’s fresh, powerful, radiant, and with so many facets to it: a rosy aspect, a unique grapefruit freshness, and then this creamy sandalwood thing as well. It’s a remarkable molecule.

Polina
When I was a little girl at ballet school in Russia we were sometimes called upon to dance at the Bolshoi, an experience I will never forget. To get from the stage to the dressing-rooms we had to pass through the understage. As I ran under the stage where all my heroes and heroines had danced I would close my eyes and say to myself, 'Aaaah, now you are breathing the perfume of the Bolshoi, the perfume of ballet itself.' It was only fifteen years later that I discovered what this perfume actually was.

Christiane
What was it?

Polina
Cats. They had moved into the Bolshoi during the war. Ever since they have made the theatre their home and paid their rent by catching mice.

Geza
When you told me that story I knew I had to put something catty into your fragrance so I added cassis, which is made from blackcurrant buds. Cassis smells like cat's pee.

Polina
Mmmmm!

Through you I could feel the power of scent to unlock very strong memories

Christiane
Geza, how did you find Polina? Did you see her dance at Berlin Staatsballett?

Geza
Uh … no. I was lying on the sofa late one night, zapping through TV channels and there she was in a documentary on some weird arts channel. I contacted her manager, and he told Polina ‘hey some guy has an idea about making a fragrance with you.’

Polina
And I knew immediately ‘yes, I will do this’. To dive into this world of perfume, I never imagined that this would happen to me.

Geza
We met at my laboratory here in Berlin and began to smell the primary materials together. I would give Polina a natural extract or a synthetic molecule and she would go ‘oh this one reminds me of my grandmother’s little house in the country’ or ‘this reminds me of the earth after rain’. Through Polina I could feel the power of scent to unlock very strong memories.

Polina
What was wonderful for me was discovering that the smells of my memories each had a name or a formula.

She’s the opposite of Paris Hilton so why not create a fragrance with someone like this?

Christiane
For me too, Geza’s invitation came out of the blue. I was 19 and I knew nothing about perfume.

Geza
It was when Paris Hilton had just brought out her first fragrance. I was pissed off that someone famous for doing nothing was launching a perfume as a money-making machine. Then I picked up a copy of Zeit Wissen, the science magazine. On the cover was the youngest ever junior world champion in memory-training: Christiane. I thought ‘here is a woman doing something extraordinary with her brain. She’s the opposite of Paris Hilton. So why not create a fragrance with someone like this?’

Polina
How do you train yourself to have this huge memory, Christiane?

Christiane
I connect each thing I want to remember to a picture. Then, in my mind, I place these pictures round a room or a building that I know well, forming a route from, say, the door to the table to the window. At the door I put one memory-picture, at the table another memory-picture, and so on. With practise you can memorise everything.

Polina
Everything?

Christiane
Everything. The more fantastical you make the picture that goes with the memory, the easier it is to remember. That’s why the fragrance is called Intelligence and Fantasy. The fantasy part is important. How do you remember the sequence of movements in a ballet like Swan Lake, the one you were dancing last night?

For 3 weeks we got together every day all day to smell the raw materials in his laboratory

Polina
Swan Lake is easy because in classical ballet every movement has a name. A modern ballet, where the movements have no name, that’s tough. So I make up names for them myself. I name one movement ‘box’, another ‘flower’ and I string them together in a story.

Christiane
It’s not so different from the technique that I use.

Polina
When you are on stage there is a lot going on in your head. All the corrections your teacher has told you to make. Adjusting to the layout of each different stage. The conductor playing too slow or too fast. But the best is when you don’t think. That’s what I believe our art is about - those moments when you are not you, when you fly.

That’s what I believe our art is about - those moments when you are not you, when you fly

Christiane
I was so happy when Geza told me you would make Beautiful Minds No. 2. I remember you in the Herbert Groenemeyer video. That was one of the first things that made you famous in Germany outside of ballet circles. You look so beautiful and free...

Polina
Tell me more about how you made Intelligence & Fantasy.

Christiane
I had been offered an apartment in Berlin for the summer. So when Geza got in touch, I said, ‘why not?’. I came to Berlin and for three weeks we got together every day, all day, to assess the raw materials in his lab. It was crazy to see how quickly the sense of smell becomes educated. Soon I could smell a fragrance and say ‘oh yeah there’s sandalwood in there’, or ‘that’s osmanthus’.

I came to realise that when I love a note it is because there is a connection to my memories, conscious or unconscious.

Polina
Which ingredients did you love?

Christiane
I was fascinated by the mysterious ingredients such as Iso E Super and hedione, which is very very light but has so many nuances to it. Immediately when Geza gave me something to smell, a picture would form in my mind .. the ocean.. a plant... a fantasy animal. It’s because of the way I trained my mind to memorise things through pictures. And it worked particularly well because it’s hard to describe smells in words.

Polina
What’s the picture you have when you smell Intelligence & Fantasy?

Christiane
A fluffy kugel.

Polina
Kugel?

Christiane
In English it’s a ball, or sphere. So what I see is an orange-yellow sphere, like a little sun, that has a buttery, fluffy centre.

Geza
I know exactly what she is talking about. This fluffy effect comes from –

Christiane
Cashmeran.

Geza
Yeah. Cashmeran. And the yellow-orange is from the bergamot. Intelligence & Fantasy has a huge freshness, but it’s a soft fragrance.

I was fascinated by the mysterious ingredients such as Iso E Super

Christiane
What picture do you get when you smell Precision & Grace, Polina?

Polina
I get a memory... in the forest, in summer, picking pears and plums and placing them in my basket.

Geza
For me Precision & Grace is a smell-image of you dancing. The transparent layers of the classical ballet costume, and then underneath, the warmth of the body in motion.

Christiane
Do you ever wear fragrance when you are dancing?

Polina
Yes, I like to wear Precision & Grace when I am dancing - but only in a performance. I want the fragrance to remain special, exciting.

I like to wear Precision & Grace when I am dancing - but only in a performance. I want the fragrance to remain special, exciting.

Geza
What was really different about this process was that both of you learnt to recognise and assess the primary materials. After we had smelt hundreds of ingredients, I asked both of you to write down your association for each one, so I could have an insight into your olfactory brains.

Christiane
Then we made the first base. It had just six ingredients: cashmeran, bergamot, Iso E Super, mandarin, hedione... and what was the sixth thing?

Geza
Muscenone. And the thing is, while each of these ingredients in itself is nothing unusual, the combination of these six had never been done before.

Polina
No really. Never?

Geza
Not in this way. It’s like six words. Depending on how you place them in a sentence, the sentence will be different.

I wanted to have an insight into your olfactory brains

Christiane
Towards the end, Geza added something special, a gardenia from Tahiti, tiare absolue.

Geza
Ah yes, amazing stuff. That extract wasn’t available until we were working on base 20 of Intelligence and Fantasy. Tiare absolue has this quality of being exotic and fresh at the same time, something I have never encountered in a flower before. I have some right here in my pocket. Would you like to smell it?

Christiane
Mmm. It reminds me of that thing I always search for at the airport… wintergreen.

Geza
Yeah you’re right. Wintergreen is basically methyl salicylate and this molecule is in natural tiare as well.

Polina
It’s not like a flower. More earthy than I expected. Did the tiare change Intelligence & Fantasy?

It reminds me of that thing I always search for at the airport

Geza
Tiare melts into the fragrance, giving it an exotic allure.

Christiane
How did you choose the ingredients for Precision & Grace, Polina?

Polina
We would meet and I would say 'Oh I like powder' and he would say, ‘Ok we go with powder’. We would meet again and I would say ‘oh but I also love plum’. And he would say, ‘OK lets go with plum’.

Geza
Both powdery and plum notes made it into the final formula for Precision & Grace. It’s very transparent and, in the base notes, warm and kind of yummy.

It’s as if that’s what fragrance really is –bottled memories

Christiane
In the end, did you choose notes because they smelt so good or because you had a special memory associated with them?

Polina
I came to realise that when I love a note it is because there is a connection to it in my memories. The note that I felt had to be in Precision & Grace was plum. When I was a child in Russia we had plum trees in the garden. This is the heart of the fragrance for me.

Geza
I was happy when you chose plum over other fruits. Plum is something you can use in a sophisticated way and it gets a push from the pink pepper, which has a berry note to it.

Polina
I would never have thought of pepper. But when you gave it to me I thought, ‘wow’. And then I love the woody notes. I love the forest. I love the smells of the earth so much. When rain is coming, I can smell it.

With smell, you feel the memory with your whole body

Christiane
I think you were more connected to smells through your childhood in nature. Funny that we had the same impression - that it was about memories. It’s as if that’s what fragrance really is –bottled memories.

Polina
With smell, you feel the memory with your whole body.

Geza
What I loved was that we tried to combine my experience with your memories and perceptions. Usually when someone brings out a perfume, there’s not much of them in there, it's just about the use of their name. We did the opposite, we tried to make fragrances full of soul.

We did the opposite, we tried to make fragrances full of soul

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