‘I think the timing is spot on for true botanical perfumery’, says miessence product creator/developer, Narelle Chenery. ‘Perfumes have been on my to-do list for a long time... since 2001, but I wanted to make sure I did them right.’ she says.

‘They’ve actually taken many years to research and develop. And while that’s been happening, science has identified some concerning issues around chemical-based perfumery,’ says Narelle.
Narelle was speaking on the September launch of the collection of 6 new organic perfumes from miessence.

It’s been a long, complex and creatively demanding process to bring each one to fruition, but also an amazingly exciting, fun and joyful process,’ she says. ‘For women and men looking for  chemical-free perfumes to protect their bodies, and those of their children, this launch is very timely,’ Narelle says, explaining that there are still precious few internationally certified organic perfume ranges available throughout the world.

The new miessence range of organic botanical perfumes had its initial beginnings on the Internet. Intensive research was required to identify and classify all the different olfactory ‘families’. Of these many aromatic groups, ‘floral’ is probably easiest to understand since it contains many fragrances we recognise as coming from flowers. Similarly ‘gourmand’ with familiar foody aromas like chocolate and vanilla, is another classification that’s relatively simple to grasp in concept.

‘We worked through many evocative ‘families’ - like woody, chypre, fougere, oriental, fruity, leather and so on - until we had six finalists’, Narelle says.

The next step was to discover which combinations within those chosen groups have traditionally enticed perfume lovers worldwide. This involved analysing the constituents of the world’s favourite chemical-based fragrances – the ageless classics and the most adored come-lately’s. Many much-loved perfumes were teased apart - from old brands like Opium, Chanel #5 and 4711 through to contemporary ‘must-have’s’ like Lolita L’Empicka and Angel.

‘We carefully examined the top, base and low notes of these perfumes,’ Narelle explains. ‘But it’s incredibly difficult to figure out precisely what it is that makes a perfume ‘sing’. You can access lists of ingredients, but the recipes that give a fragrance starquality are jealously guarded secrets.’
‘We weren’t trying to copy anything – least of all chemical-based perfumes,’ Narelle explains. ‘But we did need to understand the types of fragrances most likely to seduce the emotions of today’s consumers.’

‘Once we knew what we wanted to create, and we had a list of the types of ingredients we  wanted to source, we then had to find the materials. And that was a huge challenge,’ says Narelle.
‘For months, I scoured the planet. I searched and searched to find all the beautiful organic ingredients we needed that were also able to meet the stringent requirements of the USDA and the ACO.’

‘This was often difficult with the essential oils. But it was an extraordinary challenge with many other items like ambrette seed, cocoa, oakmoss, benzoin, orris root, tonka beans, and even a honey absolute. Finding natural products was hard enough: finding fully certified organic crops was a whole new ballgame,’ explains Narelle.

Then came the many months of permutations and combinations for the ingredients in the perfume in each olfactory family. It eventually came down to minute tweaks – drop by drop – of the recipe. But finally it was done. We had six beautiful perfumes in six stunning bottles. ‘Six products I am in love with,’ says Narelle proudly. ‘Created for the world to enjoy. My six brand new babies.’

Just like babies they needed to be clothed and named. And that’s when the teamwork really started.

Marketing, creative, management and science personnel got together around the board room table to brainstorm the visual imagery and written descriptions for the packaging colours and styles that accurately portrayed each unique botanical fragrance.

With coffee beans at hand, between inhaling each of the new creations, they talked creatively about plush purple velvet curtains, wispy incense smoke, exotic spices, whirling dervishes, spring dew, honey soaked crumpets, tingling fruits, mossy forest floors, clear blue skies, romantic bouquets... they had fun!

At that stage, they only had the generic olfactory family names of each perfume. Floral, Oriental, Citrus, Gourmand, Chypre and Fougere. Then the dictionary and thesaurus came out to create a list of words that evoked the moods and feelings for each perfume. From that list, they chose one word that would be the perfume’s name.

‘We actually went through a couple of name changes,’ says Narelle. ‘The clincher for me was when I took the samples with me on a trip to Perth. I was trying to decide which perfume to wear each day, and the names we had chosen weren’t speaking to me... so I sat down and named them based on how I wanted to feel when I used each of the perfumes. I think they work!’

Greg Hosking, ONEgroup in-house designer, sourced beautiful imagery to eloquently compliment the mood and character of each perfume. Then followed a seemingly endless parade of regulatory, certification and production details involving the all-important look, feel and function of the packaging, bottles and labels.

‘It’s been really intense work at times. But I’ve loved every minute of it,’ perfume creator Narelle Chenery says. ‘When I look at these precious teardrop shaped bottles – so beautiful to the touch and with such magic contents - I’m absolutely thrilled with the range. I love every one – although, like any mother, I secretly have my favourites’.

‘I hope women and men everywhere adore our hauntingly different collection of miessence botanical fragrances as much I do.’

(MIESSENCE CERTIFIED ORGANIC PERFUMES)