By: Hannah Narvaez | Staff Blogger
When I think of the purpose of wearing perfume, it’s to smell just a little bit better than usual.
Like something flowery or fruity, sometimes I come across an occasional “musky” smell that appeals to me. Perfume is just an odd human thing. We really only wear perfume (and cologne) for other humans. But what about the scent-demands of our animals?
Many mammals, especially our household pets, have stronger olfactory senses and, therefore, have a heightened scent sensitivity compared to their human owners. We are still very much able to pick up on certain scents our animals can be associated with; for example, wet-dog- smell and kitty-litter- smell.
But what about the smell of a brand new kitten? Does anyone know what I am talking about? Well, apparently the delightful smell of a kitten is available in a bottle at your convenience.
The company Demeter Fragrance Library (DFL) recently announced its newest fragrance dubbed “Kitten Fur,” and it wasn’t an easy task to create.
According to the company’s website, the perfume captures “the olfactory essence of the warmth and comfort of that purr-fect spot, just behind a kitten’s neck.”
Fifteen years in the making, this complicated fragrance was finally figured out. Re-creating the scent produced by large organic molecules such as those found in animal scents is especially tricky— and it’s just really hard to get the kind of depth, complexity and subtlety that you need, Mark Crames, DFL CEO and “Kitten Fur” creator, told LiveScience Magazine. Plant smells, by comparison, are easier to simulate, he added.
Creating a perfume scent is not easy work. In order to identify and replicate the distinctive scent signature produced by a place or object, perfumers usually use a technique referred to as headspace technology.
The process involves isolating and sampling the air near a scent’s source in order to build a chemical fingerprint that can be analyzed and chemically replicated in the lab.
I personally cannot say I would use the “Kitten Fur” scent. But according to the company’s fragrance requests, it was by far the most requested by DFL customers, unbelievably closely followed by “Bacon,” which is still currently in development.
Mark Crames further explained that the number of ingredients that can be safely applied directly to skin are limited, which can be restricting for creative and new fragrances.
I would also think there should be an allergy concern when it comes to this scent especially.
Hopefully with this chemistry-linked breakthrough in the perfume world that came with the success of “Kitten Fur,” more interesting and nostril-opening smells will arise from this company soon.
I am curious to see just what they are going to come up with next!
