We are always having a look at the latest fragrances on the market, whether that is a new washing powder, or a new shampoo or a new designer perfume launch. It helps us to know that we are keeping up to date with all the latest market trends. There is however, something that we have noticed over the past few months – there seems to be a merging of the sexes.

Many of the newer fragrances that are aimed at men seem to have become the new favourites of our female office staff, with many of us naming one of them as our spritz of choice at the minute, in particular Carolina Herrera’s 212 VIP for men and Viktor & Rolfs Spicebomb.

I decided to ask around family and friends and came up with the same results….it seems that spritzing a sneaky squirt of your boyfriend/husbands aftershave is as widespread as borrowing his razor!

Back in the early perfume heyday of the 18th century there was no dividing line between male and female fragrances – in fact the dividing line was one of class and social standing instead. The most powerful men drenched their lapels and handkerchiefs with fragrance – usually a heavy floral blend, whilst the downtrodden masses blended into the background with the unforgettable stench of ‘Eau de Filth’.

The notion of gender in perfumery only came around in the early 20th century, coinciding with the influences of modern advertising methods. Fragrance became intertwined with fashion and so the flapper girls of the 1920′s became the new target demographic. Ms Monroe heaped glamour onto fragrance by the bucket load in the 50′s with her now infamous quote of wearing only Chanel No.5 to bed - it would have had to have been a brave man to wear a floral scent after that revelation!

The first efforts to woo the male back onboard were heavily advertised as a shaving routine add-on. And so the humble aftershave was born and the whole world seemed to smell of either Old Spice, English Leather or Burma Shave.

Eventually more and more colognes (note – NOT perfumes!!) became available embracing notes that were considered to be a masculine domain – spicy, leathery, woodsy and musky.

Fresh and lighter citrus notes have been an attempt to close the gap – think CK1 – and even more recently the addition of woody and musk notes being added to many female targeted scents have closed it even further.

Ancient men and women knew the power of aromatics, smearing them all over their bodies without any regard for whether spikenard or myrrh were considered to be feminine or masculine. Its a matter of what works well on your skin – so the next time you are looking for a new bottle of perfume – why not check out some of the newly launched male intentions – i’m off to top up my spicebomb!!

We have a large range of fragrance submissions here at Carvansons that are designed to be the creme de la creme of the current trending scents – if you have any new products that need a fragrance then please contact either myself or Helen, and we will be more than happy to send some samples for you to have a look at – all of which comply with current IFRA regulations.

I happened to be shopping in our local town centre on Saturday where i stumbled upon the filming of The Passion for Easter, and of course I couldnt resist a quick pic with Jesus – well who could?

It did however start me thinking about how fragrances and oils have been used throughout the ages, especially when the sunday supplement was full of retro 1970′s fashions. It seems that once again long forgotten fragrances are being revived, as teenagers begin to embrace all things retro in an effort to smell the way their parents did some 30 years ago, and we all try to revive our youth!

Seeing as we start the first day of Lent tomorrow I thought I would have a look into what, if any, oils and perfumes were mentioned in biblical times and forge myself a path back from there…..

Oils such as cumin, dill and mint all had honorable mentions as tithes in the Old Testament, presumably being used as incense bases alongside woods and resins. Mary Magdalene annointed the feet of Jesus with precious oils of  tuberose and Damascus rose with cedar being used by King Solomon during the construction of the temple. It is documented that oil of cedar was widely used to coat papyrus manuscripts to protect them from insects in the Roman times of Emperor Augustus.

Essential oils especially, can be traced quite easily during Egyptian times with Cleopatra herself using oil burners to announce her arrival when enjoying her ‘not so secret’ rendevous with Marc Anthony.

During ancient times crushed woods, resins and fragrant oils were pulped together and applied to the body as a balm, and it seems that perfume has come full circle. More and more of us are seeking out high quality aromatherapy oil to be used in exactly the same holistic way in order to reap the benefits and to de-stress ourselves from our hurried, harried lifestyles, in much the same way as our ancestors did.

I’m going to skip back now to the fantabulous 1970′s revival. It seems that wherever you turn at the moment there is a hint of the good old seventies….from a high street window with flared jeans and a turban headband (will they EVER revive the full on 18inch flared jeans with the pockets that ran the full length from your knee to the bottom hem – what on earth should we have stored in those? and maybe more to the point, how did we reach to the bottom of them!!!), to the recent episode of Come Dine with Me featuring that once sought after but now seemingly elusive prawn cocktail with marie rose sauce! (Oh how i miss those simplistic days……).

There has also been the recent revival of fragrances such as ‘Old Spice’ with its tongue in cheek YouTube ads, and not forgetting the good old dads favourites – Kouros and Brut. In terms of ladies fragrances I think the most memorable for me would be Charlie by Revlon – a happy go lucky blend of sharp florals and womanly (? – your guess is as good as mine!) woody notes. The box featured a young trouser suited woman who was meant to symbolise the working woman of the 1970′s. Then we had the darker, more evocatively exhuberant scents such as Opium and Tweed, all of which hold their own time related fragrance memories for many of us.

So now you have all been warned, dont be surprised if you find yourself at a summer barbecue this year sipping Blue Nun or Mateus Rose, stabbing at your prawns as they swim in their thick rose tinted sauce trying to dig your Starsky and Hutch sunglasses from out of the hem of your bell bottom jeans!! I’ll be the one hiding under my afro with my false bib blouse and my smelly Afghan floor length coat smelling of Anais Anais!!

What was your favourite fragrance from the past? Or maybe the fragrance memories you have of your parents or grandparents?

There is a growing trend  in the fragrance market to tap into social media with high profile brands using a variety of online tools to market their products.

1.2 billion people, or 20% of the world population, are between the ages of 15 and 24. Of this population, 96% have joined a social network.

The average millennial, those born between 1982 and 1995 and now aged 15 and 28 has an average 426 facebook friends spread throughout the world, due in part to online virtual gaming.

Because of this exposure on social networks, the future of fragrance has to be through word of mouth utilizing digital media.

Some recent examples of high profile companies jumping on the social media bandwagon are as follows…

The website for DKNYMEN  asked participants to produce web spots for its new men’s fragrance, requesting users to create videos and soundtracks that best capture ‘the essence’ of the perfume. The competition winner had his video promoted on the DKNYMEN website, as well as receiving a $3,000 prize, together with DKNY branded goods.

Earlier last year, Old Spice launched a series of ads featuring former NFL  player Isaiah Mustafa as an over the top, narcissistic suave guy in a towel. The commercial was an instant hit and has received over 26 million hits on YouTube so far.

Givaudan has unveiled the ultimate fragrance selection tool called i-perfumer, which is an i-phone application that will guide the consumer in their choice of fragrance. i-Perfumer has been developed around a database of 4,000 masculine and feminine prestige fragrances, and is based on a special algorithm which combines your data, the perfumes you like and your olfactory preferences in order to select fragrances it thinks will most closely suit your preferences.

The campaign for Unilever’s new Lynx Excite range will launch on Apple’s iAd mobile advertising network, as part of the brand’s strategy to find innovative ways to engage with its audience. The iAd campaign will be followed by print, TV, digital, gaming and out-of-home advertising and PR, as part of an £8.3m marketing spend. Lynx brand manager Selina Sykes says: We are now leading marketing into the digital age where the key will be to unlock the potential of mobile.”

Brazilian cosmetics company Natura used a scented, online banner, to promote the reformulation of its Kaiak cologne, which is claimed to be the number one selling fragrance brand in the country. In order to communicate the fact that the fragrance had changed, a ‘scented banner’ concept was designed that would allow internet users to smell the redesigned fragrance. Internet users were invited to click on the banner, which read: “The best selling men’s fragrance in the country just changed. Want to try it. Click this banner, its scented.” Upon clicking on the banner, the device next to the computer ejected a scented paper strip, enabling the user to sample the new fragrance. The campaign was very successful with over 10,000 strips being printed in just one weekend.

The next 5 years will be crammed full of innovative scent delivery systems. The required technology already exists, so it is only a matter of time before they will become part of everyday life…

And so in conclusion, Scent is part of nature and triggers one’s olfactory memories. It enlivens one’s taste buds and it ignites one’s desires. It is the industry’s responsibility to excite and re-engage consumers. The time is now to embrace tomorrows technology. Today’s new consumer loves fragrance and we need to find new ways to communicate with them through story telling, quality product, interactive retail space and innovative technology.

I hope today’s post has been informative and will be useful when looking at new, modern ways to market your products. If you need any further information on the best types of fragrances for use in any of the mediums discussed above then please get in touch and we will be only too happy to help.