Even if you’re not the biggest fragrance house on the block, you’re allowed to dream big. And this is what we’ve always done at Eurofragance. Back in 2017, we set off to create our first captive ingredient, and today this dream becomes a reality with L’Âme du Bois®, a new olfactive expression for woody notes. For a company that has just celebrated its 31st birthday with under 400 employees, tackling such a challenge is quite significant. Most often, the production and marketing of new ingredients and captive molecules is associated with the largest fragrance houses in the industry. But once again, Eurofragance proves that it can play in the big leagues and surprise its competitors.
Not an Easy Name, but it Says a Lot
We admit it, for nonnative French speakers, L’Âme du Bois® may appear awkward with its circumflex accent (^) and it’s even harder to pronounce. But remember how strange the word “eau de toilette” was the first time you heard it? And even more so when translated verbatim? More seriously, let’s tell you a little bit more about our very first and super innovative ingredient.
L’Âme du Bois® in French translates into the soul of wood. In place of “soul” one could also say “spirit,” or “essence” of wood. The objective of the R&D Experts and Perfumers who worked for over three years on this project was to create a new olfactive expression for wood that could provide the building blocks for future fragrance creations. In addition, they strived to design a woody note that would fill what we perceived as a gap in the Perfumer’s palette. We were aiming for a woody note that would be less masculine, more genderless in its olfactive profile, and for something that didn’t really exist on the market.
Those who have smelled our L’Âme du Bois® captive in perfume creations say that we nailed it. Our Global Creative Director and Senior Perfumer, Henry van den Heuvel had this to say about the new raw material: “L’Âme du Bois® is an ingredient that is inclusive and all-embracing of other accords and olfactive notes. Not only does it not overpower them, but it actually highlights and beautifies the characteristics of other notes in the perfume formula.”
Upcycling Sawdust into a Premium Raw Material
Sometimes in the world of cinematic production, the “making of” story is just as good as the film. It’s the same with L’Âme du Bois®. What’s fascinating about the production of this new wood-scented captive is that it didn’t require any deforesting and fully respects our sustainability values.
The raw material we started from, when creating L’Âme du Bois ™, is discarded sawdust from wood mills processing a certain species of trees (tree species which we will keep secret for now). This waste material is purified over and over, using physical separation processes, to remove superfluous molecules, while retaining those with desirable characteristics. This may sound simple, but figuring out how to craft an ingredient so that it delivers the desired olfactive benefits, is akin to a gemologist cutting and polishing a diamond. For us, the result of this upcycling process had to be the design of an ingredient with an excellent olfactory profile that retained the soul of wood. We feel that L’Âme du Bois® surpasses our initial expectations.
An Illustrious Captive for Illustrious Creations
The premium characteristics of L’Âme du Bois® predestine it naturally for prestige Fine Fragrances. Its profile already greatly intrigues our Perfumers who have begun to include L’Âme du Bois® in their creations—with great results.
At this time, L’Âme du Bois® is intended for use exclusively in the design of prestige fragrances and for all premium product categories, be it fine fragrance, home or personal care. Until this happens, and if it’s not too late, you can meet us at Beauty World Middle East in Dubai until October 7, 2021 to discover the other magical facets of L’Âme du Bois®.
