Fragrance and flavor supplier Robertet is launching a program it says will allow ingredients in natural perfumes to be traced all the way back to the farms in which their seeds were planted, providing consumers with the transparency they increasingly demand.

With "Seed to Scent," Robertet perfumers work with technical experts and farmers "to grow the fragrance from the seed up," according to a presentation the company is sharing with customers.

The "unique approach to fragrance development...seeks to trace a continuous and transparent link from the source ingredients to the final creation," the Grasse, France-based firm says.

Dr. Lyndon Johnson and perfumer Olivia Jan

Dr. Lyndon Johnson and perfumer Olivia Jan

Currently, Robertet sources 400 ingredients from 60 countries throughout the world.

Ideally, under the Seed to Scent initiative, "what we would like to be with our customer is a partner on one product and one country," said Christophe Maubert, president of Robertet’s fragrance division, in a Feb. 24 interview with "The Rose Sheet."

Such as arrangement would be "an exclusive way to offer a product that is different and very difficult to develop the equivalent of by the competition," he said.

It would be up to the customer how to market the finished product featuring the ingredient. Maubert noted that "when you buy a fragrance today, most of the time, you don’t know exactly what’s in the bottle. Seed to Scent is a way to bring more truth and more explanation to the consumer."

Maubert imagines that customers will provide consumers with a written background of the program and/or videos of the supply-chain process in detail on their respective websites, in addition to sporting the "Seed to Scent" trademark on product labels.

Robertet has produced video that could serve as a model for showing how ingredients are sustainably sourced. In this case, the video focuses on ylang-ylang essential oil and pimento for a scent launching later this year.

Emerging from Robertet's partnership with the GoldenEye resort in Jamaica, Evening at GoldenEye consists of 100% natural ingredients, consistent with resort owner and founder of Island Records Chris Blackwell's mission to support local agriculture and the environment, Robertet says.

Robertet began production of a fully traceable ylang-ylang essential oil in Madagascar last year, in collaboration with the local Malagasy community. The firm's video depicts lush green ylang-ylang plantations on Nosy Be Island in Madagascar, with snapshots of workers harvesting the plants into baskets and transporting them on their heads to the production facility where essential oils are extracted.

"Robertet’s presence at the source guarantees the quality of the final product," the moderator states. "The project brings many benefits to the village and its people," he adds.

In another video showing the next step in the process, set in Jamaica, perfumer Olivia Jan meets with natural product chemist Dr. Lyndon Johnson to identify local ingredients for the scent. Johnson discusses the origins of the Jamaican pimento, which he calls "our oil of commerce worldwide."

While the berry is often harvested as a spice –sometimes called ‘allspice’ because its scent and flavor seems to be a combination of clove, nutmeg, pepper and other spices – the bush of the plant is often left behind as scrap. However, in crafting a scent, the bush is what is used to extract the essential oil.

"Our industry is built on the use of a waste material that goes into a process that generates essential oil," Johnson says in the video "Literally we are creating wealth out of waste."

The result is a 100% natural scent, branded "Seed to Scent" on its label.

"When I think about Jamaica, I think about authenticity and simplicity," said Jan. The resulting scent "is so simple but beautiful at the same time and true to nature."

Firm Stays True To Natural Roots

No. 7 among top flavor and fragrance firms worldwide, Robertet booked roughly $488 million in sales for fiscal 2010, an increase of 19% over the previous year.

The 160-year-old firm, known for its natural ingredients and family ownership spanning five generations, created Seed to Scent to offer visibility into the fragrance supply chain and "bring more truth, more authenticity, more explanation to the consumer," according to Maubert.

The firm began presenting the concept to customers in November 2010. While starting on a small scale, the program potentially could grow to cover "hundreds of products" and extend to other personal-care product categories, he said.

There are other fragrances on the market that contain natural and locally-sourced ingredients, but Maubert wants to produce 100% natural fragrance where every ingredient can be traced.

"When you look at the fragrance industry thus far, you have good information on the creator and about one ingredient in the process, but it’s one ingredient and it represents just a small percent of the fragrance," said Maubert. "We try to give real vision about a significant part of the fragrance, if not 100%."

The International Fragrance Asssociation, which defines natural fragrance ingredients as those that "pre-exist in natural source materials from which they are isolated exclusively by physical means," recognizes that "the '100 percent' natural approach is very restrictive for the fragrance industry" (Also see "IFRA Offers Perspective On "Green" Marketing In Fragrance Sector" - HBW Insight, 25 October, 2010.).

Currently, designer Donna Karan offers a fragrance, pureDKNY, which is based on Ugandan vanilla produced by 900 local farmers through a partnership with humanitarian organization CARE.

Canadian entrepreneur Barb Stegemann launched 7 Virtues Afghanistan Orange Blossom in November 2010, sourcing the orange blossom from farmers in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, who work for Gulestan, a firm dedicated to growing flowers for fragrance instead of poppies for heroin (Also see "Entrepreneur's Fragrance Offers Afghan Poppy Farmers Alternative Livelihood" - HBW Insight, 8 November, 2010.).

In addition to custom perfume creations, Robertet currently offers natural ingredients as well as organic raw materials including bergamot, lavender, lemongrass, pine and mint. Many of the firm's raw fragrance materials are certified by Ecocert, including fennel, nutmeg, cedarwood and vetiver heart.

By Suzanne Blecher

Robertet Promotes Ingredient Traceability With "Seed To Scent" Program

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