Upcycled fragrances - what are they?

Upcycling is no new trend. From upcycled furniture to upcycled candle vessels, reusing and repurposing items and materials can be a wonderful way to extend the life span of something that has been rendered useless.

As part of our commitment to the environment and the sustainable evolution of our brand, we have been exploring how we can use up-cycling when it comes to our ingredients.

Working closely with our world-renowned perfumers at Robertet to maintain our finest 'naturals first' approach, along with a commitment to reduce waste materials, we have created a sustainably led first for our brand: using up-cycled perfume notes created with by-products from the extraction of freshly harvested plants.

But what is up-cycling?

Otherwise known as creative re-use, up-cycling is the process of transforming waste materials, by-products or no longer useful items into new materials or products that serve a new purpose or are of greater quality, such as artistic value or environmental value. Much more than a passing trend, it’s a vital way for all of us to make better use of the earth’s resources and reduce our impact on the environment.

How does it work?

There are a few ways in which ingredients can be up-cycled.

In our newest Eau de Parfum, Myrica Muse, the rose oil is obtained by distillation of freshly harvested flowers. We re-assemble previously used Turkish rose to re-build a new profile of this flower which is 100% pure and natural.

Sourced originally from Indonesia, the Patchouli is re-built from by-product and parts of the plant otherwise not used by other industries.

Why is up-cycling important?

When it comes to fragrance there are two ways in which notes can be created. One - chemically, where a combination of scents are brought together to imitate a a smell and two, naturally. Some natural notes in fragrance are incredibly resource consuming, meaning they need land, water and energy to be created.

Take Rose for example; Roses are classified into two groups: Ornamental roses, grown for their beauty, represent the vast majority of existing or created varieties and Fragrant roses, used in perfumery, include two predominate varieties, May rose and the Damask rose. Their incredibly sophisticated scent is made up of more than 300 different compounds. This complexity has posed a real problem for chemical experts. In fact, despite their efforts, they have still not succeeded in faithfully imitating the smell, which is by far too intricately complex.

Stay tuned in 2023 to discover how we are continuing our exploration into up-cycling...