Thierry Mugler Le Parfum Coffret c2006

In 2006, Thierry Mugler created a beautiful coffret that held fifteen perfumes that were based on the movie Perfume, which was adapted from the novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind. The perfume set was designed as an olfactory companion to the film.

The story recounts the macabre tales of an 18th century Parisian fishmonger, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, who possesses a particular kind of genius at distinguishing different smells, and kills women in order to distill the scent of their bodies. 

The perfume set is meant to interpret aromas described in pivotal scenes shown in the film. "The work was really targeted to get the best possible fragrances, characters, beauty and esthetic message, whereas with more commercial projects you have to target marketing results, "said Christophe Laudamiel, who along with fellow perfumer Christoph Hornetz, conceived the coffret in 2000. "It's fascinating to see the reaction of people. It's like a whole world opening to them. Like getting color into black and white pictures."

The perfumes are packaged in a cheap looking velvet coffret and each of the perfumes is in a clear glass apothecary styled bottle. The coffret cost $700.  Only 2000 of these coffrets were produced, of which 1600 were given away to members of the perfume industry.  That only left 300 for sale in Europe (only available in France, Germany and Switzerland and sold out within a week), leaving 100 available for sale in the US. Canadians with access to one of those countries could purchase a box online at Mugler's website, but only if the product was still available. Once the US allotment was gone, the company was not going to release any others in the future. 

"There's really a trend toward exclusivity and customized products," said Claude Laframboise, executor director of Canadian shopping magazine LouLou. "Style is available at every price point now, so to really differentiate yourself, you have to fork out big bucks."

To stir up publicity for the movie, two advanced screenings were held in which scent blotters were passed to viewers during pivotal scenes. During a street scene, viewers were encouraged to sniff the Paris 1738 blotter.

Each bottle holds 0.25 oz of perfume, except for the bottle of Aura, which holds 0.50 oz and is meant to mix with the other perfumes to make your own blend.

photo from mimifroufrou.com

#1. BABY: The inspiration: The sweet-sour, milky scent of freshly cleaned baby skin, which the protagonist Grenouille is born without.

The interpretation: Various compositions of 25 different ingredients make up the scent of a sweet-sour milky odor comprising the aroma of heavy whipped cream, meringue, fine custard, brown sugar, caramel and butter. The perfumers worked with a female flavorist and were able to use dessert notes replicating crême fraîche along with headspace analysis of warm milk and the special note of 'Pyrazine', which replicates the warm smells of oven-baked goods and warm butter.

#2. PARIS 1738: The inspiration: The stench of Paris in Grenouille’s time, in the days before bathing and sanitation became fashionable. The scent of urine and greasy hair meld to create a foul odor that "virtually takes your breath away."

The interpretation: Blackcurrant, which can smell like either fruit or urine depending on its use, cassis, and absolute of seaweed were used to evoke the book’s “thousands upon thousands of odors” that formed an “invisible gruel that filled the street ravines.”

 #3. ATELIER GRIMAL: The inspiration: The smell of the tannery young Grenouille works in.

The interpretation: “What’s really interesting about this is that the smell of leather actually came from Egyptian mimosa,” John observes, combined with red fruits and a pumpkin potage.

#4. VIRGIN NO. 1: The inspiration: A 13-year-old girl sitting at a table cleaning yellow plums, whose scent draws Grenouille all the way from the opposite riverbank. “He was like a human computer of smells, but the smell of the virgin totally eclipsed all other smells for him,” Marangos says. Scientists analyzed and chemically reconstructed the scent of two young virgins' navels - with the approval and supervision of the girls' parents. Described as "very clean and fresh."

The interpretation: The pure innocence of fresh milk, white rice, yellow plums, and the most crucial note: “There’s a technology in perfume called headspace, whereby they can recreate any smell possible,” explains John. “IFF actually took the smell from around a virgin’s navel — her parents were there — and recreated it in conjunction with the smell of her hair. So this actually does have the smell of true virginity in it.”

#5. BOUTIQUE BALDINI: The inspiration: The perfumer Baldini, who takes Grenouille in as an apprentice, stocks hundreds of ingredients for perfumes and pomades in his shop that clash in a mishmash of odors.

The interpretation: Sweet liquor notes are blended with balsamic and beeswax, traces of coffee, anise, violet water, vinegar, yellow daffodils, and angelica seeds. “What they wanted to capture was the whole idea of a room that was so suffused with different types of smells, dense with things that we wouldn’t necessarily wear today. By today’s standards, those scents would have been quite crude, using a lot of natural animal notes that today we don’t use.”

#6. AMOR & PSYCHE: The inspiration: Baldini tries to recreate a trendy scent from a rival perfumer that everyone was wearing at the time, composed of orange blossom, lime, clove, musk, jasmine, alcohol, and storax.

The interpretation: Lime, which was popular back then, reminds too many people of liquid detergent now, so only modern citruses like bergamot were used, which provides freshness minus the tartness of lime.

#7. NUIT NAPOLITAINE: The inspiration: Grenouille replicates Amor & Psyche for his master, but considers it a badly made perfume and creates a new blend on top of it to make it better.

The interpretation: The previous blend with the addition of gentian, ginger essence, Italian clementine, garden mint, and the floral Michaela Alba Asian plant.

#8. ERMITE: The inspiration: After Baldini’s house collapses, Grenouille hides in a self-imposed grave, a mountain cave 150 feet beneath the earth. Ermite, a mineral-like fragrance evocative of the mossy coolness of a secluded grave.

The interpretation: Moss, patchouli, and mushroom notes create the underground mineral smells of earth, wet stones, and darkness. “It’s quite an obscure scent but there’s a freshness to it,” Marangos says. “It’s metallic, transparent, quite unusual.”

# 9. SALON ROUGE: The inspiration: In the book, Grenouille creates his own salon in his dreams, and virtually gets drunk on the scent of formulas he alone knows. The scent features a sandalwood-davana accord.

The interpretation: Davana oil and tuberose absolute mixed with lab-created molecules Karanal and Aldron, which smell like hot tar and exude body warmth, respectively.

# 10. HUMAN EXISTENCE : The inspiration: Not possessing it himself, Grenouille wants to acquire the odor of human beings, so he blends it.

The interpretation: Natural malt absolute, cumin, and lab-created civet and Skatol recreate the sweaty-oily, sour-cheesy odor of unbathed humanity.

# 11. ABSOLU JASMINE: The inspiration: Learning enfleurage in Grasse, Grenouille harvests jasmine blossoms, which have to be picked before sunrise.

The interpretation: One of the most prized notes in perfumery, the scent of Jasminum Grandiflorum can now actually be divided into 25 nuances.

# 12. SEA: The inspiration: Nothing pleases Grenouille more than imagining himself in the crow's nest of a ship, gliding on the endless smell of the sea.

The interpretation: 9 ingredients compose this, most of them lab-created molecules like marine-scented Calone, plus nuances of anise, melon, citrus and a molecule imitating cyclamen.

# 13. NOBLESSE: The inspiration: Grenouille masks his manufactured human odor with a bouquet of floral and fresh-smelling oils.

The interpretation: This scent of the nobles contains Rose de Mai, one of the most expensive ingredients in perfumery since it blooms for only 2-3 weeks a year. Other notes are violet, heliotrope, Atlas cedar, vanilla powder and a special aldehyde reminiscent of the makeup and wigs worn at that time.

#14. ORGIE: The inspiration: Grenouille looses his ultimate scent on the crowds come to witness his execution, which provokes an orgy.

The interpretation: Notes of dark chocolate, plus synthetic musk, sandalwood, sweat and sperm.

#15. AURA: The inspiration: Mugler Parfums president (at the time) Vera Strubi wanted to realize a scent that could be worn in conjunction with other scents that would exalt them, make them last longer, and bring different facets to the fore. Described as an "unbelievably complex" perfume that smells like nothing - it has no heart, head or base notes - until interacting with the wearer's own unique body scent.

The interpretation: A very unconventional composition that doesn't follow the usual formula of top, heart and base notes but melds 84 ingredients from every single type of fragrance family.