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How Can AI, Brain Science Help Create Fragrances?

Beauty brands are looking to research and technology to sniff out the factors that lure buyers
Beauty brands are looking to research and technology to sniff out the factors that lure buyers
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How Can AI, Brain Science Help Create Fragrances?

Beauty brands are looking to research and technology to sniff out the factors that lure buyers
Beauty brands are looking to research and technology to sniff out the factors that lure buyers

Beauty brands are looking to research and technology to sniff out the factors that lure buyers, according to a report by The Guardian.

Making perfume is an art that can be traced back to ancient Greece but now modern-day perfumiers are beginning to look beyond their noses to develop the scents most likely to appeal to us. They are, instead, turning to AI.

Perfumes can now be designed to trigger emotional responses using ingredients known as neuroscents – odors shown by biometric measures to arouse different positive feelings such as calm, euphoria or sleepiness. Hugo Ferreira, a researcher at the Institute of Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering in Lisbon, is mapping brain activity and response to perfumes to build a database of neuroscents.

He says the sense of smell is fascinating. “With sight and hearing, you can imagine the face of a loved one or favorite tune. It’s hard to imagine a smell even though it can provoke a torrent of emotions and memories.”

Ferreira says this is due to the structure of the olfactory system. Messages from scent receptors are sent via the olfactory bulb to different brain areas that control everything from memory or thirst to stress reactions.

“Olfaction is the most diverse sense with many different receptors. It’s estimated that there are about 400 different olfactory receptor gene families. Among other things these various connections may explain how we can ‘smell fear’, or the smell of victory,” he added.

Many beauty brands have invested in neuroscent research and technology, as the possibilities of creating fragrances proven to make consumers feel good are obviously big. L’Oréal has partnered with neurotechnology company Emotiv to create a scent choice “experience”.

During 2023, shoppers at certain Yves Saint Laurent stores worldwide have used a headset to create an electroencephalogram – EEG – to discover which scents appealed to them. Results so far show that 95% of customers who used the headset found the right perfume.

Fashion and fragrance business Puig says it took 45 million brain readings from men aged 18-35 to finesse the cologne Phantom by Paco Rabanne, adding lavender and lemon to the formula as a result of its research.

Givenchy Irresistible eau de parfum – the latest iteration of the Very Irresistible range that has been a bestseller for 20 years – includes a rose extract dubbed “anti-morose”, chosen after biometric research.

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Varieties

Elitist No More, Caviar is Turning Casual

Many caviar producers are embracing the trend. GEORGES GOBET / AFP
Many caviar producers are embracing the trend. GEORGES GOBET / AFP
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Elitist No More, Caviar is Turning Casual

Many caviar producers are embracing the trend. GEORGES GOBET / AFP
Many caviar producers are embracing the trend. GEORGES GOBET / AFP

When Burger King announced it was selling caviar with nuggets at its French restaurants on April 1, many people assumed it was an April Fool's joke.

But as news spread on social media, buyers rushed to try one of the world's most expensive delicacies paired with a humble and highly commoditized piece of deep-fried chicken while limited stocks lasted, said AFP.

For 19 euros ($22), they got seven nuggets, mayonnaise and a 10-gram (0.35-ounce) pouch of Chinese-origin caviar from the Astana brand, which explained it had worked with the fast-food giant to "make the caviar of chefs available to as many people as possible".

It was a marketing coup -- the story quickly went viral after being picked up by French news outlets -- but it also revealed how the image of caviar as an out-of-reach luxury product is rapidly changing.

As with most new food trends, interest in the exclusive fish eggs is being driven by online influencers and celebrities.

Rihanna posted a video to her 150 million followers on Instagram on December 20 last year showing her eating nuggets topped with caviar.

"I don't like how much I like this," she began.

US celebrity chef David Chang is also a champion, with a 2022 Instagram video showing him dunking a deep-fried chicken leg into a one-kilogram tin of caviar -- "one of my favorite most obscene things to do" -- which racked up more than three million views.

He credits New York chef Wylie Dufresne with first adding it to the menu at his influential WD~50 restaurant in the 2010s.

Last year, the US Open tennis tournament caused a stir by selling a $100 box of six nuggets with caviar created by the luxury Manhattan fried chicken restaurant Coqodaq.

'Less formal'

Producers and food writers have mixed feelings about the popularization of the culinary indulgence, which sells for 1,000 to 30,000 euros a kilogram depending on the type.

The high prices are due to rarity and the high investment producers make in the sturgeon fish needed for caviar, which start to produce eggs only after eight or 10 years.

The most expensive caviar -- the one famously preferred by Hollywood star Elizabeth Taylor -- is the roe of the beluga sturgeon, which takes at least 15 years to mature.

Mikael Petrossian, head of the French brand Petrossian, said there was a "demystification" of caviar underway.

"Caviar doesn't necessarily have to come in a large tin with silver serving pieces... You can enjoy the product in a much more relaxed way," he said. "I personally like eating caviar with crisps."

The founder of French caviar producer Neuvic, Laurent Deverlanges, says his company also aims to make it "less formal".

He posted a review of the "King Nugget Caviar" menu online, concluding that "it works, even if you can't really taste the caviar much".

But Olivier Cabarrot, the head of the France-based Prunier brand whose caviar restaurant is one of the most famous in the world, pushes back on the idea of it becoming a regular product.

"In terms of gastronomy, there is nothing as expensive. It's hard to talk about it becoming 'democratised'," he said. "But we can speak of greater accessibility, achieved through the sale of smaller quantities rather than lower prices."

Many distributors including Petrossian and Prunier offer tins of 10, 20 or 30 grams, helping to attract a younger clientele.

Dreamy

Remi Dechambre, a food journalist at Le Parisien newspaper, said people associated caviar with opulence and refinement less and less.

"We've completely moved on from that... Consumption has become a little more common, a little less formal -- even though it still makes people dream," he told AFP.

But knowing how to enjoy the product properly remains essential, said Francoise Boisseaud, managing director of the supplier Le Comptoir du Caviar.

"There's a whole education to be done," she said about the different types -- baeri, oscietre, sevruga or beluga .

For her, the best way to enjoy it is with a crusty baguette and butter, not with fried chicken or crisps.

Robin Panfili, a food journalist who runs the food blog "Entree, Plat, Dessert", said Burger King had pulled off a "marketing trick".

"By trying to bring together two worlds that are completely opposed -- luxury and fast food -- the aim is to shake up the codes, to demystify a product historically seen as luxurious and elitist. It's visual, it's viral, it sparks discussion because it's provocative," he told AFP.