What are captives in perfumery? Do perfumers really need them?
I made a film on YouTube about captives in perfumery; here’s the written version for those who’d rather read, or are on the bus and forgot their headphones.
When I think of a captive, I imagine someone in a stone tower letting down their hair, like Rapunzel. Perfumery captives are a little different. They never let their hair down.
Why and how are captives used in perfumery?
There's a lot of fuss in perfumery about brand-new molecules. They are called captives as they are only available to the companies that invented and patented them. Their marketing teams love to shout about how groundbreaking they are and how you absolutely must have them to create modern perfumes. Except we managed just fine before they existed, didn’t we?
A captive is a molecule created and patented by a big fragrance company. You can’t patent an actual perfume, but you can patent the process that produces a specific aroma chemical, making it exclusive. Sometimes, these companies sell their captives to other perfume houses immediately, making more money from licensing than from using them in their own scents.
More often though, they hold onto them, hoping the captive will feature in a smash-hit fragrance; one so successful that other brands will have to come knocking, desperate to include the same trendy molecule in their own creations. That’s how captives drive perfume trends.
Do we need to use captives when making perfume?
Do you need the latest captives to make perfume? No. If you can’t get hold of a captive, you do what perfumers have always done: work with what’s available and create something original. The idea that you must have the latest molecule is just marketing hype.
That said, captives do sometimes become available, often hidden inside “bases” - blends of materials that big fragrance houses sell to perfumers. Take Dreamwood, for example, it’s still a captive, but we can all buy Dreamwood Base, which contains the captive molecule along with a few extras.
We use Dreamwood base in our North sea shore on a cold day fragrance, Saltburn Driftwood.
Some perfumers get serious FOMO over captives, but chasing them won’t necessarily make your perfume better or more original. And when they finally get released? Half the time, you smell them and think, Oh. Is that it?
If you can’t get the captive you’re after, don’t panic. Just make something new. After all, that’s what perfumery is all about.
If you want to learn to make original perfumes with me (but without captives) you can join Scenthusiasm on Patreon, a global community for people fascinated by fragrance. If you want to get stuck in on your own, you can follow my online self-study course Scenthusiasm School.
You’ve got rather a lot to choose from. There was World Wetlands Day on the 2nd, Oatmeal Monday on the 10th or you might even enjoy International I Hate Coriander Day on the 24th.
Every day there’s something to celebrate, if you’re that way inclined. This month, the one with the most puff is probably the saint’s day which falls on the 14th.
I get the concept of, let’s say, National Otter Day. As lovely as they are, otters don’t play a huge role in most of our daily lives so it seems reasonable we’d only celebrate them once a year. Whereas Valentine's Day is about celebrating love, traditionally the romantic type. Now IMHO, it’s a crying shame if we need a day each year to remind us of this.
However, as it happens, there are a lot of people who associate the gift of a bottle of perfume with Valentine’s Day, which isn’t entirely surprising. So I thought, why fight it, especially when we have something that might fit the occasion quite nicely, in a unique way. I’ll get to that soon.
A bottle of perfume isn’t just for Valentine’s Day
Maybe you’re not especially interested in celebrating Valentine’s Day, that’s fine, the 13th of February is Galentine’s Day, the 15th is Singles Awareness Day and there’s National Love Your Pet Day on the 20th. So whatever love you want to celebrate this February, and hopefully the rest of the year, knock yourself out, I say.
If you think a bottle of perfume will help you show love to a friend, a partner or even yourself (sorry we don’t have any gifts for National Love Your Pet Day) then we’ve got a bottle on our shelves that celebrates love in its truest form.
We’ve never had a fragrance that fits the season of love like this one does. It’s powerful, sassy and unapologetic. It’s got a heart-shaped sequin tassel attached to the bottle for twirling or admiring.
This fragrance is a collaboration between 4160Tuesdays and Tempest Rose from House of Burlesque, bringing an empowering combination of citrus fruits, rich roses, jasmine and iris.
Celebrate yourself for a change
If you’re not sure who to give this fragrance to, stuff Valentine’s Day, keep it! It’s Tempest Rose the ultimate burlesque in a bottle. A celebration of confidence, empowerment, and pure entertainment.
Burlesque, and this fragrance, is about being you. The biggest, best and most fearless version of you. So, if you want it, certainly don’t sit around and wait for someone else to buy it for you, that’s not the idea at all.
For people following our Scenthusiasm.school course and those in the Scenthusiasm Patreon community, here's a list of recommended suppliers compiled, recommended and vetted by out students.
Perfumers Search - (not a supplier, but a search engine across several suppliers websites and thus worth a mention) (USA) https://perfumersearch.com/home.html
Rules Are Overrated: Wear Summer Scents in January
This January, instead of piling on a bundle of new rules and resolutions, try something different: break the rules, let your hair down. Just go ahead and do whatever you fancy.
By now, many of us are done with that cosy, snuggle-up-next-to-the-fire-in-our-pyjamas winter feeling. Sure, as autumn rolls in, there’s something lovely about cosying up and catching wafts of all our favourite wintery fragrances. But let’s be honest, by mid-January, we’re staring up at the sky, searching for that seemingly mythical ball of fire, wondering: will this winter ever end?
We humans haven’t quite figured out how to change the weather; at least, not in the ways we’d like. Thankfully, we don’t need to. You can invite a little sun-kissed warmth into your day with just one thing: fragrance.
Fragrance takes us places. It tells stories and whisks us away on adventures. So why not let it transport you from winter to summer in an instant?
The norm is to spray on fruity, floral, or citrus scents when you spot colours returning to nature and hear chirping birds testing their clumsy wings for the first time. Then, as the nights draw in and the woollies come out, we turn to deeper, wintery scents.
Smell Like Sunshine, Even When It’s Freezing
But here’s the thing: if perfume can take you places - and it absolutely can - why stick to the seasons? Why not let it take you somewhere far beyond reality?
As January, a miserable month for many, turns into February—arguably an even worse one—don’t sit around and dwell. Go somewhere else. Go wherever you fancy.
Look through your perfume collection and spritz on something that reminds you of sunshine. Dress in bright, cheerful colours, and stick a flowery screensaver on your phone and computer.
Probably best to leave the sandals for ‘real’ summer, though. Let’s keep a slight grip on reality—we wouldn’t want to lose a few toes in the process.
If you’re a fan of our perfumes, you might have one tucked away at the back of the cupboard, pushed aside when autumn brought its ambers to the surface. We’ve got plenty of summer-inducing scents to choose from. Look out for What I Did On My Holidays, Ealing Green, Dandelion Musk, Lemon Sherbet, and The Orange Tree.
A Fruity Escape from Winter
The summer scent that’s grabbed Sarah’s attention this “imaginary season” is raspberry; the fruit of summer itself. In fragrance, raspberry adds a sweet, fruity, and tangy touch, blending beautifully with countless other materials and accords.
To bring a rich but playful summer vibe to your day, search your perfume cabinet for something raspberry-inspired. Or try one of Sarah’s creations: Tokyo Spring Blossom, Red Queen and Amberama.
If you quite like all this talk about breaking rules and using fragrances in your own way, you might fancy our online perfume-making course. For a bargain price, you’ll get access to the full introductory course to perfume making. It’ll take you from someone who dreams of making perfume but hasn’t a clue where to start, to someone who understands perfumery materials, can follow formulas, and knows how to tweak them to create unique scents that are completely your own. Take a look at Scenthusiasm Scent School.
We're starting 2025 by posting our thoughts in places hosted by people we really know. If something goes wrong here on Create.net we can pick up the phone and call Ian in Brighton. There are websites which would give is more features - most of which we don't really want - but human contact is more valuable to us.
First up this year, the rise of the "dupe".
Shortly after British cosmetics company Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics, Boots - the massive British pharmacy/drugstore/cosmetics/fragrances chain with at least one shop in every town - brought out a range called Fresh. This was the late 1990s and everything Lush did was exciting. No one else was selling bath bombs at the time; Lush was the OG.
I was their writer and we had a style that was really distinctive; we were featured in a book on copywriting along with innocent smoothies and someone I've forgotten as the three brands setting the new style, talking to people as people, equals not mere customers.
So there I was in Boots, standing by the Fresh shelf, reading text on a box that sounded exactly like I could have written it. Lush got the lawyers on it immediately, and Boots had to redefine their use of the word "Fresh". While Lush's products really were freshly handmade and delivered straight to their shops, Boots' products were being machine made ready to be stored in their warehouses, and not the slightest bit fresh at all.
I can tell you from experience that it's really weird to be copied.
I felt as if I were being watched, as if all Boots' CCTV cameras were pointing at me as I read the words I could have written, but didn't, and realised that their marketing team had had all Lush's products in their offices, copying the lot, and were briefing their copywriters to use my writing style.
I belong to a group called Buy Women Built; it's made up of female CEOs of companies tiny to huge. One of the most regular topics is the flood of copying by Temu and Shein, but also by large UK companies.
The odd thing is that people are rarely bothered about counterfeits/fakes/snides/dupes - call them what you like - until they themselves are copied at which point they go nuts! People will buy fake Chanel bags in Türkiye, convinced that these are the real thing made in the same factory from leftovers. They never are. People will buy dupe fragrances, justifying it by saying the fragrance is probably the same, but without the expensive bottle or the retailer's margin. Buyers make it about the end product and the price, never about the process or the people.
If someone steals your ideas, and I hope it doesn't happen, it won't feel good.
A couple of years ago I was really confused by a TikTok perfume chappy who wrote to me asking if I made dupes. He said his followers told him I did, and I basically told him where to stick it. It turned out that he believed this was a compliment not an insult and said and he'd been wanting to buy from me but only if I was making copies of other brands' perfumes. Or as he put it, he'd been about to "drop £200" on my website until I was inexplicably rude to him.
It never crossed my mind that someone would consider it a compliment to be asked if they made dupes. From my point of view he was calling me a thief and a cheat.
Is it just the money?
In the early 2000s I helped a friend of mine with research into counterfeits for her MA in fashion marketing, and we investigated people's motives quite deeply. What we were trying to discover was why people didn't explore a little more widely to find something they liked that was neither designer branded, nor a copy of a designer brand.
Why not go indie?
In fashion as in perfume, it seems to come down to a lack of self-confidence plus an unwillingness to explore. The majority of fashion consumers like to align themselves with something bigger than themselves. Some of the brand's halo reflects on to them and they feel that they have approval; they buy a little of the greatness and fame that the brand generates. They lack the confidence to go out there on their own and feel much safer with a recommendation.
Friends, press and now influencers bridge the confidence gaps between brands and customers. Word of mouth has always been the best recommendation for people who aren't the mavens, the ones who go out and decide for themselves. in the 1990s, Nike found that there was always one kid in each school who set the brand style for the whole establishment. Before there was even social media, they had identified who the influencers were, and given them shoes. If they could flip one boy over from Adidas, then the school would follow.
After face to face word of mouth, people believe the media, and after that it's advertising. We need to see something on average seven times before we will act on it; sometimes it's just the once, and sometimes it's 20 times or never, but repetitive messaging from several sources usually does the trick. That's why dupe companies keep banging on at us in social media, because they're not permitted to advertise out loud; the genuine brands would withdraw their money.
How about our third way? Go indie or go home.
So this is all about us, the perfume makers and wearers who want to do something new and different. Those of us who want to win or wear the Art & Olfaction Awards.
I suspect that we don't have any problem deciding whether or not we like a perfume enough to buy and wear it.
I suspect that the makers amongst us want to create something that no one has smelled before - more intriguing, fascinating, ground-breaking, magnificent and beguiling, a combination of aromas that inspire perfume connoisseurs to cover themselves in it.
We don't need anyone's permission to put our chosen aromas on our bodies. I suspect that we're the same with other parts of our lives too.
The problem is that there aren't that many of us. What proportion of the population do you imagine will choose something for themselves without seeking approval or validation from others, even if it's an influencer they have never met?
The money is currently in the big brands - whose profits are currently falling because they have recently been getting quite silly with their price hikes - and with the copies.
If we're to present the third point of the triangle - the indie brands - as a viable option, we have to support each other and continue to kick off about our alternative to the alternative. Perfume isn't binary - big brand or copy of big brand - it's trinary. We're the third way.
