Sweet smell of success

Oh the sweet smell of success. Very sweet, in fact, as the perfume industry is worth a reported 16 billion a year. But who is making the profits? Driven mostly by clever marketing, consumers are willing to pay high prices to be associated with a luxury brand, yet what do we really know about a perfume? Did you know that the liquid in the bottle represents only represents only about 3 per cent of the total cost of producing it?

In fact, the other 97 per cent goes to marketing, packaging and advertising. And the selling price allows for a 95 per cent profit margin, according to Agencies.

The trusted perfume houses mainly create scents from synthetic molecules, as it is easier and more cost-effective. For example, it takes 750kg of jasmine flowers to create 1kg of essential oil. In France, jasmine blooms only from August to October, and must be picked by hand during the few hours of the day that the petals are open.

The rose doesn't make life any easier. It must be picked by hand, flower by flower, at sunrise. When a kilo of rose oil absolute can cost up to 4,000 euros and its synthetic equivalent costs only 400, it's not hard to see why the perfume industry has embraced synthetic scents.

And no-one has embraced them more than celebrities. Actress Sarah Jessica Parker has reputedly made more than 2 million from her perfume Lovely, while Jennifer Lopez, who started the modern celebrity scent trend with the launch of her Glow perfume in 2003, has apparently made more than 25 million. She also has about six fragrances under her belt.

Perfume expert and author Chandler Burr says celebrity fragrances make little lasting impression, evaporating after a few hours, because of what they're made of.

"They use cheap ingredients to be more affordable and make more money." This is where the marketing campaigns come in - celebrities fronting perfume brands will seduce consumers, making them feel alluring and irresistible - and bringing them that much closer to luxury association.

Yves Saint Laurent once reluctantly admitted the house's perfumes made up 80% of the companies turnover. Perhaps that is why our favourite glossy magazines never print anything remotely critical as the advertising spend is just too high.

A new book due to be published in September is expected to lift the curtain on the industry, titled 'Perfumes: The Guide, written by expert "noses" Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez'. In the book they review and rate more than 1,200 perfumes, offering expert advice.

Some get good marks, such as Shalimar, Joy and Jo Malone's Lime Basil and Mandarin, while others get rather damning criticism. 212, from Carolina Herrera, for example, is "like getting lemon juice in a paper cut" or our favourite: Paris Hilton's Heiress is "a hilariously vile 50/50 mix of cheap shampoo and canned peaches". Yes, the sweet smell of success.

Source Agencies Image: Perfume spray