Ms. Gottlieb, 67, is the professional "nose" behind fine fragrances like Calvin Klein's Obsession, CK One and Christian Dior's J'adore, acting as an intermediary between the designers and the fragrance houses that concoct the scents. Ms. Gottlieb, who started her firm in 1983
"I can smell 100 things in a row and still be confident that I can smell accurately," she said.
Digging into a fine-fragrance project typically begins with getting to know the sensibility of the designer or celebrity involved. To prepare for her first collaboration with Marc Jacobs's 2007 Daisy fragrance, Ms. Gottlieb visited the designer's stores to touch the clothes, soak in their colors and scrutinize their shapes.
"I get what the vibe is, and the vibe tells me who his target audience is and what kind of spirit the fragrance should be," she said. "He has all these light, sparkly and fun aspects to his clothing that need to be interpreted in his fragrance, but it also has to smell expensive."
CK One
Packaging colors are almost always chosen first. In the case of Lola, which launched in 2009, Mr. Jacobs determined that the packaging would include red and purple flowers.
"People smell with their brains and eyes before they smell with their nose," said Ms. Gottlieb, who felt that the deep purple and red combination called for a warm, floral scent. The scent could have a hint of rose, but not too much lest it smell too old. Sandalwood, vanilla and amber added warmth to the floral notes.
Once the colors are chosen, Ms. Gottlieb writes a "brief," the short paragraph given to perfumers that describes what notes and mood the fragrance should embody. In the case of Lola, Ms. Gottlieb envisioned a floral scent with a hint of lightheartedness and "sparkle," she said. "Sparkle usually comes with various fruity notes, but Marc doesn't like fruity notes, so it all had to be done in a way that accomplishes the goal without disappointing him."
Believing her nose is most sensitive in the morning, Ms. Gottlieb wakes around 5:15 every morning and starts sniffing. To test how long a fragrance lasts, she often wears a scent overnight, judging the results when she wakes. Other mornings she sprays a work-in-progress from one of the bottles stationed on her nightstand.
SCENT notes
- Ann Gottlieb said she long knew that she had a strong sense of taste and the ability to discern different flavors. It wasn't until she was working for Estée Lauder, whom Ms. Gottlieb considers her mentor, that she discovered the special strength of her sense of smell and her olfactive memory. Ms. Gottlieb learned about fragrances from Ms. Lauder and worked at Estée Lauder Cos. for several years.
- She recalls just two instances in her life when a cold has completely wiped out her sense of smell, including a bad one last year. Because colds make her scent detection less reliable, she tries to avoid them with regular exercise, good nutrition and omega-3 supplements.
- To combat germs during her frequent travels, Ms. Gottlieb pops over-the-counter immune-system boosters. She also uses several nasal sprays in flight, including saline solution and Afrin decongestant.
Another important test comes in the workout room of her office, which is on the ground floor of her New York apartment building. A half-hour to hour-long run on the treadmill in the morning lets her determine how well the fragrance diffuses as she perspires.
Ms. Gottlieb's workouts include some informal consumer testing, too. "My Pilates instructor has a really good nose, so if I'm testing something I'll see what she thinks, too," said Ms. Gottlieb, who was reassured last month when the instructor loved a possible version of an orchid-inspired Oscar de la Renta fragrance due out this fall.
She will also frequently go ahead and test fragrances on other people, most commonly people in her office. But Ms. Gottlieb said she has been known to commandeer hotel bellboys when traveling to use them for their skin.
Her post-workout shower serves as another lab where she evaluates several body washes almost every morning. Since many consumer-product companies now strive for longer-lasting fragrances, Ms. Gottlieb must be careful that these scents won't interfere with any perfume testing that she may have scheduled that day. That means waiting a couple of hours to be sure the smells have completely dissipated.
Calvin Klein's Obsession
Since eating garlic, onions and spicy food can be detected later on the skin, Ms. Gottlieb generally avoids them, fearing interference with her testing. She will allow herself some garlic on the weekend.
Ms. Gottlieb also avoids certain scents, including honey, which smells "animalistic and dirty" to her nose. Cassis, which smells to her like cat urine, is another nemesis. "Whenever cassis is in a fragrance I can't get smell through it."
Her frequent evenings out require special strategies. When meeting with close friends, Ms. Gottlieb almost always will wear a work-in-progress to gauge their reaction.
But if she's heading to a gathering with beauty-industry colleagues, she sticks to fragrances already on the market, so that a competitor won't get a whiff of a current project. She usually wears scent along her temples so people can smell it when they greet her hello. "This is a double-kissing industry," she said. "And they always smell me."
Excerpted from Ellen Byron's article in the WSJ
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703584804576144523947143908.html?
Special thanks to Hernando Courtright
– Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief