It’s one of the rarest professions in the world with only around 50 industry leaders worldwide. A ‘nose’ (or le nez in French) is a master perfumer whose extraordinary sense of smell and ability to create scents are highly desirable in the competitive world of perfume.
This is one of many fascinating behind the scenes facts learned on a tour of the Fragonard factory in Eze on the French Riviera.
Fragonard offers free guided tours of its factories in multiple languages on demand – just walk in and wait for a guide – both here at Eze and at its larger headquarters a short distance away in Grasse.
Today I’m visiting the Eze factory with a friend while on a girls’ only mini break to the Riviera. We join our knowledgeable and friendly guide to learn all about Fragonard and the art of perfume making, beginning with the origins of the company.
A fourth-generation family business, Fragonard was founded in the early 20th century by Eugène Fuchs who had the enterprising idea to sell perfume products to tourists – something Fragonard excels at still today with their perfume equivalent of cellar doors. And perfume is one of my weaknesses so I probably should have left my credit cards back in the hotel.
Fuchs chose to name his business after the French painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard. The company has remained in the same family ever since and is today one of the most famous perfume houses of Europe. A tour of a Fragonard factory is one of the top things to see and do on the Riviera.
Our sweet-smelling tour next uncovers the process of perfume making. We learn the core of quality perfume is essential oil, which is distilled from flowers – lots of flowers.
To get one kilogram of essential oils requires 600 kilograms of lavender flowers. To get a kilogram of rose essential oils requires a staggering 3000 kilograms of rose flowers.
The percentage of essential oil in a perfume determines its quality and ultimately its price. The top quality parfum is 24 per cent essential oil. Eau de toilette is around 15 per cent essential oil and eau de cologne up to around 10 per cent essential oil. Given the laborious process to distill the essential oil from the flowers, It’s not surprising then that top shelf perfumes can be very expensive.
Most of the distilling for Fragonard takes place at the Grasse facility. Our tour does however include some historical equipment to illustrate the changes in perfume making technology over time and tanks storing essential oil.
The Eze factory focuses on skin care and soaps, producing 1000-2000 soaps per day. We see them being made in one of the production rooms.
Finally we watch a busy production line where perfume is bottled into hundreds of gold coloured aluminium bottles. We’re told perfume will last up to seven years stored in aluminium, longer than it will last in glass bottles.
Like all good tours, this one exits via the gift shop. But before letting us loose to shop, our guide helps us to test the range of perfumes to help us find our scent.
We spend some time with her enjoying trying to guess the ingredients. In addition to the floral oils, we detect notes of citrus fruit, spices and ginger.
Our guide leaves us with some final tips for wearing perfume. We should, she warns, never rub our wrists together after spraying perfume. Dab but never rub! The best place to wear your perfume for maximum seduction impact is behind the ears and the décolletage.
The expansive store at the end of the tour is filled with temptations from perfume bottles to soaps and luscious face creams. Unable to choose one I like best, I instead choose a trio of miniature aluminum bottles.
Further information
Fragonard has two factories, at Eze and Grasse. The Grasse facility also houses an expansive collection of historical artefacts in the a museum of perfume making.
Eze is around 12 kilometres from Nice on the French Riviera.
For more information about Fragonard visit the website.