One of the most common questions we get asked is how we create our scents.
Essential oil scents are a creative masterpiece of artistry meets commercial and technical know-how. The perfect scent is sensorially intriguing, on brand, and market compliant – three key qualities that ensure our clients have the best chance of successfully selling their product.
At Aromatica Botantica, crafting essential oil scents is alike to creating a painting.
Sketching the painting – our brief for scent artistry
When starting a new painting, the first step is to draw a sketch of what you are trying to achieve based on the outlined brief. Once the sketch is moving in the right direction, the next consideration is choosing which palette of oils to work with.
So just like starting a painting with a sketch, our process of creating a new scent begins by considering the technical aspect of the blend. There is no point creating a beautiful scent if it isn’t going to comply with the industry regulations and standards of the market that our client is striving to enter with their product.
From there we think about the target audience – who is going to be using this product and what sensory experience will be organically attractive to them?
Because scent is such an emotional trigger point, it is incredibly important when sketching the essential oil scent that we do so by defining the consumer profile we are aiming at.
Price is another factor that comes in to play at this planning stage.
The last thing we ever want to do is blow our client’s entire product budget on just the scent alone. We understand the commercial value, and so maximising impact while staying within budget is always top of mind when setting the parameters for a scent creation.
After considering the technical market standards, target audience and financial parameters, the final step of the sketch is to determine what combination of essential oils and natural ingredients will best work in the end product.
While there are certain combinations of essential oil scents that work with many different products, other combinations only work well with a specific few. Thus, it is imperative the oils we choose to use and combine, work organically with the desired functionality of the end product.
Colouring the canvas – our approach to creating sensory experiences
Having now refined the palette of oils we can use, it’s time to approach the sketched canvas and add some colour. This means selecting essential oils based on the colourful combination they can produce to encapsulate all aspects of the brief that have been defined.
For example, are we producing a grounding scent with the earthy colours of Cedarwood, Patchouli and Vetiver? Or are we after a happy, uplifting mix that embodies the bright colours of Orange oil or fresh yellows of Lemon?
A different lens might be focusing on the technical requirements of the scent, maybe utilising the gorgeous green hues of Pine Scotch or Eucalyptus or incorporating the calming blue and purple tones of Lavandin or Lavender for a relaxing therapeutic effect.
By thinking about essential oils as colours, this opens up the base combination palette that can often lead to the creation of some very unique and beautiful scent combinations.
Base notes
Base notes are often undervalued and seen only as accompaniment to the middle and top notes. However sometimes the key to developing a stunning custom scent is the unusual base note combination, with just light touches of mid and top note colours to achieve a rounded result.
As an example, we recently created a scent that used a pastel like Amyris and chartreuse like Bergamot oils as the base notes. This base combination set up a unique foundation on which we then added small amounts of other complementary mid and top note oils. This made for a beautiful full-bodied scent and the accents we used offered subtle variation.
Mid notes
While mid notes can be used liberally or as light touches, we typically like to use these notes to further colour in the scent and produce an intriguing, well-balanced sensory experience.
Here are some examples of the middle notes we use and their correlation with colour.
Light Green | Lime |
Radiant Yellow/Gold | Yuzu |
Fuschia | Geranium (some will associate this with the actual colour of the oil – light green) |
Cobalt Blue | Cardamom |
Green | Parsley/Basil |
Burnt Brown | Patchouli |
Orange/Green | Petitgrain |
White/Yellow | Ylang Ylang |
Blue/Teal | Juniperberry |
Top notes
When it comes to top notes, it’s important to think of these as the fine lines or accents added to a painting. Often these tend to be the more expensive essential oils so using these sparingly is important not only for a balanced sensorial experience but also to keep within financial parameters.
Sometimes however, a client may be looking for a blend that has a key top note requirement. In this case, we work backwards to find a way to set the base and middle notes up to highlight this chosen top note.
For example, if a client is looking for a full-bodied red note of Jasmine then we would work to complement this with base and mid notes that highlight the top note red colour rather than anything that clashes too much. Similarly, if we are aiming to produce a scent with a strong green/orange note of Neroli then it’s important we don’t incorporate too many earth-coloured oils that could create a murky result.
Between the base, mid and top notes, successful essential oil combinations are like finding a winning lottery ticket – but this is what makes our process so much fun.
There’s always going to be trial and error, but with each error comes a lesson and a unique insight. And eventually this leads to a jackpot discovery – the creation of a unique sensory experience.
So whether the end customer experiences the product with colour in mind or not, our process remains the same – we always approach the scent creation journey as a sketch just waiting to be painted by a colour palette of essential oils.