Enter The New Era of Influence for Fragrances.

The hype on the well-being topic impacts many areas of our lives, including the perfume dimension. There are three tangible illustrations: the importance of the discussions happening in social networks, the size of the overall wellness market estimated at 1.5 trillion dollars globally by Mc Kinsey and the number of brands launching enhancing mood collections.

In the last five years, new ‘feel good’ scents have increasingly been launched by large perfume companies as well as by niche brands. At the top of my mind, there is Lancôme Les Ô, Eau Extraordinaire by Clarins, the Estée Lauder Luxury Collection Range, Paco Rabanne, Cosmoss, Charlotte Tilbury, Orebella. As for niche brands, I can name Edeniste, Vyrao, Abel, The Nue Co, Øthers, and Initio Parfums Privés. There are so many more in addition to these references.

In fact, in some instances, the emotional impact of the fragrances is the very essence of the brand. It is the starting point rather than the additional ‘touch’ added at the end. The positive power of scent becomes the structure, the base of the perfume development and fragrance creations using different ingredient combinations with a particular impact on our emotions; invigorating, harmonizing, strengthening, comforting, depending on the situations in our lives and personal associations.

In order to make such claims for their scents, many perfume houses have decided to engage in long term partnerships with expert companies such as Givaudan, Mane, Dsm- Firmenich and IFF. As a matter of fact, this well-being craving requires significant investments both in terms of in-house research as well as external lab center connections. Such in-depth research happening in scientific labs backed by major fragrance companies is not in the limelight. So rather than elaborate on the visible areas, I decided to focus on this less well-known, and most complex one. To enter the world of neurosciences, I was ecstatic to exchange with Céline Manetta, Head of Human and Consumer Insight Innovation at IFF during Esxence. It is an impressive title inside a global leader in fragrance. All through the interview, I felt she was acting like an ambassador sharing her knowledge wholeheartedly and generously. Let us open the door of her house, a place rich in information where fragrance holds the answer to the key question: can perfumes, in earnest, improve our wellbeing?

I started the interview by asking Céline to briefly introduce herself and explain her role at IFF.

I have a PhD in Psychology from the ‘Paris 8’ University. Fifteen years ago I joined the Human & Consumer Insight department at IFF and I now lead global innovation for the Scent division. My mission is to understand consumer needs and expectations regarding perfumes and scented products but also how people react when they smell them, emotionally as well verbally. I focus on emotional and cognitive responses, using tools from psychology, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence.

A Trio of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Artificial Intelligence.

Now, I have so many questions popping up in my head, but I keep them for later to ask Céline what triggered her interest in this field:

I have always been fascinated by how scents evoke memory and emotion. My thesis back in 2008 explored categorization and women’s fragrance description from a cognitive and linguistic perspective. My objective was to better understand how people talk about scents, and I found that there is an abundant use of metaphors and analogies as in real “fragrance stories.” I realized how little we knew about the mechanisms of olfaction, even though there were many potential applications, especially in clinical psychology. In 2010, I completed a postdoctoral fellowship on olfactory memory in Alzheimer’s disease, aiming to demonstrate the benefits of scent stimulation. This is when I started working with IFF, which had since 2001 already been sponsoring the CEW (cognitive expressive writing) olfactory workshops in several hospitals. In 2025, non-traditional applications of fragrance are known, but at the time, it was a nascent and pioneering field.

It seems that IFF had a unique position in Céline’s advanced research, but I want to ask what pushed her to leave her academic work to join the private sector.

‘Quite clearly, I wanted to apply my scientific knowledge in a tangible way.’ At IFF, I can bridge rigorous research with real-world applications, bringing innovation in the creation perfumes that enhance well-being and emotional states. Based on an IFF research*, we know that 87% of consumers around the world want more from their fragrance than a mere good smell but an emotional or physical benefit. In addition, 67% of consumers want access to science-based products.

My mission is to meet that overarching expectation by enabling our perfumers to create scientifically backed fragrances that meet the expectations of consumers for well-being in their everyday lives.

Céline is clearly determined in reaching her ultimate scientific goal, so I wondered how she makes it happen within the large IFF organization.

At IFF, we use a wide range of methods and tools to fulfill this mission. Our Science of Wellness program is built on more than 40 years of research on the connection between fragrance and emotion. At the beginning, our research helped us understand the strong correlations between scents and emotions like happiness, energy, or seduction. In the 1990s, we broadened our scope to include correlations between scents and colors or textures. IFF then complemented this consumer perception data with neurosciences to understand what happens in the brain and how brain signals are associated with different fragrance-related emotions.

A fragrance database with the latest advances in neuroscience.

In the Science of Wellness, IFF assembled a comprehensive team of over sixty people. This inhouse team is uniquely multidisciplinary as it includes psychologists, neuroscientists, statisticians, data scientists, sensory and cognitive researchers, and olfactory experts who work directly with IFF perfumers.

“Our database today contains about two thousand ingredients, even more with regards to perfumes and data from twenty thousand consumers worldwide. Such rich data allows a search for example on ‘all ingredients or perfumes that smell “blue” or “relaxing” to consumers. All our databases are immediately and directly available to our perfumers. When they receive a new fragrance brief, they can use the data to identify the ingredients that will reach the desired emotional benefits. During a workshop at Esxence, called ‘can emotions be bottled’ moderated by Ermano Picco, we learned that for the fragrance ‘Mamajuju’ by Vyrao, the starting point of the brief was the emotional benefit of the perfume. To achieve heightened memory and balanced harmony, the perfumer, thanks to the Science of Wellness, precisely and ‘scientifically’ chose to mix two ingredients, namely sandalwood oil with pink pepper oil to maximize emotional impact. “

I was lucky to be at Esxence and smell the Mamajuju fragrance, so I am now eager to broaden my understanding and ask Céline how artificial intelligence is used in ‘augmented’ fragrance.

Artificial Intelligence Shapes Augmented Fragrance.

The revolution of augmented perfumery in well-being scents started 17 years ago when we added data science to our understanding of fragrance and emotion. Data science is a combination of a variety of disciplines: computer programming, statistics, mathematics, and artificial intelligence. IFF’s proprietary AI, Scentcube™ can examine all possible ingredient combinations to find the synergies that have the greatest impact on a given emotional perception. It processes billions of data points all at once and turns them into relevant propositions for perfumers for their fragrance compositions. The integration of artificial intelligence has really revolutionized our work and made it more precise and scalable.

This is already quite impressive, but Céline is adamant to go on step further and explain how data science also integrates Natural Language Processing (or ‘NLP’).

NLP helps IFF analyze how consumers describe scents as it allows us to decode emotional and cognitive responses through language. NLP enables the enhancing of our understanding of fragrance perception, in acceleration. Today, the speed dimension is crucial so the fact that NLP allows us to quickly integrate consumers’ feedback into a perfume creation is essential. This is the reason behind the launch of the IFF Scentchat™ app launched this year. The ScentChat™ app powered by AI enables co-creation between IFF teams and consumers thanks to a direct immersive connection. It is a new shared experience, where IFF creative teams are fully and crucially connected with consumers while creating scented products to ultimately enhance their scent experience. It happens that a selection of engaged consumers can share their feedback live during the creation of the fragrances. In my opinion, such real-time connection fosters a high inspiration, quick adaptation, and final relevance of the perfume composition.

Céline, I guess you belong to the staunch believers of the structural and stable connection between neuroscience and perfume; in other words, this is not a trend ignited by covid which will move away…

Absolutely, this is a lasting shift - not an evaporating whiff (Laurence adds smiling). The COVID-19 pandemic heightened awareness of the sense of smell, especially with anosmia (loss of smell). This has led to a deeper appreciation of scent as a tool for emotional and psychological well-being. Given the beneficial effect on our lives, I believe there is no way back or turning off. My personal aspiration is to continue bridging science and the art of perfumery to bring about a positive impact on people with fragrances that not only smell beautiful but also enhance lives emotionally and cognitively.

Céline, this seems the right time to ask you about the precise ‘claims’ for the usual emotional benefits that perfumes can offer.

Certainly, based on our comprehensive testing data, we can state that perfumes can reduce stress, infuse joy, relaxation, energy, confidence, and even improve sleep. IFF has developed a sleep program and thereby added Metasleep™ to its technological capabilities.

I want to ask you a concluding question about the future of perfume in your opinion.

Perfume is evolving from a tool of seduction to a medium of self-care and emotional expression. When we delve into the history of perfumery, one sees that perfume has always been intimately linked to the notion of well-being, from the Egyptian times when perfume was used to speak with the gods or to heal, to Greek and Roman antiquity when it was used to heal and soothe, or the Middle-Ages when it was used to cleanse. In the future, I will foresee more personalized, wellness-oriented fragrances, supported by scientific evidence.

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What an exhilarating scientific exploration into the generation of wellbeing emotions!

This was truly an interesting discussion. Céline opened her complex world to us and made it very appealing. Well-being is surely an important matter. It is really fascinating to sense (and understand) how fragrance is becoming an actor.

*Conducted on 20’000 consumers in fourteen countries in the world.