A note from our Editor-in-Chief

Dear Reader, this report from SIMPPAR by our highly esteemed contributor, Ermano Picco, is decidedly rich and interesting; whilst it may seem somewhat challenging due to its highly specific and technical content and references, it nevertheless offers a broad and precise insight into how modern technology can now extract far more from nature in a much more environmentally friendly way – yielding new essences that are extremely interesting and far exceed expectations.

For readers unfamiliar with raw materials and extraction methods, it provides a highly engaging overview of how the range of natural raw materials is expanding, offering novel and intriguing facets that will soon take center stage in beautiful creations where, at last, we will be able to increasingly appreciate the nuances - the subtle contributions of natural molecules brought to light by innovative extraction processes - and savor, as in haute cuisine, the fantastic little touches that make even the most familiar ingredients a source of surprise and olfactory delight.

Silvio Levi

Held in Grasse on May 26 and 27, SIMPPAR 2026 transformed Cours Honoré Cresp, opposite the Palais des Congrès, into a temporary village devoted to perfume ingredients. For only the second time, the International Exhibition of Raw Materials for Perfumery unfolded in the world capital of perfume, with 115 tents welcoming producers, fragrance houses, perfumers and visitors from around the world.

Grasse offered an evocative setting, although the weather seemed determined to test everyone’s endurance. A fierce heat wave pushed temperatures to extraordinary levels, and folding fans quickly became the most coveted gadgets at the booths. Near the gazebo of the Société Française des Parfumeurs, I happily ran into perfumer Pia Long, who later took what may have been the defining image of the salon: the display of a downtown pharmacy announcing 41°C.

We were literally evaporating like bergamot oil or melting like tears of benzoin.

Yet the heat did little to slow the flow of visitors. Under the tents, many companies presented classic natural ingredients reinvented through fractioning, supercritical CO₂ extraction, molecular distillation and co-extraction, while sustainability and biodegradability now strongly drive the development of ingredients shaped by new environmental and regulatory expectations.

Two days were nowhere near enough to smell everything. What follows is therefore a personal tour through the materials, encounters and ideas that remained most vividly in my memory.

BASF

One of my first appointments was at the BASF booth, where I finally met Dr. Franco Doro, Technical Marketing Manager for BASF Aroma Ingredients. We had connected through mutual professional friends, and our meeting soon became a lively conversation about our respective paths and the evolution of the perfume industry.

Franco then introduced Micadelva™, the crown jewel of BASF’s presentation. Developed as an allergen-free alternative to orange terpenes, it offers a bright orange-peel effect: bubbling, juicy and tart, with a slight metallic edge that boosts clarity. A delicate floral facet adds roundness and weight, without dimming its sparkle.

Readily biodegradable and made with 80% renewable carbon, Micadelva™ possesses qualities increasingly central to the development of new aroma chemicals. Beyond obvious citrus compositions, its vivid tartness could work beautifully in contemporary tropical-fruit accords, from passion fruit to guava or pineapple.

Biolandes

Biolandes rarely disappoints. This year marked an important new chapter, one that took considerable time to perfect, as International Sales Manager Benjamin Seby explained. The company entered supercritical CO₂ extraction with two materials: an organic Madagascar Vanilla CO₂ and a CITES-compliant Agarwood CO₂ from Laos.

The Vanilla CO₂ magnifies every facet of a well-seasoned black pod. Rum-like booziness rises above powdery vanillin sweetness and solar floral tones, while a thick balsamic core recalls benzoin and tolu balsam, followed by leathery guaiacwood hints. It is a reminder of vanilla’s hypnotic complexity and of why the spice is considered as precious as gold.

The Agarwood CO₂ was even more unexpected. I often heard that supercritical extraction was unsuited to agarwood, for which traditional hydrodistillation also performs a purifying function after the infection and fermentation of Aquilaria wood. Yet the Biolandes extract was among the most captivating woody materials I encountered at the salon.

The process preserves agarwood’s resinous creaminess while softening its most fermented, cheesy, and barnyard-like aspects. Green and fruity nuances remain, but the result feels closer to caramelized sandalwood fumigated with sacred swirls of olibanum. Precious, enveloping, and almost devotional, it is neither aloofly hieratic nor overtly primal. Its distance from the typical Arabic oud tradition makes it feel more modern and versatile, while CITES-compliant sourcing supports biodiversity and responsible cultivation.

Bontoux

At Bontoux, Sales Manager Marine Magnier warmly welcomed me and, to my delight, offered to conduct the session in Italian. Marine spent almost a decade working with citrus oils in Calabria, and even after many years back in France, her Italian remains flawless.

The starting point was a Moroccan Artemisia essential oil exuding absinthe-like bitterness evoking la fée verte balanced by geranium rosiness for an elegant dry vegetal finish. The Tonka Absolute was irresistible: milky, almondy, almost marzipan-like, with gentle hay nuances embedded in a buttery, edible texture.

French Carrot Seed essential oil offers one of those profiles one never tires of smelling: silky earthiness suggesting iris root, ripe apricot and mango rather than raw soil or vegetables. I could imagine it lending sophistication to a glazed carrot-cake accord, adding depth and an icy dusting of iris.

Clary Sage Absolute Purecoeur® & Essential oil France was another highlight. Freshly dipped, it showed a gently aromatic profile with smooth amber and sweet almond facets. A month later, the blotter still retains a chic green-tea drydown, heliotropin traces, and a rich ambery backbone. It is easy to understand why this remains one of Bontoux’s key materials.

Campisi Citrus

My visit to Campisi Citrus became less a formal smelling session than a conversation with CEO Barbara Campisi about agriculture, weather and the realities behind producing a seemingly effortless drop of citrus oil.

We discussed the latest harvests of Siracusa Lemon PGI, particularly the winter Primofiore variety that remains one of the company’s crown jewels. The previous January, Cyclone Harry had struck Sicily’s eastern coast and badly affected the province of Siracusa, with the juice crop suffering especially severe losses.

Despite the difficult season, the quality of Campisi’s Siracusa lemon oil remained excellent. Primofiore still displayed the sparkling zest, rounded freshness and delicate floralcy that made me fall in love the year before.

The conversation was a timely reminder that perfumery remains first and foremost an agricultural activity. Natural raw materials are shaped by soil, weather, harvest times and the lives of those cultivating them. Climate change is therefore not a distant ethical concern: it directly threatens crops, yields and the future availability of materials upon which perfumery depends.

Capua 1880

Visiting Capua always feels like visiting friends. Sales Account Manager Luca Bocca Ozino welcomed me and guided me through two new citrus ranges: the decolorized Sweet & Fruity collection and the Citrus Light Fractions.

Demand for full-bodied yet colorless natural materials continues to grow, particularly as more perfumes are artificially tinted. Even in undyed formulas, decolorized extracts can reduce the risk of the juice darkening under light exposure.

Sweet & Fruity Lemon delivers an immediate chill followed by the smooth roundness of lemon sorbet. Sweet & Fruity Blood Orange is juicy, sugared and almost candied, yet avoids the faintly fishy effect that can affect very pulpy blood-orange profiles. The standout was Sweet & Fruity Yellow Mandarin, combining the tart aldehydic richness of tangerine peel with thirst-quenching juiciness and fresh orange-blossom floralcy.

The Citrus Light Fractions respond to the demand for natural isolates that offer perfumers greater precision, particularly in entirely natural formulations, but also enhance more contemporary effects in traditional formulations. Green Lemon Light Fraction opens with a lunar crispness and moist vegetal facets. Green Mandarin Light Fraction approaches the cool elegance of petitgrain bigaradier, combining tangy freshness with terpenic chill and aldehydic greenery.

Bitter Orange Light Fraction was the surprise: aromatic, warm, and textured like persimmon-colored silk crêpe, it reveals the magic of a frequently underestimated citrus fruit. I could imagine it shining through dark caramel and peanut butter in an unconventional adult gourmand fragrance.

dsm-firmenich

The dsm-firmenich booth focused on its Sharing Innovation Collection 2026, bringing together six ingredients: two new molecules, one synthetic base, one biotechnology-derived musk, and three naturals obtained through supercritical fluid extraction.

Josenol® is a delicate muguet molecule: transparent and moist yet softened by a powdery veil of mimosa and heliotrope. Its naturalistic poetry immediately evokes spring. I could imagine it paired with cyclamen-tinged Transluzone for a sheer bouquet or used to lift rose concoctions brightened by apple and pear.

Heliotropin Base offers a soft powdery sweetness centered on mimosa, almond flour and vanilla. It initially presents a convincing floral-almond resemblance to heliotropin, although the floral character gradually dims into a more generic dusty vanilla. Attractive as it is, nevertheless, it confirms how difficult it has become, under upcoming regulations, to replicate the sumptuous almond confectionery effect of historic formulas such as the original L’Heure Bleue or Yves Saint Laurent’s Paris.

Obtained from biotechnology, Z11™HD retains the performant dry-amberwood effect of the original Z11—valued for powerful diffusion and tenacity without altering the composition’s personality—while being readily biodegradable and derived from 100% renewable carbon.

Technical perfumer Cyril Mestre had only just begun guiding me through the collection when Master Perfumer Philippe Sauvegrain and his wife joined us. The creator of the legendary Cassis Base 345 recalled using generous amounts of Z11 in his works to achieve beautiful performance—an auspicious blessing for its biodegradable descendant. When I explained that I was a fragrance writer from Milan, our conversation soon moved towards Italy, and he remembered working extensively on baby products for Spain and Italy, particularly Manetti & Roberts’ Borotalco line. Encounters with figures who shaped modern perfumery are part of SIMPPAR’s charm.

Among the naturals, Strawberry SFE captured ripe fruit with convincing juiciness, avoiding the overtly butyric effect of many strawberry specialties. Its jammy sweetness carried caramelized hints and a jasmine-like floral nuance that would beautifully match white flowers; the extract is obtained from hand-harvested Polish strawberries recovered during the production of juice concentrates. Sesame SFE Absolute from India reminded me of peanut butter and boiled grains, with subtle sun-soaked straw and leathery hints perfect to enhance sandalwood, vetiver or pastry accords. Obtained through a cold-concentration process, Apple Firad delivers the acidulated freshness of Granny Smith apple, followed by lightly fermented cider and subtle woody facets.

Field & Forest

One of perfumery’s longest-standing confusions concerns amber. Ambergris—the natural concretion expelled by the sperm whale and matured for years at sea—had been a prized material in perfumery for millennia, while the golden fossil amber resin used in jewelry has generally been considered unsuitable for meaningful extraction.

At least, that is what I believed until I saw the words “Amber Gemstone Extract” at the Field & Forest booth.

The Latvian producer Field & Forest processes Baltic amber, the fossilized resin from Pinus succinifera, an extinct pine that formed vast forests more than 35 million years ago. Even before smelling it, the idea of savoring the essence of prehistoric Fennoscandia forests felt magical.

The low-volatility extract is delicately sweet, with benzoin-like balsamic and vanillic facets smoothing a peppery, camphoraceous backbone of borneol and smoked wood. Lighter stones tend to yield a sweeter, more vanilla-centered effect, while darker specimens—sometimes containing ancient vegetal or animal matter—produce a smokier, woodier result.

Perfumery never stops debunking myths. Before declaring that a raw material cannot exist, you’d better do your research.

FP Aromatics

Sandalwood has been a quiet protagonist at recent raw-material exhibitions and is clearly returning to prominence in fine fragrance.

FP Aromatics, an essential-oil company from Singapore, presented a compelling range of traceable and sustainably sourced sandalwood oils. The exploration began with Mysore sandalwood, still the golden reference: creamy, rosy and impossibly comforting.

Santalum album from Singapore offers an intriguing alternative. Retaining the familiar creamy body and rosy warmth, it radiates a greener, more terpenic freshness. African sandalwood, Osyris lanceolata, sits somewhere between Australian sandalwood and amyris.

Strict regulation of Mysore sandalwood, introduced to protect it from extinction, ultimately encouraged the cultivation of other species and origins, each offering a distinct profile shaped by terroir and climate—turning a constraint into a feature.

IFF and LMR Naturals

At the IFF booth, the invitation to “Make Joy” framed the presentation of the new LMR Hearts and three recently released molecules.

The LMR Hearts collection shows how fractional distillation can approach a natural material almost as a jeweler approaches a gemstone, carving a primary extract until selected facets emerge with greater clarity.

Armoise Heart 2 from Morocco is distilled directly at the harvest site, minimizing processing time, then fractionated in Grasse. Rounder and less camphoraceous than traditional artemisia oil, it provides an exceptionally lively cooling effect with mint, pine resin, fruit and green facets. Perfumer Gwendolyn Le Roy poured it into a Praliné Noisette fragrance, where it lifted the hazelnut accord with aromatic greenery lending a subtle licorice depth into the base, transforming ordinary confection into Michelin-starred pastry.

Lavandin Heart 6 softens the sharper herbal and camphoraceous aspects of conventional lavandin, enhancing powdery coumarin sweetness and creamy floral warmth for a more gourmand profile.

Geranium Heart 3 from Egypt was among the stars of the salon. Intensely rosy, it displays pronounced lychee and pear juiciness, while a softened minty lift allows the radiant floral profile to bloom. It could easily replace rose in a composition without feeling like a compromise.

Le Roy proved this with Pomme d’Amour. A caramelized apple accord rich in davana became mouthwateringly glossy under the rosy glow of Geranium Heart. Minty brightness breathed life into the fruit sharpening the crisp contrast with its candied pulp. It had the character of a potential bestseller, and I would happily have bought the fragrance on the spot.

Ylang-Ylang Heart from Madagascar emphasizes creamy salicylates and suntan-lotion warmth with a vanilla-orchid effect tinged by banana, carnation and wintergreen hues.

Among IFF’s new molecules, Orionide™ Oliffac™ is a beautiful musk and a readily biodegradable vegan alternative to ambrettolide, while Luminide™ offers a softer cosmetic musk with cottony powder recalling the blurred softness of nitro musks, and a faint mineral coolness close to Cashmeran® and Operanide™.

Pomarina™ was the standout among the synthetics. Its tutti-frutti kaleidoscope moves through crisp green apple, pear, strawberry, ripe banana and the minty freshness of fig leaves. I am always surprised by how multifaceted a single molecule can be; it says much about the complexity of the human olfactory system. Highly impactful even at low dosage, Pomarina™ carries naturalistic fruitiness beyond the top note and into the heart, making it especially appealing for contemporary floral, woody, green or gourmand compositions.

KAAPI Ingredients

KAAPI sources and produces Brazilian ingredients with a strong focus on traceability, distillation at origin and Amazonian biodiversity.

At Simpatia Farm in Itacoatiara, Amazonas, the company distills rosewood, Amazongrass, priprioca, and other regional materials. Perfumer César Mussi invited Magali Quenet, Françoise Rapp and me to sit down, fasten our imaginary seat belts, and take an olfactory flight to the rainforest. The warmth of the welcome immediately recalled my own travels in Brazil, its immense untamed nature, and the innate generosity of its people.

Since 2010, KAAPI has contributed to the revival of Brazilian rosewood by distilling leaves and branches rather than cutting entire trees, working within environmental regulations to protect the species and maintain a responsible long-term supply. The resulting rosewood oil is gorgeous, combining woody freshness with a delicately humid, almost poetic rosy floralcy.

Monkey’s Pepper, Xylopia aromatica, sits between mild black pepper and coniferous freshness, with mace-like undertones and a slightly medicinal floral character. Another Brazilian classic is Priprioca essential oil distilled from the roots of Cyperus articulatus—a tall sedge crowned with tiny flower clusters— which combines woody earthiness with ginger-like freshness, softened by smooth vanillic floralcy.

KAAPI also presented two contrasting maté extractions. Green Maté captures the astringent herbal character of green tea, with matcha, hay and light smoke. Roasted Maté instead bears a nuttier, cereals and coffee-like profile, touched by savory facets.

The tour concluded with Amazonian Tonka Bean Absolute, whose production supports local communities. Its almond sweetness has the buttery caramel texture of fudge. A Cocoa Bean Absolute followed, full-bodied, creamy, bittersweet and subtly animalic—the kind of material into which a dark-chocolate lover might dream of diving at least once.

MANE

The MANE booth remained consistently crowded. Alongside new ingredients, the company promoted WellMotion™, a platform developed through cognitive-science research and analysis of consumers’ neurological and physiological reactions to aromatic raw materials.

The program was explained by MANE Fragrance Innovation & Applied Research EMEA Director Loïc Bleuez during the panel I moderated at last year’s Esxence, “Emotion Driven Scent Design—Can Emotions Be Bottled?” At SIMPPAR, it provided a framework for how ingredients may support emotional well-being. Sublimolide, MANE’s vegan alternative to ambrettolide, for example, is associated with relaxation and self-confidence.

Driftwood is an elegant white-wood base infused with salty sea-breeze freshness. Built on captives including Ambramone™, it feels airy, mineral and subtly saline, suggesting sea spray over sun-bleached wood, with warm amber depth providing elegant diffusion and persistence.

Elixiris is a natural co-extract of cedarwood and iris root. Powdery, slightly yeasty facets and soft floralcy melt into a dry woody backbone with violet and amber nuances. More than a month later, I could still detect it on the blotter—unexpected tenacity for such a gentle material.

Whisky Pure Jungle Essence™, obtained through supercritical CO₂ extraction, preserves fruity alcoholic freshness while revealing amber, leather and smoke hues. Drier than the molasses sweetness of rum, it brings the refinement of oakwood barrel-aged spirits to the gourmand palette.

Payan Bertrand

Payan Bertrand’s wooden market stall, with its striped awning and baskets of dried herbs, was instantly recognizable among the white tents. R&D Director and perfumer Frédéric Badie invited me to sit down and discover the materials in the spotlight.

Petitgrain NatCraft combines two house specialties: a fractionated Paraguayan petitgrain, enriched in ocimenes and linalool and reduced in linalyl acetate, and an isolate from mandarin petitgrain, rich in dimethyl anthranilate. The result is a fresher orange blossom that magnifies neroli-like brightness without any animalic heaviness: crisp greenery and juicy mandarin unfolding into a full floral heart.

Patchouli Aceh NxTrack is among the finest patchouli extracts I have smelled in years. Produced through a purification of an alcoholic infusion of patchouli leaves as an alternative to hexane extraction, it restores the material’s original sumptuousness. Damp undergrowth, warm humidity, and leathery-animal facets recall a Sumatran forest, softened by a rich plummy nuance that summoned the ghost of Femme de Rochas. Gloriously unpolished yet deeply refined, it still radiated from the blotter more than a month later.

Sandalwood Indonesian Upcycled NxTract was perhaps the greatest revelation. Produced in Java by vacuum co-distillation of residual sandalwood chips with natural triethyl citrate, it combines smoky woods, gentle spices and a warm milky heart. To my nose, it transported Mysore-like creaminess into a new dimension, twisting it with smoked-salmon hints and caramel-macchiato nuttiness. Who would have guessed that one of the salon’s most intriguing gourmand materials would emerge from exhausted sandalwood chips?

Cuir de Méditerranée NatCraft may be slightly misleading by name. Combining immortelle and cistus labdanum through four different processes—including high-temperature dry distillation, extraction and molecular distillation—it smells like Mediterranean shrubs scorched by the Sardinian sun rather than tanned leather.

Robertet

Robertet transformed its booth into “The Scent Bar,” with the invitation: “Here, we don’t taste cocktails. Here, we savor emotions.”

Exotic Colada corresponded to Colada Extract, obtained through the bioconversion of Philippine coconut followed by supercritical CO₂ extraction. Clear and soluble, the ingredient opens with piña colada and coconut water topnote, followed by creamy shredded pulp and the gentle roasted nuttiness of the darker peel.

The Golden Sandalwood glass represented an organic Nepalese Santalum album essential oil. Responsibly sourced, its green and rosy top notes develop into full-bodied creamy wood close to the finest Mysore sandalwood, veiled by pepper and pine nut hints.

Bloom Orange Spritz showcased Tunisia Orange Blossom CO₂ Bloom Extract. Fresh flowers are processed at low temperature preserving their aromatic integrity: neroli bitterness meets voluptuous orange-blossom honey, textured by a deep fruity tobacco nuance.

Sesame Sunshine offered Roasted Sesame CO₂ Extract from Indian seeds, overflowing with peanut butter, puffed rice and sweet-and-savory caramel popcorn hues—fifty shades of the Maillard reaction condensed into one ingredient.

Fenugreek Syrup was an unexpected star. French fenugreek seeds are roasted and extracted through Robertet’s CleanRscent process using an environmentally preferred volatile solvent. The result combines thick carob syrup, powdery vanilla, and photorealistic matcha latte with oat-milk facets. Highly tenacious, I can easily see it empowering the current wave of matcha fragrances as well as glazed chestnut accords.

Symrise

Symrise has gradually made several magnolia-related captive molecules available to the market: first Magnolan, originally created in the 1950s, with its floral, tea-like profile; then Neomagnolan with a more effervescent, tart brightness. The latest release at SIMPPAR 2026 is Magnolila.

Despite its name, Magnolila feels less specifically magnolia-centered than its predecessors, delivering a complex profile with radiant lily of the valley, delicate pink rose and fresh pear. In an Oolong Tea demo fragrance, it brought dewy floralcy, enriching the thirst-quenching quality of iced tea without the faint soapiness that can undermine delicate tea accords.

The Lautier 1795 naturals collection offered further discoveries among Madagascan spices. Bay St. Thomas essential oil develops from laurel-like green aromatics and terpenic black pepper to the powdery, warm and almost pomander-like piquancy of nutmeg. Cinnamon Bark Oil gives off an unmistakable Coca-Cola effect, lifted by a bubbling freshness on top.

Longosa Oil extracted from Hedychium flavum blossoms—a ginger lily native to India but long cultivated in Madagascar—is a captivating gem: peppery, intensely floral and magnetic, with ylang-ylang and orange blossom undertones. I would love to encounter this wild beauty more often in finished perfumes.

Synarome

At Synarome, c’était la fête: the company is celebrating its centenary in 2026. Founded in Asnières in 1926 by Hubert and Georges Fraysse, it went on to create such iconic specialties as Ambrarome, Animalis and Muscarome—important building blocks of twentieth-century perfumery.

Sales Manager Olivier Moor guided me through a selection of historic and more recent materials.

Cuir de Russie remains one of the house’s renowned bases. Powerful labdanum and castoreum effects support aldehydic top notes, orange blossom, intense woods, and amber. Its fetishistic leather tapestry is so complex that it is almost a finished perfume in itself.

Aldambre works more as texture than a detectable note. Dry, mineral, musky and slightly metallic, it recalls hot iron on freshly pressed clothes, adding depth and substantivity without the harshness of some modern dry ambers.

Phenylal is ferociously marvelous. Its spicy floralcy combines rosy honey with urinous animalic facets, recalling roaring chypres from another era—Paloma Picasso worn with a leopard-print velour jacket.

Vanillodor smells irresistible in a completely different way. Photorealistic, with milky vanilla and buttery caramel hints, it instantly plunges your nose into crème caramel. Totally addictive.

A century on, Synarome still proves how creative and impactful a perfume base can be.

Takasago

The Japanese company presented various aroma chemicals, beginning with Polyambrol®, a high-impact bio-based ambergris material. Even at 1%, its powerful woody, earthy, mineral and gently animalic character is remarkable, sitting near ambrinol yet in a smoother, more elegant touch.

Cyclohexyl Lactone combines the powdery sweetness of tonka, with coconut and woody hints recalling massoia bark. Though less diffusive, Alpha Angelica Lactone bridges green hay, honeyed smoothness and a creamy coconut-vanilla core. Naturally occurring in honey and licorice, it provides body and an unusual aromatic twist into lactonic accords.

Humus Ether was the revelation. Powerful and exceptionally diffusive, it renders fresh soil, forest floor, moss and morning dew. It brought to mind the deepest soul of patchouli: moist dark earth inhabited by roots, moss, and proliferating life, with the primal vibration of geosmin underneath. A magnificent building block for mossy woods and an equally compelling contrast to ripe fruits, it can deliver a true coup de théâtre in a composition.

Ultra International and Lecheq Farm & Distillery

Ultra International operates through a global cooperative model based on long-term partnerships with producers, processors, and distillers, with transparency, traceability, and sustainable supply at the center of its regional collections.

My sampling started with classics from India. Jasmine Grandiflorum Absolute displayed unctuous, heady floral richness, ever emblematic of luxury in fine fragrance. Jasmine Sambac Absolute is fruitier and more animalic, with concord grape hints placing it somewhere between grandiflorum jasmine and orange blossom.

The group’s network includes Lecheq Farm & Distillery, representing Azerbaijan. I visited the booth with my friend Magali Quenet, whose fragrant travels have taken her through rose fields in France, Morocco and Kannauj—the Indian capital of perfume, from which she just brought a rose oil so jammy and honeyed that I could not stop smelling it.

Azerbaijan played an important historical role in rose-oil production during both the Russian Empire and the Soviet period. Lecheq’s fields around Zaqatala benefit from the climate of the Great Caucasus Mountains, as Sales and Marketing Specialist Humbat Aliyev explained. Azerbaijani Rose Damascena essential oil differs clearly from the Bulgarian oil: rather than crisp lychee freshness, it offers jam, honey and clove-like spice—dramatic and warm like the Caucasian landscape. Rose Totale provided an even fuller, enveloping honeyed sensation.

Stéphane Piquart

While strolling through the tents, I encountered Le Sourceur Stéphane Piquart, whose work is devoted to finding unusual, forgotten, or neglected raw materials.

One of the latest additions to his catalog is Onycha, obtained from the shell of a marine mollusk in the murex family. The shells are purified with salt, dried, pulverized and infused in alcohol.

The tincture smells iodine, saffron-like and smoky with leather and indolic hues recalling castoreum. Mentioned in the Bible, the name onycha comes from the Greek for “nail”, hence the common name “sea nail”. It was a fitting final discovery, closing the loop: a marine, animalic and almost alchemical material emerging from the mists of time at a salon filled with cutting-edge innovation.

A Palette Reimagined

SIMPPAR 2026 confirmed that the perfumer’s palette is no longer expanding only by adding new materials, but by questioning how far an ingredient can still be explored. Natural materials are increasingly treated like living goldmines: fresh, dried, roasted, fractioned, co-extracted, decolorized, or reworked to reveal as many facets as possible. The raw gem still matters, of course, but so does the cut.

Sustainability, meanwhile, has moved beyond slogan territory and become a creative engine. Greener solvents, biodegradability, upcycling, responsible sourcing, and lower-impact processes may sound terribly virtuous on paper, but at their best they generate beautiful materials the public can enjoy for more than one reason.

And yet, environmental awareness cannot stop at improving processes. A cyclone in Sicily, an endangered species, a difficult harvest: climate change reminds us that the perfumer’s palette begins long before the laboratory.

Back on the blotter, another trend was hard to miss: the gourmand palette has reached a new level of maturity. Sugary sweetness is no longer enough. Perfumers can now explore a wider range of edible textures and sensations, from roasted grains, sesame, and realistic fruit extracts to spirits, teas, pralines, and all those delicious territories where comfort meets complexity.

As the white tents came down in Grasse, the countdown began for SIMPPAR’s return to Paris next year. The fans may no longer be necessary, but curiosity certainly will.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

• CO2 extraction is a solvent-based extraction method that utilizes carbon dioxide under high pressure and controlled temperature to isolate and extract valuable compounds—such as cannabinoids, terpenes, and other beneficial constituents—from botanical materials. When CO2 is subjected to specific temperature and pressure ranges, it enters a “supercritical” state, simultaneously acting as both a gas and a liquid. This unique property allows for highly efficient extraction of compounds without the harsh chemicals or flammability risks associated with hydrocarbons or alcohol. Source: https://extraktlab.com/co2-extraction/#what-is-co2-extraction-and-how-does-it-work

• Fractioning, or better Fractional distillation, is a refining process that separates a natural aromatic material into fractions according to volatility and boiling point. Commonly applied to essential oils and distilled extracts, it can isolate specific olfactory facets, remove undesirable components, and improve stability, safety, or consistency. Controlled heating and condensation separate lighter and heavier molecules, allowing producers to reshape the material while preserving its natural identity. The resulting fractions may smell fresher, cleaner, softer, more floral, or less terpenic, and can be used alone or recombined into a more precise ingredient.

• CITES — the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora — is an international agreement created in response to growing concern during the 1960s about the effects of global trade on wildlife. Initiated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, it was signed in Washington, D.C., in 1973 and entered into force in 1975. Its purpose is to ensure that international trade in wild animals, plants, and products derived from them does not threaten their survival. In EU countries, it is legally enforced via Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora | EUR-Lex