Note

Note is a custom perfume house based in Montréal. The company develops systems that compose a personalized fragrance from what the customer describes: an idea, a memory, a mood. The customer follows a guided online process, receives samples, then their final perfume. The order replaces choosing from an already composed range.

Custom perfumery is practised in a workshop today. A perfumer composes by hand, and the customer has to be able to name what they want. Note is first aimed at the enthusiast intimidated by the field, who enjoys the product without knowing the vocabulary of scents. Composing a recipe with them takes up a perfumer's time, and a request taken literally, with one ingredient pushed all the way, gives a disappointing result.

The product

The team is designing a blending machine and the formulation engine that drives it. The machine has 24 micro-dosed, calibrated channels. The engine maps scents to mathematical vectors and takes into account the concentrations allowed by regulations and the usual averages in perfumery, which keeps it from overweighting a requested ingredient. The customer keeps a hand on the direction: they describe freely, answer questions about use, then adjust the recipe with sliders. They receive two to three samples before their final bottle.

What it changes in practice

• A customer who does not know the vocabulary of scents can order a custom perfume, because the process starts from free words and questions about use.
• A request taken literally does not spoil the perfume, because the engine weights the ingredients according to allowed concentrations and the usual averages in perfumery.
• The customer adjusts before committing, because they receive two to three samples before their final bottle.