Creating scents for personal and home care
Laundry that smells fresh, and stays soft. A kitchen that smells clean, and keeps its sheen. Shampoo that smells great, and enhances shine. Personal, home, fabric and oral care products have a tough job to do. They need to smell great, and perform well, too. They demand a special synergy of art and science.
Our global Consumer Product teams are constantly connected in a powerful web of creativity, technical expertise and insight to craft winning aromas for leading brands. Inventiveness and technologies help us deliver fragranced moments of delight.
Having trained in Grasse and in Argenteuil as a perfumer, Onno has dedicated his career to scenting everyday consumer products. Here he describes where he finds his creativity, the technical challenges of fragrancing home and personal care products and the importance of knowing what’s different and new.
Perfumes make people feel better. Nowhere is this more important than in the personal care products of our everyday. Whether in a soap, shower gel, shampoo or deodorant, fragrance is vital; it refreshes, soothes, reassures. From Boston to Beijing, our network of perfumers, fragrance evaluators, marketing and technical experts design fragrances that resonate with people in everyday situations.
We are driven by our own incessant curiosity to research the relationship people have with scent everywhere in the world. Much of our focus goes into ensuring that these products perform well, too. Deodorants are activated by movement; shower gel wakes us with a zesty burst of freshness; bath bubbles that invite us to indulge.
“Our consumer understanding programmes highlight the differences and similarities in the fragrances that people all over the world prefer from their products. In China, ‘freshness’ smells light and airy, in Brazil it is strong and sensual.”
All these functional benefits are delivered at precisely the right moment thanks to product application research that tests when a perfume is most noticeable, how it fills the room or shower cabinet, and whether it can still be noticed on skin and hair when dry. These are the details that set brands apart. With an ever-expanding knowledge base, we can continually nourish our customers’ creative process and ensure that every product lives up to its promise.
Freshly washed floors that fill your home with the smell of springtime. The creamy rich smell of polish that evokes the pin-neat rooms of grandma, leaving a satisfying scent of a job well done. The ‘right’ fragrance can uplift even the most mundane chores.
Our home care teams understand this, and are experts in the nuances of ‘clean’ and ‘fresh’. We run consumer understanding programmes that highlight the differences, and similarities, in the fragrances that people all over the world prefer from their cleaning products.
Maintaining the smell of clean in your home is our obsession. Fragrance technologies target unpleasant smells to actively combat malodour, or to extend the long-lasting effect of delicate aromas – we are expert in this kind of fragrance performance. Whatever the job to do, the product format, colour or shape, our technical and creative know-how impacts your world.
The joy of freshly laundered towels and bed linen is in the fragrance and the feel. Picking out clothes that are fresh and soft can set us up for the day.
Designing fragrance for fabric care products is a challenge that brings Givaudan scientists and perfumers together. Their knowledge creates fragrance that can survive the wash-cycle, stay on the fabric and still be noticeable when worn.
Our fragrance experts talk to consumers all over the world about washing – whether it be sophisticated European tumble-drying, line-drying on a balcony in Shanghai, or hand washing in South Africa. These conversations give us valuable insight into consumer expectations.
One thing we know is that the right fragrance communicates freshness and softness to people wherever they are, however they do their laundry. In China ‘clean’ smells like sunshine; in Brazil, it’s a fruity fragrance. Our experts know how to make fragrance communication part of global brand success.
Oral care has been recognised as a vital contributor to overall health for hundreds of years; the earliest tooth specialist operated 3,000 BC and his endeavours are recorded in hieroglyphics. Market research validates that the flavour of an oral care product is considered the most important driver of repeat purchasing decisions.
The dedicated team of oral care flavourists produce flavours for a wide range of products, from toothpaste to dental floss, mouthwash and dental care, right through to lip balm.
Our experienced oral care creative teams are based in the UK and Shanghai, but their understanding of people and preferences extends worldwide. Global vision is enabled through the Givaudan network, together with extensive tracking of international oral care markets, trends, preferences and ethnographical research.
Our distinctive methods of visualising the flavour landscape of the oral care market helps us to uncover opportunities for our customers wherever they exist. Groundbreaking Evercool™ and Fresh Sense flavour technologies provide additional sensory and efficacy benefits to support great-tasting flavours that leave mouths feeling ultra fresh and clean.
- Mint is the most popular flavour for toothpaste, but people are becoming more adventurous: how about lime, green tea or chocolate?
- Health and wellness is being expressed through flavours with green tea and superfruits trending across the globe.
- As oral care evolves into a more emotional and sensorial space, mood related themes such as ‘invigorating’ and ‘relaxing’ are beginning to be explored.
- Well-loved culturally influenced flavours can provide important reassurance to consumers, and drive repeat purchase.
- In a bid to become more premium, toothpaste is no longer unisex: gender-specific flavours are being designed to differentiate products in the market.