The Jean Carles Method: Olfactory Training Charts Revealed

In May 2007 "Exposing the Perfumer" was published in Perfumer and Flavorist. The article contained olfactory training charts created by perfumer Jean Carles of Givaudan. It was the first and only time olfactory training charts used to train professional perfumers were made available to the public by a trade publication. Perfumer & Flavorist has allowed the author, Michelle Krell Kydd, to share the article for educational purposes at no charge, effective September 5, 2013. The Jean Carles Method is explained on page 41. The charts are on pages 42 and 43. Fragrance houses have custom made aroma kits for use with the Jean Carles Method; one such kit is featured in the photograph above.

The brilliance of the Jean Carles Method is its two-step approach. A perfumer first smells individual raw materials by similarity to get acquainted with themes and nuances. The perfumer then smells ingredients by contrast which expands their capacity to memorize aromas while revealing unexpected complements. This process of evaluation allows perfumers to study the relationship between aromas and increases olfactory vocabulary. There are two charts; one for natural materials and one for aroma molecules. The method is practiced regularly by perfumers across flavor and fragrance companies, and is used by artisan perfumers outside the industry who craft their own perfumes.

The Jean Carles Method and associated olfactory training charts provide an indispensable tool for those with an interest in the sense of smell, gastronomy and/or mixology. Steffen Arctander's Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin supports the Jean Carles Method, providing detailed information on ingredients. Glass Petal Smoke hopes that universities will consider using the Jean Carles Method for transdisciplinary, arts-infused curriculum as the possibilities are limitless. Perfumery is an art and a science, and thus has a place in STEM initiatives from K-12. The sense of smell is memory's handmaiden. To deny students the opportunity to explore olfaction from a creative perspective would be more than shortsighted; it would truly stink.

Notes and Resources:
Thanks go out to Jeb Gleason-Allured (Perfumer and Flavorist) for allowing Glass Petal Smoke to share "Exposing the Perfumer" and associated Jean Carles Method olfactory training charts.

Thanks are also extended to Kate Greene (Givaudan) who said "yes" when I asked for permission to liberate the Jean Carles Method and associated olfactory training charts so that a curious public would have access to a hidden art and science. I know this was not easy and that perfumer Jean Guichard, Director of Givaudan's Perfumery School, helped. Your collaborative "yes" now has the potential to influence olfactory curriculum and the art of perfumery in ways that truly engage the senses.

Caveat: The Jean Carles Method olfactory training charts are modified whenever regulation by the International Fragrance Association (IFRA) indicates a necessity to do so. This affects the percentage at which a raw material is diluted in alcohol and/or its outright use, depending on the outcome of scientific studies.

Jean Carles was interviewed in "The Absolute in Grasse," by Donald William Dresden. The article was published in the October 8, 1955 edition of the New Yorker (pp. 161-177). Retrieving the article is a bit clunky when it comes to functionality, but worth the effort and expense.

Anyone wishing to buy essential oils so they can learn the Jean Carles Method for natural materials has several options when it comes to suppliers. Glass Petal Smoke recommends Eden Botanicals, Enfleurage, and Liberty Natural Products.

The photo of the Jean Carles olfactory training kit is the editor's "naturals" kit. It was used to study perfumery with Jean Guichard at Givaudan.

The photo of a smiling gentleman with a tie is that of perfumer extraordinaire Jean Carles.

IFRA's name was changed to Fragrance Creators in May 2018. References to this organization remain IFRA in the body of this 2013 article as this respects the time in which it was written. Links are directed to the organization's rebranded website.

If you would like to use this blog post for educational purposes you are free to do so. Posting the article titled "Exposing the Perfumer" on other sites, for non-educational purposes, is not permitted. Please respect these terms and conditions as Perfumer and Flavorist has been most gracious in allowing Glass Petal Smoke to share this article with readers.

You are Proust: The Case for Developing Your Olfactory Mind

The proverbial Proustian moment isn’t limited to the nostalgic reveries of a madeleine loving protagonist. Flashes of autobiographical memory inspired by taste and smell reflect a rich life-affirming aspect of human experience. These moments make for worshipful excerpts in literature because the sense of smell and its handmaiden flavor are not easy to describe. Real life encounters with Proustian moments are not only possible, they are more likely to occur if you take the time to develop your olfactory mind. We can't keep talking about Proust; he's dead, the madeleine he ate is lost to an ever-changing ecosystem, and the pastry described in In Search of Lost Time may have been a piece of dry toast. 

Autobiographical memory inspired by taste and smell reflects an extended pattern of experience that builds on itself. It is shares the characteristics of replicating patterns of self-similarity one finds in fractal images; parts of the whole appear the same from near or far (consider time as a continuum and you get the picture). Flashbacks inspired by taste and smell enter a person's consciousness when something in the present triggers a foundational memory. In this space, past and present merge altering time as we know it. This produces the closest approximation to time travel we can experience without pharmacopoeia or strict adherence to a spiritual lifestyle.

Memories inspired by taste and smell are exceedingly powerful when they reference childhood experience. Dr. Maria Larsson found that children ages 8-10 form foundational olfactory impressions that last a lifetime. I've observed these types of olfactory memories being made in classroom settings at 826Michigan where I teach a series of Smell and Tell classes designed to improve expository writing skills. Discovery shapes this period of childhood development as it is a time when kids delight in self awareness, as well as differentiation from parents and younger siblings. They are less influenced by peer pressure than their tween counterparts, who are more concerned with fitting in and defining themselves by group affiliation. 

Smell is the passport to one's "self" enriched by a grounded sense of identity against the canvas of sensory experience. This is beautifully articulated by Jane Miller in the essay "Midnights." Miller focuses on the transporting effect of encountering the "new" with an emphasis on cultivating a state of presence that is integral to the transformative experience associated with travel:

"Wherever the traveler goes in a quest for beauty and knowledge, if the place responds like a peacock displaying its iridescence, we have the stuff legends are made of. Imagery explodes and creates a derangement of the senses. Those who have already gone and returned no longer remember it that way, or remember the place fondly or inexactly. But during the ritual visit itself, the unfamiliar and disoriented prevail, requiring that we notice things in their entirety, which we must do to "get anywhere" in the confrontation with the new. To see a thing entire is to see its other-worldliness, to see the stripes, fangs and the sausage-like intestines, working through the analogical possibilities to experience it ("it" is, by now, a monstrous thing).

Having given it our full attention, a meditation, what follows is often revelatory. The spirit of a place, a person, or a thing exchanges freely with the stranger's spirit..."                                                              Miller, Jane. "Midnights." Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore their Favorite Fairy Tales, edited by Kate Bernheimer, 236, New York, NY: Anchor Books, 2002.

Can Proustian moments be nurtured early in life? Cultivating an olfactory mind when receptivity is high provides an excellent springboard for this type of thinking. Children experience a multitude of “new” things because they are open to new experiences by virtue of their years. That feeds their sense of wonder, but there is a caveat; attachment to likes and dislikes must be surmounted to make room for an evaluative point of view that allows a person to see something in its entirety. There are no wrong answers when it comes to how a person experiences smell and taste. Evaluation is shaped by experience, culture, and emotion which are unique to each individual. The relief and "ah-ha" moment understanding provides to children and adults in a classroom setting encourages creativity and is subtly profound.

Proustian moments can be nurtured in adulthood despite the fact that smell loss is part of the aging process. Scientists have discovered that parts of the brain related to olfaction in perfumers are more highly developed; even in those who are 40+, (a time when the sense of smell starts to decline as part of the aging cycle). If you are light years from childhood there is no time like the present to exercise your olfactory mind. You may be surrounded by opportunities for a Proustian moment and not even know it. Glass Petal Smoke suggests that you follow these simple tips to get you started on your journey, with or without the mythical madeleine: 

• Experience something new every day and keep a written list of what you discover.
• Explore local foodways and seek out new flavors.
• Make a conscious effort to shift environments during the day as a variety of smellscapes outside your window/cubicle shape the context of sensory experience and provide reference points for new memories.
• Travel to places you have never visited before and indulge all of your senses.
• Smell everything you can; flowers, fruits, the ingredients you use to cook/bake, etc.
• Buy a good book about essential oils and curate a collection of favorites that you can smell repeatedly over time. 
• Explore mindfulness practice in your spiritual tradition and get in touch with being present.

Notes:
The Glass Petal Smoke "Sensory Questionnaire" is a tool you can use to get inside your olfactory mind. Learn how here. 

Explore ways that you can define a smell on this WikiHow.

*How important is childhood when it comes to smell and autobiographical memory?  Read "Smell Your Way Back to Childhood," by Dr. Maria Larsson and find out. Dr. Johan Willander’s "Autobiographical Odor Memory" digs deep on the subject across ages.

"Memories" illustration by Greg Abbott. Used with permission. You can visit Greg Abbott's online shop. Very cool stuff here. 

Rino is a little girl who eats dishes from around the world. Her parents have nurtured her olfactory mind beyond the madeleine, though the picture of her eating one is quite charming. Rino's YouTube channel was featured in a story in The Huffington Post. Image rights revert back to Rino and her family.

We lose our sense of smell as we age. It begins at age 40 and can increase dramatically once your reach 65. Developing your olfactory mind by practicing smell calisthenics is a good idea if you plan on enjoying your "golden" years.

Edith Frank and the Chemistry of Esters

Edith Frank was my high school chemistry teacher at The Bronx High School of Science. A taskmaster in the classroom with a fierce passion for science, Mrs. Frank enjoyed the choreography of molecules in reaction and would quickly point out words used in chemistry that described things in ordinary life such as the concept of a catalyst. Though I enjoyed the art of chemistry, I was resistant to its mathematical aspects. I would have preferred to study the life of Dmitri Mendeleev and the stories behind each element in his Periodic Table of Elements.

Mrs. Frank was patient, worldly and clever. Some students were prone to making jokes about her appearance as she wore an impeccably coiffed wig, had perfectly penciled eyebrows, and wore a distinctive red lipstick that screamed Chanel. Edith Frank reminded me of Betty Glassman, a widow who lived in my apartment building on 191st Street in the Bronx who wore Chanel No. 5 every day and had a singing chihuahua. Betty and Edith didn't look alike, but each had the sophisticated carriage of a grande dame that never heads for the exit door in memory.

What I remember most about Edith Frank was that she turned me on to chemistry when everything in my being resisted it. This transformation came when our class focused on the synthesis of fragrant esters in a lab session. Our task was to combine acetic acid and iso-Amyl Alcohol to make iso-Amyl Acetate; a banana ester used to create banana flavor in the food industry. Like Sharon Longert, my fifth grade teacher at P.S. 33 in the Bronx, Edith Frank nurtured my olfactory mind. Chemistry became magical when I could relate it to my sense of smell and taste.

If you google Edith Frank you'll find the mother of the acclaimed Holocaust diarist Anne Frank. Anne’s mother dominates the search algorithm because she’s searched more frequently than a retired chemistry teacher from The Bronx High School of Science. The utility of the Internet as a search vehicle, outside of access to birth/death records and obituaries, is trumped by serendipity when you search for information attached to a person. I had the good fortune of locating an essay, which features Edith Frank, in the Meadowood Anthology 1905-2011: Memories in Miniature.
 

Luise David was Edith Frank's neighbor and the two Upper West Side apartment dwellers became travel companions. David's essay, "How I Discovered Mt. Fuji One Morning", proves that Edith Frank's "worldliness" was not a byproduct of my imagination; at sixteen my writer's mind was able grasp the elements of her character more quickly than those which graced the molecules in Mendeleev's table.

I never heard about a "Mr. Frank" or any Frank children when I attended The Bronx High School of Science. David's essay does not venture into Mrs. Frank's private life and so these curiosities remain a mystery. I am grateful to have had Edith Frank as a chemistry teacher and hope that serendipity leads to more information about who she was outside the classroom.

Notes:
Luise David's essay, "How I Discovered Mt. Fuji One Morning", can be found on pages 43 and 44 of Meadowood Anthology 1905-2011: Memories in Miniature.

Esterification is a chemical process that takes place when wine undergoes aging. Some of wine's esters (up to 160 at last count) can be found on the "fruity" portion of the wine aroma wheel designed by Ann C. Noble. 

Sniffing Around: The Nose by Nikolai Gogol

Can character be measured by a nose? In The Nose, a short story by Nikolai Gogol, a human olfactory appendage is the protagonist. It makes its debut inside a loaf of bread at the breakfast table of a barber. The incident may not be in good taste, but the implications of a missing nose in Gogol's story is loaded with metaphor; some nuanced and some, well, let's just say you should read the satirical story in its entirety for the full effect.



Mordicai Gerstein, known for illustrating children's books, directed and designed an animated version of Gogol's short story. The film is called A Nose and was released in 1966. It continues to charm fans of animation made by hand.

Gogol's The Nose also inspired composer Dimitri Shostakovich who wrote an opera based on the satirical short story early in his career. Glass Petal Smoke recommends the recording by the Mariinski Orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev, for the pleasure of your ears.

Will a perfume based on Gogol's The Nose appear in the near future? If it does it could kick-start a noseology genre in fine fragrance as there is no shortage of "nose" inspired literature. Someone could pick up where Salvador Dali and his infamous perfume left off...

Notes:
Major Kovalyov's nose returned to his face on April 7th following various escapades in Nikolai Gogol's The Nose. It made its detached appearance on March 25th.

Noseology is a literary sub-genre that appeared in Russia between 1820 and 1830. Lauren Lydic calls out the sub-genre in her essay, "'Noseological' Parody, Gender Discourse, and Yugoslav Feminisms: Following Gogol's 'Nose' to Ugrešić's 'Hot Dog on a Warm Bun'."

Salvador Dali was good friends with Elsa Schiaparelli. They collaborated on several fragrances utilizing Dali's expertise as an artist.

Google decided to play an olfactory April Fool's joke on its site today. It introduced Google Nose Beta, "promising a fragrant Google experience." The olfactory inclined will enjoy the humor which infuses the page, (it also includes a video featuring Product Manager John Wooly). Has the culture of smell has made a mark in the digital space? Stay tuned...