Author Michael Edwards will release the 2009 edition of his yearly Fragrances of the World, known as “the fragrance bible”, in January. The guidebook celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2009.
The new edition lists over 6500 fragrances (around 800 more than the 2008 edition) classified by fragrance family…
There is no definitive, universally accepted perfume classification. Various charts, tables, and diagrams have been circulating among fragrance manufacturers since the 1970s, and you’re probably familiar with Michael Edwards’ Fragrance Wheel, introduced back in 1992. The French, of course, have a classification of their own: it’s described at length in the bilingual booklet Classification des Parfums et Terminologie, published by the Comité Français du Parfum in 2001.
The French project started in 1983, when six members of the Société Technique des Parfumeurs de France (now Société Française des Parfumeurs) got together to create a fragrance classification for the perfume industry. Raymond Chaillan, Yuri Gutsatz, Jean Kerléo, Raymond Pouliquen, Guy Robert, and Henri Sebag came up with five fragrance families: Floral, Chypre, Fougere, Amber, and Leather. They divided each family into subcategories (except for the Fougeres and the Leathers), and created an appendix with famous fragrances, categorized according to this new system. The first edition of Classification des Parfums was published in 1984, and was limited to feminine fragrances…