More sophisticated and more sustainable? Yes please.

By Michele Van Dien, Senior Manager, Global Fragrance

Fragrance might not be the field of beauty that immediately comes to mind when we talk sustainability but there’s a staggering amount of innovation going on in fragrance development. As well as exciting new technology that allows us to gather scents without harming anything – without even picking a flower – we’re looking at how we source and process long term favourites differently to create better fragrances but also do it more sustainably.

Take vanilla for example – it’s always been at the heart of our best-selling Far Away fragrance line because it’s so versatile. Our customers love it - Far Away is our best-selling fragrance brand and we sell more fragrance than anyone else. But that doesn’t stop us, as scientists and innovation experts, wanting to push the boundaries further – we just can’t help ourselves.

In 2021, we introduced our first ever parfum: Far Away Beyond. It was an incredible achievement for us. Not only because it’s a top quality long-lasting fragrance but it also saw us push the boundaries of what we could do with vanilla. We discovered through upcycling vanilla beans that would otherwise have been discarded, and using an innovative double distillation process, we could create a more sophisticated and distinctive vanilla note – like nothing we’ve known before. So we get a superior and truly unique fragrance and we are able to extend our support of local communities in vanilla’s heartland: Madagascar.

As with all olfactive developments, the creation process takes time because we are sticklers for quality. We work closely with the olfactive experts and Givaudan perfumers and it was a huge luxury to be able to craft the fragrance around this beautiful, sophisticated vanilla ingredient. It’s always a challenge with vanilla to maintain the stability of the fragrance so we make sure we take time to get the exact right balance and blend of ingredients.

This conscious development and consideration of every single detail is especially important with a parfum because it’s like the crowning jewel of a fragrance brand. It has a very high concentration of fragrance oil in the formula so it delivers an olfactive experience more intense that a regular Eau De Parfum. It’s so exciting for us as a development team because we’re elevating fragrance quality to unprecedented levels and using new premium ingredients like our upcycled vanilla which offers richer, deeper facets of vanilla because of our more complex extraction method which guarantees maximum quality of raw materials.

So think you know vanilla? Think again! Far Away Beyond transforms vanilla into a sophisticated scent that is more intricate, more mysterious, more glamorous than anything you’ve smelled before. Rediscover a classic!