PARIS — Initio Parfums Privés is teaming with Dsm-Firmenich on functional fragrance creation.
The privileged partnership comes 10 years after the niche perfume brand’s launch. It focuses on scents that can impact emotions — enhance well-being, boost confidence or stir desire.
Three-quarters of emotions a person experiences on a daily basis are believed to be set off unconsciously by smells.
Through the partnership, Initio can access Dsm-Firmenich’s scientific innovations, including bespoke development of new olfactive accords, advanced olfactory technology and scientific methods to measure the conscious and unconscious emotional responses to fragrance.
Initio and Dsm-Firmenich have been conceiving perfumes together for some time.
From its outset in 2015, Initio has focused on functional fragrance, meant to trigger and heighten people’s emotions.
“Initio is a forward-thinking brand in that field,” said Julien Sausset, chief executive officer of Initio Parfums Privés. “Most of the brands only test with panels the conscious feedback from clients on products. This partnership with Dsm-Firmenich … really allows us to do some testing at a different scale — not only conscious feedback from clients, but also unconscious.”
That takes into account biometrics, such as heartbeat and how certain parts of a brain react to a scent. These sorts of measurements are made for each scent Initio produces.
“This is the essence and the foundation of the brand — a serious scientific approach to the powers of scent on the body and how we build around this,” said Sausset.
Inside Initio Parfums Privés’ Paris flagship.
Courtesy of Initio Parfums Privés
Initio has four collections today: Carnal Blends, Hedonist, Black Gold Project and Absolutes.
The Carnal collection, which is the brand’s bestseller, especially its scent Side Effect, has fragrances overdosed with the molecule hedione, billed to have an effect on a wearer’s libido as well as on the libido of those who smell it.
“We would not only study the effect of that molecule, but the effect of the full juice on a person’s reaction,” said Sausset.
Functional fragrance is where science and emotion intersect.
“With Initio Parfums Privés, we are paving the way for an olfactory revolution, harnassing scientific advancements to create emotional fragrances with scientifically measurable effects on well-being, mood and desire,” said Jerry Vittoria, president of Dsm-Firmenich’s fine perfumery division. “The collaboration marks the beginning of a new era, where perfume becomes a catalyst for progress and transformation.”
Dsm-Firmenich has for more than 30 years been honing its expertise on olfaction, emotion and cognition, with institutions such as the University of Geneva. It has penned more than 50 related scientific publications, too.
Initio’s scientific approach to fragrance-making has borne fruit. The brand is estimated to have generated $200 million in retail sales in 2024, up by about 45 percent year-on-year.
Initio is sold in some 800 doors worldwide. Its largest market is the U.S., contributing about 50 percent of annual sales, followed by Europe, the Middle East, South Africa and Asia.
Initio will launch several fragrances in 2025.
“We’re also on the verge of opening our first boutique in the U.K.,” said Sausset. That should be in London by yearend.
Initio’s flagship in France, called Le 320, is on Paris’ Rue Saint-Honoré.
