Entropy and Perfumery

Perfume crafting is an art that blends science and creativity. It is a journey of emotions and memories and deeply subjective. But what if we told you that the concept of entropy plays a significant role in this fragrant world? Entropy, often associated with disorder and chaos, can also symbolize the beauty of transformation and evolution in perfume making.

Entropy

Entropy is a term from thermodynamics that describes the level of disorder in a system. In simple terms, it measures how energy is distributed. A low level of entropy means order, while a high level indicates disorder.

In the world of perfume, entropy can be seen in the way scents evolve over time. When you first apply a fragrance, it smells one way. As it dries down, the scent changes, revealing different notes. This transformation is a beautiful example of entropy at work.

In physics, Entropy is tied to the second law of thermodynamics.

"The second law of thermodynamics, in its original formulation, says the energy of a closed system tends to become uniformly distributed. That means, usually, that everything becomes the same temperature. A mug of hot tea cools off if you don’t drink it, a scoop of ice cream melts. The second law says useful energy tends to dissipate..." (https://johnhorgan.org/cross-check/entropy-meaninglessness-and-miracles)

Here we see the similarities in our process. Combining ingredients into a perfume master formula starts with mixing them together, and much like a slow cook recipe, those ingredients need time to dissipate, combine and react with one another. We call this process and time maceration; breaking the singular ingredients down and allowing them to combine into something new. Brazilian feijoada doesn't taste the same as it did after its 24 hours of slow cooking...

Embracing Chaos in Creation

Once the perfume is created and sprayed on your skin, the ideas of Entropy come into play once more, the process of order into disorder. Here we may link the process with top notes, heart notes and base notes and use our perfume Morningstar as an example.

Spraying it on your skin you will find a bright citrus opening that engulfs you for the first hour. But citrus molecules are notorious for their volatile nature, they dissipate quickly, opening the way for the deeper heart notes; warm amber wood on the tails of the citrus top note. A few hours later that which holds everything together is revealed; a complex foundation of musks to complete the journey from start to finish. In this example we see a single formula tending outwards, spreading it's wings and leaving behind it a wake of things that have come to pass... a journey, a process from starting point to destination.

Potentially if you were a scientist, at this point you would dismiss this theory as a deep misunderstanding of the theories of Entropy, and to that we would heartily agree! This is where we would introduce our artistic side. Entropy is a lovely word, it has a balanced form and is pleasing to say, it rolls off the tongue beautifully, and it's difficulty to define mirrors the idea behind our perfumes. There is no fixed definition for how fragrance affects you compared to me, for those combinations that carry you back to your childhood and the same that leave me wanting.

In one way it means everything, and in another nothing at all!

The slow degradation and spread of energy from one form to another