ParfumPlus Arabia

P A R F U M P L U S 39 MICHAEL EDWARDS FRAGRANCE wheel is universally acknowledged as the classification standard all over the world since 1992 when it first appeared in his independently published, The Fragrance Manual. Since then it has seen a few variations based on changing smell perceptions and it finally settled down to four broad groups ie Floral, Oriental, Woody and Fresh. So a recent change of renaming Oriental to Amber, seems to have delighted a few. Not everyone would agree but that seems to be the opinion as of now. Well, the debate about this change needing to happen had been rising for over a decade now and many big names had transitioned from Oriental to Amber but the fragrance wheel itself didn’t change. Michael Edwards, the creator of the fragrance wheel, works with over 3600 brands and also other oil houses and had been asked for his opinion on this for a very long time. So why did the change come now? The general opinion was that the terms Oriental had become too divisive and almost racist and it was time to change. And then there was recently an article in Harper’s Bazaar by Jessica Matlin “Why are we still describing perfumes as Oriental?” which put, quite strongly, the need for a change. The article also claimed that Linda Levy, president of The Fragrance Foundation, found the terms ‘outdated and offensive’. So as they say, times change, words change and meanings change and Michael Edwards, while quoting this line, has finally transitioned from Oriental to Amber. The mid 70s popularised the term Oriental with the launch of Opium in 1977 and then Oscar in the same year popularised the Floral Oriental segment which led to a boom of fragrances under the classification of Floral Oriental. There were other terms like spicy or resinous that could be considered as well but Amber was chosen as used quite widely in the past for what we today refer to as Oriental. Michael Edwards said in a interview recently, “Even in the early formulation books one is struck by the fact that the old Amber things, they all talk about resinous, balsamic, spicy, woody, musky, vanilla notes, ... all the kind of ingredients that we associate with Oriental fragrances, today.” The fragrance family will move from Oriental to Amber.. from Soft Oriental to Soft Amber.. From Floral Oriental to Floral Amber.. from Woody ...times change, words change and meanings change and Michael Edwards, while quoting this line, has finally transitioned from Oriental to Amber.