After the sense of smell has been overseen for a long time in marketing, more and more companies are becoming aware of the power of this sense, not least due to scientific findings that show that fragrances can affect the consumer shopping and spending behaviour.

In some cosmetic products, such as deodorants or perfumes, fragrances represent the major driver of the consumer purchase. In others, fragrances are considered a secondary product attribute as it is used for enhancing certain product properties in an unconscious evaluation or for distinguishing the product from competitors’ products. Scent enhances key information about the product such as a lotion’s soothing quality or a facial cleanser’s effectiveness. Although fragrances in products represent usually only 0.5 %-2.0 %, the performance and signal attributes claim a high percentage of almost 70-80 %. Fragrances in products can help to increase product experience, while malodours can have the opposite effect. Therefore, it is even more important to measure how a products’ scent is perceived based on scientific and reproducible methodologies.

With more than 30 years of experience, Olfasense has become a global supplier of choice for industry-leading, accredited odour testing services to optimize products, support quality control, and to scientifically substantiate product claims, using sensory and molecular analysis techniques.

Our odour testing services are helpful in supporting R&D in creating a positive product experience, and, depending on the objective, they answer a variety of questions about odour performance, longevity of fragrances, or the molecular odour structure – among others.

Based on the specific research questions, the Olfasense consultants identify the most appropriate sampling and measurement techniques to create an odour study that provides relevant, valuable information. Thanks to our accurately selected, trained and monitored panellists and a cutting-edge molecular laboratory, a wide variety of in vitro and in vivo techniques can be used. Examples are odour and aroma profiling, off-odour identification using GC-MS-Sniffing, odour reduction and masking efficacy tests, cross-tests of product variants, odour related claim supports, home use tests, molecular screening and many more approaches.

Olfasense works according to internationally accepted standardized methods such as ASTM E-1207, EN 13725 or VDI 3882, but also develops optimised test designs to meet specific requirements. In addition, our laboratory network is distributed across Europe, Asia and the Americas, allowing intercultural sensory testing under a standardised quality management system and repeatable test conditions. Besides delivering thousands of individual odour studies across the world, Olfasense has trained and equipped more than 400 laboratories, research institutes, universities and companies with specially designed odour measurement technology.

Olfasense olfactometers are the most commonly used dynamic olfactometers worldwide and used, for example to determine the odour reduction rate of a product or the longevity of fragrances. Our PureSniff devices, on the other hand, allow for presenting the scent of a product in its pure form to panellists in a standardized manner to measure the odour intensity, hedonic tone and pleasantness.

Other examples of instruments our engineers have designed especially for the cosmetic industry are the LiGaVa, a highly standardised odour sampling system that vaporizes any kind of liquid into the gas phase, and the Scent Sampler for simpler, standardised odour sampling from the skin and other surfaces.

We also offer bespoke odour training across any area of expertise, whether you are completely new to the world of odours and would like to gain basic knowledge concerning the measurement and assessment of odours, or you need a specialist training designed around you and your sector-specific questions. We also organize regular inhouse odour workshops, including presentations from relevant specialists, and practical sessions on specific odour measurement techniques in our lab facilities.

The next workshop will take place in January 2020.

To find out more, please visit www.olfasense-workshop.com.

Whether you would like to outsource your odour analyses to an accredited laboratory, you want to implement or improve your own in-house odour laboratory,or if you are just curious about odour testing: our odour experts are happy to help you further. Just sent an email to pm@olfasense.com to get in touch with us!

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