Poison ivy is natural. So is arsenic. Why we judge every ingredient on what it does, not where it came from.
People ask if our perfumes are all natural. They say it like a test. I always disappoint them.
Natural is not a quality mark. It is a marketing word. Poison ivy is natural. So is arsenic. The oud in our bottles is real because nothing else on earth smells like oud. That is the only loyalty I have. Everything else is there for what it does, not where it came from.
For centuries, the amber note came out of a whale. Perfumers call it ambergris. Everyone else calls it whale sick. We would correct them, but the truth is not much better. It forms in the sperm whale’s intestines and gets expelled, and scientists still argue about which end it comes out of. It floats at sea for years. It hardens. It washes up. It sells for a fortune. Ambroxan does the same job from a lab. No whale required.
Civet was worse. It came from a small animal of the same name, kept in a cage so its scent could be collected, over and over, for years. Perfumers used this to create warmth. These days a lab makes the same warmth, and nobody misses the cage.
I judge every ingredient on three things. How it smells. How it behaves on skin. What it cost the world to make.