Smells like fish（調香師 ジャック・キャバリエ）
調香師 ジャック・キャバリエと夕食をした時の話。
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A few years ago I had dinner with Jacques Cavallier and some other people from Firmenich at my favorite Japanese restaurant in Manhattan which he had heard about from Issey Miyake and wanted to go. Jacques had been in Japan a few times to work with Issey and seemed to have liked being there except for one thing. During the dinner Jacques told me that the smell of Japanese women’s skin bothered him when testing fragrances on them, “Their skin smells like fish.” I laughed and told him that I kind of liked it.
First, I have to say I don’t know about Japanese men because I’ve never stuck my nose to a guy to smell his skin, but I knew the subtle smell of the Japanese women’s skin that Jacques spoke about that evening. However, I’m not sure if I can pick up that smell when a fragrance is sprayed over the skin. I’m talking about a genius that appears only once in many years – Jacques Cavallier can smell many of the things that we can’t. There are a few “scent experts” trying to discredit the genius, but I have to say they either are jealous or cannot understand his sharp sense of humor, and therefore dislike him.
Anyway… what am I trying to say here? Oh right, I think most fragrances smell boring on Japanese women. Generally they have faint body odor, and on top of that they cleanse their bodies too much. When they wear fragrances they only smell like the fragrances. I’m not a big fan of Paris (I’m talking about the city) but love the way women there smell. I don’t particularly enjoy the smell in the Metro or NYC subway during summer, but the mixture of a woman’s body odor and her perfume is often more exciting than any perfume.
Basically the fragrance industry is driven by Western people who don’t know much about Japan or other Asian countries. They often say “Oh, it’s so difficult to sell fragrances in Japan,” or “The Asian market is so unpredictable.” Maybe it’s not important for them to make smash-hit fragrances for Japanese market… but think about Prada or other European fashion brands. Sometimes more than half of their revenues are coming from Japan. Fragrances could do the same as well. So Fragrance Industry, bury your noses in Japanese women and think! I wouldn’t be surprised if you guys come up with a scent that smells like soy sauce.
N.F. Shioya
A sculptor living in New York
5 Comments
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marina
Very interesting. I wonder if Jacques Cavallier has comparisons for skin-smell of any other nationalities. I’d love to know how he think a Russian woman’s skin smells 🙂
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Sacre Nobi
Ladies, believe it or not, we are stepping into the realm of taboo.
In fragrance business, race is hardly taken into account. I don’t know why though.
“cultural differences,” “other nationalities” fall in the grey area, I think…
But I’d like to know how a vegetarian woman’s skin and a Russian woman’s skin smell 😀 -
kuri
LOL! Soy sauce! I wonder if it would sell. Soy sauce is really a staple of life here. I wonder what I smell like.
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Jonathan
The daily diet of a person can affect the smell of their skin. For instance, lots of Europeans tend to eat meats, cheese and dairy products and consequently this odour can be detected on their skins as a foul, rancid butter smell. Japanese diets often have large amounts of fish, hence the comment about their skins having a slightly fishy odour to them.
The Japanese, on the whole, tend to be quite odourless. They have either little or no sweat glands the same as Koreans. This means they rarely tend to get BO or sweat profusely like Europeans would do. This helps explain why perfumes are alien to Japanese culture and why people in Japan so often dislike wearing them. The Japanese like to smell clean yet odourless. They consider commercial, Western-style fragrances to be far too strong for personal wear and avoid these generally.
Because of this attitude to fragrances, the perfume that would be marketed in Japan would need to be quite subtle, with very little in the way of top notes and with a fresh, citrusy or watery scent to it. It would have to be light, clean-smelling and definitely not too spicy or exotic. Getting back to the subject of ethnic odours, I have noticed that Indian women often tend to wear the Oriental-style perfumes the best, there is something about the way that those perfumes react with their skin and body chemistry that just smells wonderful. (When I say Indian, I mean people from India).
Some may think that a perfume is not worn well on a Japanese skin as these skins have little natural scent for a perfume to react and combine with. This may well be true to a certain extent. However, I’m sure that many Europeans would do anything to be naturally odourless and not have to worry about BO or smelly feet ever again. Because the Japanese have little or no sweat glands, they usually also emit very little in the way of PHEROMONES. This means that the bodily chemistry that many Europeans have that gives them an edge in the sexual stakes by attracting possible mates with the erogenous chemicals in their sweat, is non-existant on a Japanese man or woman.
I wonder if this has any impact on Japanese love and relationships in some subtle way? It might explain why Japanese people don’t tend to show emotions like love or affection or warmth publicly.But, PHEROMONES cannot be everything in a relationship. Yoko Ono attracted the undying love and affection of the godlike John Lennon and SHE was Japanese………………………
Perhaps too much emphasis is placed on an instant chemistry with someone, perhaps love should grow and simmer gradually.
Does anyone know about Chinese attitudes to perfumes and fragrances and have any thoughts about Chinese bodily smells?
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Katie
Soy sauce perfume? Well, since someone’s now made Stilton cheese perfume…
Admittedly, a nice red miso perfume wouldn’t go amiss, in my totally non-Japanese opinion, too.
Perhaps that old motto “you are what you eat” plays out here? A friend theorizes that the reason I wear darker perfumes so much better than she is because I’m vegetarian… no hamburgers or milk oozing out my pores.
Nevertheless, it’s odd to me that more fragrance makers aren’t taking cultural differences into account more. It would seem like an obviously dissatisfactory way to run business, but I guess not?