Why Fresh Laundry Makes Scents (PG Educational Leaflet)
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Transcript of Why Fresh Laundry Makes Scents (PG Educational Leaflet)
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Why fresh laundrymakes scents
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More than just a smell
The mouthwatering smell of a ripe melon, the arousing aroma of coffee, the fresh smell that hangs in the
air after a spring shower
These are just a few of the 10,000 different smells that people can distinguish. Astonishing as it sounds,
compared to our fellow creatures our noses are nothing special. Dogs noses are up to 10,000 times more
sensitive than ours. And just the whiff of a single molecule of the female mothpheromone bombykolcan
captivate any male moth within a mile, sending it fluttering towards her.
We do not pay much attention to it, but our sense of smell plays host to a variety of odours every day
and gives us important information about the world we live in. We know to avoid rotten food and are
alerted to danger by the smell of smoke.
Smells give food their flavour. What is more, a long-forgotten smell from childhood can trigger deep
emotions in us and conjure up the past in vivid detail. And people can recognise others by their smell
mothers can identify their babies and vice versa, and parents can recognise the smell of their children.
Dogs are able to pick out individuals according to their smell, though they cannot distinguish between
identical twins.
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Fresh smelling clothes
Scents can create a range of sensations. They can enhance our mood, invigorate us, or calm us.
A preference for a certain fragrance reveals something about an individuals identity. All this comes into
play when designing washing powders and detergents. Wearing fresh smelling clothes is pleasurable.
The right scent can put you at ease or make you feel confident. It also forms part of your identity.
Whether you choose a product with a noticeable freshness or a barely traceable fragrance is all part
of who you are. Throughout Europe, P&G offers a range of laundry detergents and fabric softeners
that caters for all tastes. This is important because a products inherent fragrance also influences the
consumers choice. In fact, one-third of consumers sniff products at the shelf before deciding to buy.
People connect certain smells to specific functions. This leaves the perfumer with the challenge of
matching the right scent to the right product. For instance we associate almond with soft skin whereas
lemon is linked to degreasing. And while we accept pine in floor cleaners we reject it in fabric softeners.
Some smells we find inherently repulsive even one-day-old babies faces react to the odour of fish and
rotten eggs but most of our responses to smells are learned.
Some perfumes are valued all over the world. Others, such as lavender, have particularly strong connotations
in certain countries. For instance, the French associate lavender with hot summer vacations in Provence
whereas in the UK lavender is associated with relaxiation, comfort and femininity. Another example is the
long established Savon de Marseille soap which is liked a lot by Southern European countries like France
and Spain because it reminds them of good old traditions.
People interpret fresh-smelling clothes as the signof a laundry job well done
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During the whole laundry process, our nose is more often used than our eyes. Before the wash we use our
nose to decide whether a shirt or blouse needs washing; this simply reflects that it is often easier to smell
than to see that a garment needs cleaning. And after the wash we smell the garment again to determine
whether it is clean. Indeed garments laundered in unperfumed detergents are often considered by
consumers not to be clean due to the absence of a fresh scent. When it comes to delivering a desirable
laundry experience, freshness is essential.
In Southern European countries this is particularly significant (in France and Italy the figure is as high as
90%) but even in Northern Europe (Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands, and Nordic countries), where
perfume is typically less important, laundry freshness is still a major consideration (importance varies from
70 to 80%). People interpret fresh-smelling clothes as the sign of a laundry job well done. When you ask
consumers what they want in laundry detergents, the resounding answer is longer lasting freshness
freshness after washing clothes, after drying and above all in the wardrobe and in-wear. In fact, when
clothes dont smell fresh and clean, people feel the need to re-wash.
Getting clothes to smell right during the different phases of the laundry cycle washing, drying, ironing,
storing and in-wear makes the whole job of cleaning clothes much more enjoyable. Doesnt it make
you feel so good when sleeping in freshly washed bed linen?
A perfumer needs to be able to identify thousands of smells and know how to classify and recognize
them. At P&G, most of the perfumers start out as trained chemists who then spend approximately three
years learning the art and science behind creating a fragrance. To help them refine their skills, they also
spend time training in external perfume houses. P&Gs perfumers need to combine all their skills when
designing a product. They have to be able to select and blend the individual notes of the perfume, all at
the right level, so that the perfume and the product form a compatible whole that will not degrade.
It is no easy task though. So this is where P&G brings in its innovative technologies.
Company surveys show that mostconsumers believe freshness deliveredby perfumes on laundry is
extremely important or very important
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A skilful blend of art and science
Throughout history perfumes have reflected society. The first scents were created out of plant and animal
extracts. In ancient civilisations they were used in religious ceremonies, in medicines, as cosmetics and as
gifts. Todays perfumes contain a huge range of ingredients to give a dazzling range of fragrances.
Fashions change but the purposes behind perfumes remain constant.
With thousands of raw ingredients to choose from, a perfumer needs talent and an excellent memory
when creating a fragrance. These same skills are used by P&Gs perfumers as the fragrances in todays
laundry products can be just as complex as the fine fragrances created by their counterparts in prestigious
perfume houses. P&G perfumers work with a smaller palette of ingredients ones that will not break
down during the wash cycle. But out of the 3,000 ingredients available, they use no less than 1,000.
Each finished fragrance contains 30 to 200 ingredients. Compare this with the average fine fragrance,
which contains a blend of 10 to 100 ingredients or even the most complex perfumes worn today,
containing many hundreds of ingredients.
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Perfume notes
Try describing a smell. It is difficult. Perfumers learn the language of perfumery by using the fragrance
pyramid system, based on how quickly the ingredients evaporate. Borrowing from music terminology,
each individual scent is called a note. The perfumes themselves are a skilful blend of top, middle and base
notes. The top notes evaporate the fastest, creating the fragrances first brief impression. This is what you
smell when opening a bottle of laundry liquid or fabric softener. Perfumers typically describe them as
green, fresh and citrus. The core character of the scent comes from the middle or heart notes, which
develop later and form the body of the fragrance. You experience that when you take the laundry out
of the washing machine. These can be floral, spicy or fruity. Later the perfume releases the base or dry
down notes, the most substantive ingredients. They can smell musky, woody, warm, mossy and so on.
These are the notes that will make your laundry smell fresh when it is ready to wear.
The Fragrance Pyramid
MIDDLE NOTES(wet laundry)
Spicy, Floral & Fruity
BASE NOTES(dry laundry)Woody & Musky
TOP NOTES
(neat product odour)Green & CitrusVolati
lity
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The sense behind scents
So how do we identify all those myriad smells that
we encounter every day? It all starts when odour
molecules of whatever you are smelling hit your
nose. These volatile molecules (meaning they
evaporate easily) drift up the nasal passages to a
postage-stamp-sized area of nerve cells lying just
below the eyes (the olfactory epithelium).
Each nerve cell is covered in minute hairs that
each play host to one type of the 1,000 or so
sensors known as odour receptors. The human
nose contains several millions of odour receptors.
Odour receptors are quite picky, they have
different shapes each designed to hook up with a certain shape odour molecule like a lock and key. So,
some odour receptors will respond to cut grass molecules and others will respond to freshly baked bread.
When the odour molecule hits the right receptor this triggers the neurons in your nose to send a signal to the
olfactory bulb in the very front of the brain. The signals are relayed from the olfactory bulb to the brains higher
olfactory cortex, triggering patterns of activity in the cortex corresponding to certain smells and to the limbic
system, which generates emotional feelings. One pattern of signals will mean coffee, another aftershave.
INNER CHAMBEROF NOSE
mucus
olfactory bulbcribriform plate
olfactory nerves
olfactoryepithelium
Scent Laundry Product Freshness Experience
Turning scent into a freshness experience
Creating a freshness experience is more than mastering the art and science of composing unique
perfumes. The scent delivered through perfume has to push the right buttons to appeal to consumers
and evoke the emotions that fit with their personality. To turn a scent into a real freshness experience the
colours, imagery and words selected to define the product have to all fit together and give the consumer
the right expectations of the scent behind it. Visuals, colours and words carefully selected to target the
group of consumers it is aimed at, convert the scent into a universally understood language. Successful
communication of what the scent represents will greatly contribute to the perception of the brand,
helping it to stand out from the crowd.
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The sweet smell of success
In line with its philosophy of keeping in close touch with peoples desires, P&G
constantly probes people about the sort of fragrance they want on their laundry
products. When testing the variants of a fragrance, we ask consumers to smell
products directly from the container as well as washed items. What did they think
of their intensity, their character? P&G then goes further, inviting people to use
new detergents in their homes. How does the fragrance perform over the wash
cycle? What is it people want from laundry detergents and fabric softeners?
Careful listening is one step on the path to designing the perfect perfume.
Time and again, consumers say that what they want is more staying power for the
fresh smell on fabrics. Consumers feel that the freshness factor drops with each
stage in the laundry cycle. Ideally they want the fragrance to keep on working,
especially at two key points or moments of truth when storing clothes and
when wearing them. A wardrobe full of fresh-smelling clothes is enjoyable.
Wearing such clothes boosts confidence and gives pleasure.
Getting the ingredients to keep working in our clothes after drying and in-wear is
a tricky challenge for our perfumers. This depends on the ingredients staying
power. For instance, how well does it withstand heat and water plus detergent,
or sunlight if hung outside to dry will it dissolve away or evaporate? When
clothes are washed, water and detergent carry away the more soluble parts of
the fragrance, and when clothes are dried perfume ingredients evaporate. In
conventional perfumes, this mainly leaves some of the heavier ingredients (the base
notes) on the fabric, giving the clothes their traditional fresh smell. The challenge
at P&G is to extend the range of perfume ingredients that stay longer on the
fabric leaving a noticeable fresh scent.
Traditionally, higher levels of perfume were used in the laundry detergent to boost
freshness on dry clothes. The downside was that the scent of the detergent itself
became too strong and turned people off. This led to the search for more balanced
compositions that made the level of fresh smell pleasant during all stages of the
laundry process.
One exciting development is pro-perfumes. The pro-perfume technology works
like an anchor that retains the perfume that is otherwise washed off the fabrics.
The freshness releases slowly over time and magically materialises on your clothes
Consumers feel that thefreshness factor drops witheach stage in the laundry cycle
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On product Wetlaundry
During /After drying
Ironing Puttingaway
Putting on Wear
FRESHNESS
INTENSITY
FRHNE
NTNST
FRESHNESS
INTENSITY
STAGES OFLAUNDRY PROCESS
ideal
conventional
Action of pro-perfume
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Recently, P&G also created a fabric softener, Lenor Stayfresh, which helps to neutralise unpleasant
smells. The key ingredient, cyclodextrin, works by hooking up with unpleasant odour molecules and
deactivating them. This technique was first used in Fbrze, a spray used for eliminating bad odours on
fabrics. By getting rid of unpleasant smells, Lenor Stayfresh helps clothes keep their just-washed fragrance
and delivers real in-wear freshness.
when it is needed. Researchers are currently extending the range of freshness
characters delivered by pro-perfumes. In just 10 years P&G has filed more than 100 perfume patents,
many of them relating to the delivery of longer lasting freshness on dry laundry.
Another breakthrough in perfume delivery is controlled freshness release via encapsulation of substantive
perfume particles. Here the freshness is locked up in microcapsules that slowly dissolve in the wash,
releasing it on damp and dry laundry.
Qualitative freshness intensity delivered
during the different stages of the laundry process
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Safe perfumesFortunately, a perfume allergy is a relatively rare phenomenon. For laundry detergents, our data
and the available scientific information indicate that the risk of perfume allergy is extremely small
and there are no reasons to be concerned about the perfume in laundry detergents.
Up until now, for confirmation purposes we have tested our laundry detergents for skin allergies
(HRIPT) or skin intolerance in tens of thousands of volunteers. We have never seen any perfume
allergy caused by one of our detergents. For fabric softeners, we tested with over four thousand
volunteers and have not noticed anything either. We have also not seen any allergic reactions from
the actual use of one of our laundry products, even though they are used by millions of European
consumers on a daily basis.
All our laundry products and their perfumes are formulated with the greatest care and utmost
attention to safety. The perfumes are formulated taking into account our stringent internal
safety standards for every ingredient, as well as safety standards set by the International Fragrance
Association (IFRA) and those of the Research Institute for Fragrance Materials (RIFM). Whenever
the perfume of a product changes, our scientists in charge of safety always evaluate the detailed
composition and make sure there is no risk. The scientists take into consideration all available data
on all ingredients as well as the various possibilities of exposure to the product, and they conduct
clinical trials. P&Gs approach to assessing skin safety of its detergent products, including per-
fumes, has been reviewed and approved by an international group of dermatology experts from
Europe, the USA and Canada. Moreover, the company has published and continues to publish
papers on the subject in peer-reviewed literature (visit www.scienceinthebox.com for abstracts).
It is important to note that laundry detergents and fabric softeners are not intended for direct
application on the skin. They normally only come into contact with the skin in a very diluted
solution during hand washing, a habit which has become quite infrequent nowadays.
The amount of perfume ingredients left to deliver a pleasant fresh and clean odour on the washed
laundry is very small, after the four rinses that typically occur during a machine wash. This amount
is still sufficient to provide a fresh scent to the laundry, because the human nose is incredibly
sensitive. And the fresh and clean odour is highly appreciated by consumers.
To further help physicians as well as people who are allergic to a particular perfume substance,
detergent manufacturers have started to list perfume substances on their labels, when present in
the product at a concentration greater than 0.01%. The labelled substances belong to a list of 26,
selected by the European Union Scientific Committee of Consumer Products (SCCP). Industry fully
supported the new European regulations in force as of October 2005 and aim to better inform
consumers on products. Cosmetic companies already started doing this back in 2004.
In some countries, our line of laundry products may include a perfume-free variant. We do this to
meet the needs of those consumers who want a perfume-free product. However the majority of
consumers enjoy the benefit of a pleasant odour of fresh and clean laundry and they can safely
do so.
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The perfume exposure of a laundry detergent throughhand washing is about 100 times less than with aperfumed product applied directly to the skin.
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Did you know?
Sailors know how close they are to the Bering Sea Islands,between Alaska and Russia, by the powerful smell of
citrus coming from colonies of crested auklets. Studies
show that compounds in the citrus scent emanating
from the birds repel ticks and other parasites. A smart
way to protect their species!
How can you detect about 10,000 odours if you have
only got 1,000 types of choosy receptors? Scientists
figure that groups of receptors act together in different
configurations to pick up odours. A leading olfaction
researcher, Linda Buck, compares it to the alphabet: Thealphabet contains just 26 letters, yet we have thousands
of words and numerous complex languages to convey
meaning. Similarly, with 1,000 types of odour receptors
working together in different combinations, your nose
can make codes for about 10,000 odours.
It is easy to see if someone is afraid but can we smell
fear? In one Austrian study, women were asked to wear
underarm pads to catch any sweaty response to watching
a fear film. The next day a neutral film was shown
and again underarm pads collected sweat. When asked
to smell the underarm secretions, astonishingly, the
women could identify the fear underarm pads.
Everyone has a unique smell except identical twins. They
do not only look alike, they also smell the same!
Our sense of smell seems to depend on age and sex. The
sense usually deteriorates with age. And in tests women
are time and again better at identifying smells than men.
Our tongues have just four types of taste buds: salt,
sweet, bitter or sour. But we experience thousands of
tastes because some 75% of our sense of taste comes
from our sense of smell. That is why a cold can ruin the
taste and smell of food. A viral infection causes mucus
to build up on odour receptor cells in the nose, stopping
them from sending signals to the brain.
The inability to smell, known as anosmia, afflicts some
1.2% of the population. Some people inherit the
condition. Others become blind to odours through
illness, head injuries or exposure to certain medicines orpesticides. People who develop anosmia tell of the deep
loss they feel because they can no longer smell people,
food, flowers, the weather all the background aromas
we take for granted. In some cases, anosmia leads to
depression and loss of sexual desire.
Intriguingly, recent research reveals that human
pheromones may also exist. Pheromones are
better known from the animal world which is full of
subtle chemical messengers sent out to allure a mate or
to warn of imminent danger. Thousands have been
detected in all sorts of creatures, each one carrying vital
information about matters such as food, territory or sex.
Many natural substances such as coffee, strawberries
and vanilla have as many as 100 or more types of volatile
molecules. By contrast, others such as lemons, bananas
and cloves contain just a few.
The perfume industry is comparatively small, selling
about 10.5 billion euros worth of perfume raw
materials annually.
Worldwide, P&G is the largest perfume house with
35 expert perfumers.
The Fabric and Home Care and Beauty Care divisions
alone use 400 different types of perfumes.
P&G has perfume manufacturing facilities in
Germany, the U.S. and Mexico, which produce
40,000 tons of perfumes a year.
Depending on their make-up, fragrances can cost
from just $2 per kg to a staggering $8,000 per kg.
Common perfume levels in laundry products are
between 0.2 and 1.5%. This means that typically
there is less than 1g of perfume in the wash
solution. With the subsequent rinses and the drying,
this leaves only a small amount of perfume on the
garments to make them smell fresh.
Facts and figures
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P
rocter&GamblePrintedonnonchlorinebleachedpap
er
www.magenta.be
Procter & GambleFabric Care
External RelationsEurope
Visit our website:www.eu.pg.com
Here you also find linksto the websites of our brands.
For more info on the science behindour products, visit:
2005
www.scienceinthebox.com