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Discovery

Unbottling the past

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.31.2K Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2019

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Imagine finding a notebook containing the secret recipes of some of the world’s most iconic perfumes? Formulas normally kept under lock and key. That’s what happened to medical research scientist and trained chemist Andrew Holding. His grandfather Charles “Rex” Holding had been Chief Perfumer at the Bourjois Chanel factory in Croydon, near London, during the 1960s. After his death, he left behind a lifetime of perfume memorabilia; bottles of Chanel perfume, rare ingredients, fragrant soaps, and in amongst his things, the most fascinating of finds – a notebook with handwritten formulas, including one for Soir de Paris, written by one of the greatest of all perfumery biochemists – Constantin Weriguine. Can Andrew recreate this almost one hundred year old fragrance? He travels to Versaille’s Osmotheque, the world’s only perfume archive, to smell the original 1928 scent. It’s where top perfumers – all chemists themselves - grant him access to the world’s rarest and sometimes now-forbidden perfume ingredients, and teach him how to mix a scent. And in constructing Soir de Paris, he learns about Constantin Weriguine, his grandfather ‘Rex’, and discovers if his skills as a chemist are enough to turn him into a top perfumer, or is fragrance more of an art than a science? Presenter: Andrew Holding Producer: Katy Takatsuki. Image: Patricia de Nicolaï

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:04.7

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0:07.1

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0:08.9

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0:11.2

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0:15.0

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0:16.7

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0:20.6

If you're looking at your phone more than you're looking in someone's eyes, you're doing the wrong thing.

0:26.0

Julie, at your service.

0:28.0

Listen to all episodes on BBC Sales.

0:31.0

You're listening to Discovery on the BBC World Service.

0:35.0

These things used to sit around my grandfather's house.

0:38.0

They're these square glass bottles and they have these ground glass stoppers on the top and make this beautiful noise.

0:45.0

I'm Andrew Holding and I'm traveling to Versailles in France to meet some of the world's top perfumers.

0:52.0

Oh la la, it's an old formula because I'm on a mission to recreate

0:56.2

a scent that's nearly 100 years old. It's called Suuardipari and I think I have the

1:02.4

recipe.

1:03.0

Here we are.

1:04.0

How to create a bottle.

1:07.0

Swar de Paris according to your notebook.

1:10.0

Today I am a medical research scientist mainly focusing on the genetic aspects of cancer

1:19.0

but I originally trained as a chemist and to me chemistry and perfumery have a lot in common.

...

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