Every couple of years, there comes around a fragrance that shakes up the beauty industry and goes on to become an icon of its time. Take CK One in the ’90s with its aromatic and citrus minimalism. Or Y2K’s Dior J’adore, which was quite literally inspired by gold in liquid form (I still remember the campaign advert with Carmen Kass walking into a pool of gold—iconic behaviour). Since then, we have been spoilt for choice in perfumes, from celebrity perfumes (J.Lo Glow walked so Glossier You could run) to niche fragrances and high street scents to luxury perfumes.
Given how much choice we have, smelling unique actually proves difficult. With perfumes like Maison Francis Kukrdjian’s Baccarat Rouge 540 (not to mention all of its imitators) going TikTok-viral overnight, finding a signature scent that is totally unique isn’t as easy as you might think. Except for those who know about a little-known fragrance called Molecule 01 by Escentric Molecules.
Despite launching in 2006, this perfume has flown under the radar of mainstream scents and was a bit of an ‘if you know, you know’ scent with insiders. Its popularity has since become a modern phenomenon, and interestingly, it is based on one single perfume note, Iso E Super, which smells a little bit different on everyone by reacting with your own skin chemistry.
“I realised that the common denominator in all the fragrances I liked was that they contained a large dose of Iso E Super,” says Escentric Molecules founder and perfumer, Geza Schoen. “It is highly unusual. You can never get enough of it. One sniff and you want the whole bottle,” he says. In fact, when Schoen first wore the fragrance out to a bar, people flocked to ask him what scent he was wearing. “The effect was the stuff of legend,” he says.
What Does Molecule 01 Smell Like?
Although the scent smells different on everyone’s skin, many report the perfume to have a clean, airy or woody scent. Some describe it as smelling like pencil shavings, cedar, musk or fresh laundry. It’s the ultimate skin scent. It’s fleeting and elusive in a mysterious way that you might not be able to smell it on yourself all of the time (although many others will) only for it to resurface after a couple of hours and become noticeable to yourself again. Think of it as the olfactory equivalent of an aloof cat that disappears and turns up when you least expect it. It’s not heavy or obstrusive in the way that you would be able to smell it if you walked into a room, but someone sitting next to you might be able to detect it. Because it’s a subtle scent, it makes a great perfume for migraine sufferers.
Some people, however, can’t smell it on themselves at all. “One of the mysteries of Molecule 01 is that some cannot smell the fragrance at all. This could be due to a few factors,” says Schoen. “The only ingredient in Molecule 01 is the aroma-molecule Iso E Super. This is one of a group of fragrance materials, such as musk, that some people are highly sensitive to, while others find them hard to detect. Most people, however, detect these ingredients within a normal range of sensitivity,” he says.
Schoen describes Iso E Super as “less an aroma than an effect which lends an indefinable radiance to the wearer.” This is because of the way Iso E Super slowly releases and reacts with olfactory receptors. That being said, some people can’t smell it at all. “It’s possible that one may be hyposmic,” says Schoen. “Hyposmia, which is partial smell-blindness, is somewhat common. Some people are hyposmic for one particular smell, such as musk, or Iso E Super. Additionally, regular users of Molecule 01 may become hyposmic to Iso E Super. In these circumstances we recommend customers take a break from the fragrance for one month,” he says.
However, many still choose to wear the perfume, even if they cannot smell it on themselves, because it draws attention from others. “The mystery surrounding Iso E Super adds t o its allure,” says Schoen. “Some people still wear the fragrance even if they cannot smell it themselves, as they find it to be a conversation starter for those who can smell the fragrance and find it infatuating and unique.”
Editor Reviews of Escentric Molecules Molecule 01
“It takes me back to my early days of working in the fashion industry—it was the fragrance at that time, and I still can’t resist the nostalgia and grown-up feeling it gives me today,” says Who What Wear UK editor in chief, Hannah Almassi. “My husband and I usually share a bottle, and it’s still one of those fragrances that, despite being better known now, still generates so many compliments and smells different on us both.”
“I feel like Molecule was Le Labo Santal 33 before Santal 33—the olfactory signifier of a fashion person,” says Who What Wear UK copy editor, Georgia Seago. “As a young beauty journalist in London I’d smell it so often from day to day that it just became really familiar. Even so, I still find it intoxicating and I still enjoy wearing it. I’ve had my bottle for years and the juice hasn’t spoilt at all. And now that today’s fashion people are all about Le Labo, Molecules 01 smells unique again.”
“I have only ever worn one perfume in my life, and that is Escentric Molecules 01,” says Who What Wear UK managing editor, Poppy Nash. “My mum had a bottle long before it was a thing, and every time I spray it it reminds me of her. Now, after almost 11 years of wearing it myself, I still get at least one compliment a day. It is woody, musky and ever so slightly sweet, but the beauty of the fragrance is that it smells differently to everyone. I get a new bottle every Christmas (it lasts me exactly 12 months) and have a travel-sized bottle to take away with me too! Call me sentimental but I hope that one day my daughter will wear it too, so God forbid it ever gets discontinued!”
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Molecule 8.5ml Discovery Set
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