New online platform WikiParfum is being called the ‘Wikipedia of perfume’ for its extensive searchable scent information and product details.
Created by Spanish luxury fashion and beauty conglomerate Puig, the platform and supporting app offers users more information about the scents they love as well as those they’ve never tried, as well as explore other similar options.
WikiParfum has a database of nearly 20,000 fragrances from 900 prestige, designer, and niche brands and helps users browse, compare and choose fragrances from a constantly updated library.
Upon creating an account, users are prompted to start by searching a favourite or familiar fragrance. From there, WikiParfum determines their preferred fragrance family and ingredients.
With a visual interface, when a user searches for a fragrance on the website or the app, a digital tool draws from a database containing 1,400 photographs of raw materials used in perfumery and organizes the images into a visual representation. This allows the user to “see” the fragrance. The larger the image, the more dominant the ingredient. Displayed on a black background, the ingredient is intense; less so if the background is white.
In addition to visual data, WikiParfum delivers key information, such as the perfume’s olfactory family, its main ingredients, the perfumer who created it, and the price range. A selection of related fragrances with similar ingredients completes the search results. Further information, such as how an ingredient is sourced and used is also available.
The platform was created in collaboration with Fragrances of the World, the largest independent guide to fragrance classification, created over a 40-year career by fragrance authority and historian Michael Edwards.
Edwards, who created the modern fragrance wheel, or recognised groupings in 1992, is considered an expert on fragrance categorisation.
His database supplies the expert perfume information for WikiParfum. Based on the olfactory mapping of the database and on an individual’s stated preferences, the platform’s powerful algorithm provides users with personalised fragrance recommendations.
