Is The Library Of Fragrance The Same As Demeter?

Introduce the Library of Fragrance

The Library of Fragrance was founded in 2000 by Christopher Brosius. According to the Library of Fragrance website, Brosius came up with the idea to create a library of smells after visiting the Institute for Art and Olfaction (https://www.thelibraryoffragrance.eu/who-we-are/). The Library of Fragrance consists of over 300 different fragrances that aim to capture the full sensory experience of smells ranging from everyday objects to abstract concepts.

The purpose of the Library of Fragrance is to create a diverse collection of fragrances that evoke memories and emotions associated with different scents. Brosius describes the library as “A tour of the world without leaving your chair” (https://www.thelibraryoffragrance.eu/who-we-are/). The fragrances are designed to transport people to different places, times, and experiences through the sense of smell.

Introduce Demeter Fragrance

Demeter Fragrance is a niche perfumery known for bottling real-world scents. It was founded in 1993 by perfumer Christopher Brosius and Christopher Gable. Demeter takes an unconventional approach to fragrance, aiming to capture authentic, everyday smells like dirt, grass, and tomato. Their fragrances evoke nostalgic memories and recreate sensory experiences. As stated on their website, “The Demeter Fragrance Library celebrates fresh air, the smell of freshly turned earth, and the fragrance of clean laundry drying in the summer breeze. It’s the scent of green grass, daffodils, the beach, baseball, and bonfires.” ¹ The brand name was inspired by the Greek goddess of agriculture, representing the natural, elemental scents Demeter aims to recreate. Demeter has grown from its humble beginnings bottling dirt in 1993 to now offering over 300 unique, memory-evoking fragrances.

Compare Founders and Origins

Demeter Fragrance Library was founded in 1993 by Christopher Brosius, a former perfumer at Kiehl’s, and Christopher Gable. According to Wikipedia, “Demeter was founded by ex-Kiehl’s perfumer Christopher Brosius, and Christopher Gable in 1993, as a project to “bottle” everyday odors into wearable personal fragrances.” [1]

The Library of Fragrance was founded in 2000 by Christophe Laudamiel, also a former perfumer at Kiehl’s. According to the company’s website, “In the year 2000 perfumer Christophe Laudamiel founded the Library of Fragrance. His vision was to capture everyday scents and make them wearable as fine fragrances.” [2]

While both companies were founded by former Kiehl’s perfumers with a similar vision to capture and bottle everyday scents, Demeter was started in 1993 by Brosius and Gable, whereas The Library of Fragrance was founded 7 years later in 2000 by Laudamiel.

Compare Approaches

The Library of Fragrance and Demeter take different approaches when creating and cataloguing scents. The Library of Fragrance focuses on recreating everyday smells and experiences, with the goal of evoking memories and emotions. Their collection includes scents like “Fresh Cut Grass”, “Laundromat”, and “Campfire”. According to their website, they work to capture the “smell of a memory” by starting with an idea and then experimenting to find the right combination of ingredients.

In contrast, Demeter takes a more whimsical and conceptual approach. While they do have some everyday scents, their catalogue also includes more fanciful options like “Leather Whipped Cream”, “Holy Water”, and “Dirt”. As described in this YouTube review, Demeter seems to emphasize having fun and exploring imaginative scent combinations over capturing true-to-life experiences.

Additionally, Demeter produces a wider range of scented products beyond just perfumes and colognes. Their offerings include scented nail polish, body lotion, lip balm, and even scent for laundry detergent. The Library of Fragrance focuses more narrowly on fragrances and colognes. This shows Demeter’s approach of exploring scents across lifestyle categories.

Overall, The Library of Fragrance aims for authenticity and memory-conjuring in their scent catalogue, while Demeter embraces novelty, humor, and cross-category experimentation with scent.

Compare Commercial Success

Both the Library of Fragrance and Demeter have found commercial success, but Demeter has achieved greater reach and sales volume.

The Library of Fragrance has a single retail location in Berkeley, California and sells products through its website. While popular with locals and perfume enthusiasts, its offerings are niche and availability is limited (https://www.reddit.com/r/fragrance/comments/q1cb9t/).

Demeter, on the other hand, has expanded into major retail chains like Sephora and Ulta in addition to its online store. With over 200 fragrances available, Demeter has greater distribution and sells far more products than the Library of Fragrance (https://en.wikipedia.org/). While not a mainstream fragrance house, Demeter’s quirky scents and affordable price point have given the brand a cult following.

Overall, Demeter has achieved significantly more commercial success and availability compared to the smaller and more regional Library of Fragrance.

Compare Scent Libraries

The Demeter Fragrance Library was founded in 1996 and features over 300 unique scents ranging from everyday smells like Dirt, Grass, and Tomato to more unusual scents like Snow, Thunderstorm, and Mildew. According to their website, “The Demeter Fragrance Library features precise, one note accords that do not translate to become traditional, complex perfumes.” Their collection focuses on singular scent experiences meant to evoke memories and emotions.

In contrast, The Library of Fragrance was founded in 2006 by food chemists who wanted to capture the full experience of fruits, flowers, and foods in perfumes. According to their website, The Library of Fragrance features over 500 fragrances inspired by fruits, desserts, herbs, places, feelings and moments. Their collection aims to recreate hyper-realistic and multi-faceted scents.

While both libraries offer extensive collections of unique fragrances, The Library of Fragrance has a significantly larger catalog of scents that aim to capture more complex, layered experiences compared to Demeter’s focused single-note fragrances.

Compare Customer Experience

The customer experience of exploring and purchasing from the Library of Fragrance and Demeter Fragrance Library is quite different. The Library of Fragrance focuses on providing an immersive, sensory experience for customers to explore a wide variety of fragrances in-store. Customers can smell hundreds of fragrances at specialized sniffing bars and receive guidance from fragrance experts. In contrast, Demeter’s fragrances must be purchased sight unseen online or from third-party retailers, relying on product descriptions and reviews. According to customers, this makes purchasing Demeter fragrances somewhat of a gamble, as the scents don’t always match expectations and performance can be lacking.

“The Library of Fragrance has sniffing stations so you can actually smell the fragrances before buying them. I was overwhelmed by the selection and ended up smelling almost every single fragrance before making my purchases. The staff was also very knowledgable about all the scents” (Customer review).

“With Demeter, you just have to blind buy and hope it lives up to the description. I’ve had some hits but also many misses, it’s hard to know what you’re going to get.” (Reddit discussion).

Compare Brand Identities

The Library of Fragrance and Demeter have taken different approaches when crafting their brand identities and niches in the fragrance market.

The Library of Fragrance focuses on evoking nostalgic scents and memories, with fragrance categories like “Childhood” and “Fantasy.” Their branding aims to tap into consumers’ emotions and transport them to another time and place through scent according to the library’s About Us page.

In contrast, Demeter takes a more literal approach, aiming to capture and bottle the scents of everyday life. As described on their Wikipedia page, their fragrances evoke things like grass, dirt, rain, and tomatoes. Their branding focuses on uniqueness and novelty.

While the Library of Fragrance cultivates feelings of nostalgia and memory, Demeter makes the mundane wearable. Both have found strong brand identities, but take different approaches when it comes to positioning and niche.

Summarize Key Differences

The Library of Fragrance and Demeter Fragrance were founded with different goals in mind. The Library of Fragrance aims to catalogue every smell in the world for artistic and scientific purposes, while Demeter creates fragrances inspired by real-world scents for commercial sale.

While both allow customers to explore a wide array of smells, the Library of Fragrance takes a more academic approach focused on preservation and education. Demeter is more of a lifestyle brand selling wearable scents for profit.

The Library of Fragrance has a larger scent catalogue, however Demeter is more well-known among consumers. The Library is geared towards researchers, while Demeter markets to the everyday perfume buyer.

In summary, the two have some similarities in making smells accessible, but very different identities and goals. The Library is archival and scholarly, Demeter is commercial and trendy.

Conclude with Relationship

In summary, while the Library of Fragrance and Demeter share some similarities in their approach to scent, they have distinct identities and goals. The Library of Fragrance aims to provide an educational, museum-like experience that archives scents from around the world. Demeter focuses more on commercial success, marketing its unique scents inspired by real-life objects and experiences. Both offer innovative ways for people to explore and experience fragrance, but the Library does so in a non-profit, academic context while Demeter operates as a for-profit lifestyle brand. They represent two fascinating interpretations of translating scent into a tangible experience, but the Library of Fragrance does not appear to be directly affiliated with or inspired by the commercial success of Demeter.