“Dawn of AI perfumery”: Symrise debuts Philyra for creative green transitions

30 Jun 2022 --- Symrise is unveiling its augmented artificial intelligence (AI) Philyra 2.0, which equips perfumers with a creative and environmentally sustainable tool to formulate perfumes. This updated technology enables brands to produce renewable and biodegradable alternatives, while encouraging experimentation and speeding up production.

“Philyra 2.0 enables perfumers to improve a formula’s [environmental] sustainability score. The perfumer can give Philyra a target of 70% renewability. Philyra will suggest raw material replacements from fossil carbons to renewable carbons to match the score,” Claire Viola, VP digital strategy fragrance at Symrise, tells PersonalCareInsights.

“Philyra will do this in less than a minute. In some cases, it will be hard to reach the target if the raw materials don’t exist, which is the case for certain families.” 

The launch comes as the fragrance industry faces uncertainties due to the EU Green Deal, where a range of ingredients used in perfumes are at risk of ban. Cosmetics Europe recently set out recommendations for the European Commission to revise the Cosmetic Products Regulation (CPR) to ensure a smoother green and digital transition for the industry. 

Philyra offers efficient alternatives with environmentally sustainable options, providing the industry with opportunities to harness AI and transition more easily to meet the EU Green Deal standard. The long-term aim for Philyra is to support perfume development creatively and design environmentally friendly fragrances in the shortest amount of time.Philyra offers efficient alternatives with environmentally sustainable options to help the industry meet EU Green Deal standards. Credit: Symrise.

A companion for creation
Viola suggests that perfumers can collaborate with Philyra at any time during development. They can use Philyra as a tool to ideate a starting point. 

“For example, for a niche brand, they can run Philyra with a high creativity level to explore new daring combinations in complement to their ideas.” 

“They can find proposals that surprise them. They pick some ideas from the suggestions to incorporate them into their formula or use Philyra’s formula. They can use it freely how it best works for them,” she continues.

Viola also suggests that perfumers can use Philyra to modernize a classic, which is a challenging exercise for a perfumer. “Philyra can do it without knowing it is touching a monument,” she says. 

Symrise and IBM Research have collaborated over the past few years to evolve cognitive creativity based on AI in perfumery. The name Philyra was inspired by Greek mythology and meant “accompaniment of creation.” 

“We shape our tools, and thereafter, our tools shape us”
Viola describes that Philyra can generate up to 12 fragrance formulas in less than a minute – after which the perfumer can review and select.Viola believes that AI will never replace perfumers because perfumers have their own unique experiences, artistic instincts and intuition. 

“Philyra enables perfumers to use raw materials they exclude in their creative routines, and that arouses their curiosity when they look at the proposals. Perfumers challenge the algorithm design continuously and feel challenged by the suggestions Philyra makes.” 

Dave Apel, VP perfumer at Symrise and his team worked with IBM Research to develop Philyra. He notably quotes Marshall McLuhan, philosopher, describing how humans shape the tools they use and, in turn, the tools shape humans. This idea was used to describe Apel’s experience in developing AI. 

“With Philyra 2.0, we are addressing the growing environmental awareness of customers and consumers,” says Viola.

Additionally, AI can encourage new habits and experiences in perfume creation. 

Neuroscience and fragrance design
Meanwhile, Viola believes that AI will never replace perfumers because perfumers have their own unique experiences, artistic instincts and intuition. 

“We are just entering the dawn of what AI can do. AI can positively respond to use cases as long as the perfumers set a clear goal and the algorithm can use the good quality data to get there.”

“COVID-19 has proven the importance of mood benefits associated with fragrances. In the future, AI will help our perfumers create fragrances that, while being beautiful and creative, will also make them happy, relaxed, and energized. This forms part of our Actimood program’s vision,” she continues. 

“AI will evolve from directed creation to predictive creation, getting closer to consumer’s preferences. Fragrance personalization is also a horizon AI in perfumery is opening.” 

L’Oréal previously partnered with bio-informatics and technology company Emotiv to create a headset device for helping consumers decide their personalized fragrance based on moods. 

By Venya Patel