CPL Aromas Brings Forest Rituals, Tang-Era Imagery and Scent Technology to Shanghai

It can sometimes be easier to imagine a future fragrance through a place than through a list of notes. In Shanghai, CPL Aromas mapped out just such a route: from the Japanese practice of forest bathing to images from the Tang dynasty, then on to the scent released when a bottle of champagne is opened.

The company took part in the autumn edition of Notes Shanghai 2026AW, held from 14 to 17 October. The exhibition's theme, Another Way, explored alternative approaches to creating and experiencing fragrance. For CPL Aromas, that conversation unfolded in three parts: nature, cultural memory and technology.

The forest as an atmosphere, not a green note

At the centre of the stand was the Shinrin-yoku collection, inspired by the Japanese practice of “forest bathing”: spending attentive time among trees. It brought together the company's AromaHydro™, AromaWellness™ and AromaSpace™ platforms. A setting of plants and moss references supported the idea that a forest can be conveyed through humidity, stillness, the texture of the air and an emotional sensation, rather than through familiar green accords alone.

The significance of this approach is not that forest-themed scents have become a new category. It shows how the industry is increasingly working with a complete experience: a place, a state of mind, a memory. For future compositions, this offers a subtler language than a literal illustration of pine needles or leaves.

The Tang dynasty without a museum reconstruction

For the second collection, perfumer Chung drew on cultural imagery from the Tang dynasty. Its starting points included the peony as a symbol of prosperity; wines that arrived along the Silk Road; legends from mural paintings; moon poetry; lychees transported over great distances; and gifts from neighbouring lands.

This is not an attempt to reconstruct historical smells with scientific precision. Instead, the historical narratives become material for contemporary fragrance storytelling, helping to establish colour, movement, opulence or a sense of a long journey. For an exhibition built around Another Way, the gesture feels particularly apt: familiar cultural codes receive a new sensory reading.

Guava and champagne in the AromaSpace™ palette

Perfumer Elise Pierre presented the technological element. CPL Aromas describes AromaSpace™ as a combination of headspace analysis—a method for capturing volatile aromatic compounds—and a perfumer's work, designed to recreate recognisable natural and everyday olfactory impressions.

The new developments named were Pink Guava AromaSpace™ and Champagne AromaSpace™. The first turns to the moment a guava is picked, cut open and tasted: green peel meets ripe tropical flesh. The second is built around champagne and the aromatic cloud that appears as a bottle is opened, with fruity and sparkling facets.

It is important not to confuse these developments with the announcement of finished perfumes for sale. They are tools for perfumers and brands, from which different formulas may later emerge. Yet palettes like these often explain why new fragrances are acquiring increasingly specific, almost cinematic sensations: rather than simply a “fruity” or “sparkling” accord, a brief scene with its own temperature, gesture and surrounding air.

The Shanghai presentation does not promise the consumer one particular bottle. It does, however, clearly indicate a direction of travel: the perfumery of future launches may take its form from a ritual in nature, its narrative from history and its precision from technology, bringing them together without literalism.