'Ascent' fragrance finder app gets competition from iPerfumer

Shortly after beauty giant Estée Lauder announced its Ascent iPhone app to facilitate in-store perfume shopping, fragrance house Givaudan is taking over with the iPerfumer, which is already available on the iTunes store.

The company used information gathered with its Miriad 2.0 software, which won this year's FiFi Technological Breakthrough of the Year for Fragrance Creation & Formulation award, to create a database of more than 4,000 prestige fragrances.

Maurizio Volpi, marketing director at Givaudan Fragrances, explained that this was a step towards targeting a new generation of fragrance enthusiasts: "Many people are so daunted by the choice that they walk away. Others simply buy the same perfume every time because it is a safe choice," he said. "Our research shows that young people particularly are not becoming fragrance buyers, but they love technology."

iPerfumer works on the basis of your personal preferences, creating fragrance profiles and suggesting other suitable perfumes similar to the ones you're already using. Another tool gives you the currently available perfumes that are most popular among other iPerfumer users.

The free app can be found at http://itunes.apple.com/fr/app/iperfumer/id371709945?mt=8.