Harcum's 'Scentennial': 100 years never smelled so good

What does Harcum College smell like?

Flowery and sweet. Deep. A hint of lavender. That's its past.

Its present? Sophisticated. Strong. Think: cashmere, leather, pear. And its future? Definitely fruity. Raspberry, orange, and a little bit of cherry - and rising fast.

So says Alexandra Hilosky, the chemistry professor who, with help from students, developed Harcum's own fragrance line to celebrate the arts-and-sciences college's 100th birthday.

They're calling it the "Scentennial Collection."

Hilosky, a 29-year veteran of the Bryn Mawr college, and her husband donated the $1,000 worth of ingredients needed to make the scents. All proceeds from their sale will fund scholarships.

Harcum, a 1,600-student, two-year school, isn't the first college to have its own scent. A New York-based firm started by a Bucknell grad has made a business of manufacturing scents distinctively created for colleges, including Pennsylvania State University, which unveiled its perfume last year.

But at Harcum, the scents are homegrown - handmade, marketed, and sold by Hilosky and students.

"Scents for cents," read a publicity poster.

The idea for the project came when the college's centennial committee was challenged to come up with creative ways to raise scholarship funds.

Hilosky, of Malvern, has been fascinated with perfume-making for years. Fluent in French, she goes to Paris "every chance I get" to learn. Seven years ago, she connected with Marina Jung-Allegret, a perfume chemist who teaches at the University of Versailles and has a small perfumery. Under the French scientist's tutelage, Hilosky developed a "chemistry of perfume" unit for her classes. Students each year create their own scents.

Perfume-making doesn't always come up roses, students learned.

Donna Nguyen, 19, wanted to create a scent that reminded her of the orange cream she used to eat as a child in Kensington.

Her first batch left a stain. The next was cloudy - another taboo. Nguyen was nervous, but Hilosky "just kept telling me to try again." Perfume-making, Hilosky told students, takes creativity, imagination, chemistry, and patience.

Nguyen and her team finally hit the sweet spot, then added a glass bead to make the vial look pretty.

"We had a lot of fun," said Nguyen, a veterinary-technician major.

From the fun rose Harcum's fragrance of the future, "Ursa Rising" (Harcum's mascot is a bear), designed to appeal to the young crowd.

Just how much money the perfumes will raise depends on their popularity.

Reviews at an outdoor campus "sniffing party" Wednesday were largely positive.

Hannah Kalend, 20, a veterinary-technology major from Lancaster, smelled each fragrance stick before declaring her favorite, the perfume of the past, named "Edith" after Edith Hatcher Harcum, who founded the college in 1915 as a finishing school that emphasized the arts.

To make "Edith," Hilosky researched the notes and techniques that were popular a century ago. She shared the scent with Allegret last summer on a Parisian visit.

"Her impression was 'classic American,' and I know that's exactly what I was going for," Hilosky said, figuring the scent would appeal to alums. "Her only suggestion was to tint it purple, in keeping with Harcum's colors."

"Edith" wasn't for Tim Ely, a senior Harcum administrator, who sniffed.

"Too minty," he pronounced.

He liked "HaacH," though he doesn't wear cologne.

"Maybe this will get me going," he said.

That's what Hilosky wanted to hear. She created HaacH (French for the letter H as in Harcum) with men in mind. Her husband has started wearing it.

"I formed this during the winter months," she said, "inspired by cashmere, leather, and a partridge in a pear tree."

Alyssa Good, 20, a veterinary-technology student from Lancaster, also liked HaacH, noting her penchant for "dude smells." Ursa Rising, she said, had appeal, too.

"I would spray my bathroom with it," she told a marketer, as the smile left his face. "That's a good thing," she assured him.

Harcum's collection was officially launched at the college fashion show Friday night for $10 a vial. Edith and Ursa Rising both sold out.

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