Perfume fascinates and intrigues, but it is the experts behind the perfume that fascinate us most. So who are these mysterious people capable of memorizing and assembling thousands of scents? And how does one become a perfumer? Here are a few tips from Sillages Paris and our four SuperNoses.
What’s it like being a perfumer?
The Nose is involved in every step of the perfume-making process, from the initial idea to the final product. They are both the composer and the conductor who accompanies the long and complex process of perfume creation. In order to create their work, they have thousands of raw materials at their disposal to create a perfume, and sometimes carry out more than 100 trials to find the perfect fragrance. Once the (magic!) formula is found, the process of making the perfume can begin.
There are two types of Noses: first, those that create for “fine perfumery”, that is, luxury. There are only a few hundred of them in the world – even rarer than astronauts! (So 2% of the very best perfumers work for us!). Then there are the perfumers of “functional perfumery” who create perfumes and aromas for mass distribution. They work mainly on household cleaning products and everyday beauty products (deodorants, shampoos, etc.).
Noses are mostly employed by major composition houses and raw material manufacturers (Givaudan, Robertet, etc.). But they can also be found working in laboratories belonging to brands, or even freelancing! France continues to dominate the fine perfume market, with the country being home to many of the world’s leading brands, major perfume houses, and Master Perfumers. Indeed, perfume made in France is an ancient tradition that still continues today. (Grasse and Paris compete for the title of world capital of perfume!)
Is it necessary to have an overdeveloped sense of smell?
Just because there are few chosen ones doesn’t mean that becoming a perfumer is an unattainable dream! As far as the main work tool is concerned, the sense of smell is a sense that can be worked on and developed over time.
Contrary to what one might think, an overdeveloped sense of smell is not a gift from heaven, and unlike musicians with perfect ears, perfect noses don’t exist. We’re in constant contact with millions of different smells, but we don’t usually pay attention to them (except when they’re really delicious, or unbearable). So there is only one way to improve your sense of smell: working on it by associating smells with words or images. Like a memory game, this allows us to decipher little by little the nuances of the smells we perceive by putting words to them.
Do you know that we are all born with the same olfactory abilities? Our olfactory memory is built between the ages of 0 and 18. So it is our childhood as well as our experiences as children that define our tastes and future choices regarding our sense of smell. Our likes and dislikes are 100% cultural and personal! That’s why you can love the smell of gasoline, and others will be disgusted by it. The same goes for smells that may seem “universally” good to you, like jasmine, for example.
However, not everyone can create a perfume.
A little feedback from our SuperNose perfumers
Our four perfumers are friends (with each other, and with Maxime, the founder of Sillages Paris) and are passionate about their profession. We asked them for a little feedback about the road they’ve traveled to get to this point.
What’s your advice for becoming a perfumer?
Mylène Alran: It’s above all my passion that guided me towards this profession. Creating fragrances requires a lot of work and patience, and to become a perfumer, you have to be curious and obstinate!
What pushed you to become a perfumer?
Alex Lee: Once upon a time, there was a young schoolboy who, as early as
kindergarten, liked to chase after girls to breathe in the smell of their hair (of course not like Jean-Baptiste Grenouille in Patrick Süskind’s Le Parfum). That little boy was me.
What do you like most about being a perfumer?
Amélie Jacquin: It’s finding new ideas, creating unexpected combinations of ingredients, creating new recipes like a chef. It’s like a game, an exploration!
What do you like most about being a perfumer?
Sébastien Plan: It’s the superpower of encapsulating a memory in a perfume and being able to dive back into that bubble in space and time by recreating it with scents. That way, the moments and the people you love never fade away.
Okay, but how exactly does one become a Perfumer?
Prerequisite 1: Have an excellent sense of smell and know how to recognize many smells. Like an oenologist decoding a wine, you have to know how to decipher the different notes of a perfume.
Prerequisite 2: A perfumer is an artist. So you have to have a creative spirit and know-how to play with smells to compose olfactory paintings. It’s all about imagining images, stories, memories, and creating smells that can evoke them. Like any artist, you have to know how to stand out from the rest with your unique point of view. Furthermore, a perfumer must be able to reinvent himself and not confine himself to a particular style or vocabulary. Trends evolve, as the history of perfume has shown, and you have to know how to keep up with these changes by creating fragrances that resonate with the times. This ability is, in fact, the most important prerequisite.
Prerequisite 3: The industrialization of perfume in the 20th century has democratized perfume and transformed the perfumer’s profession. Most perfumers nowadays have a solid scientific background, especially in chemistry and biology. This allows them to create new molecules that are impossible to extract naturally (such as the “silent” flowers like lilac or lily of the valley, or many fruits). They also know how to create formulas that don’t contain toxic mixes.
Training courses
You must first start with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, biochemistry, or biology, which are the minimum qualifications required before you can get into a Master’s degree or one of the more recognized perfume schools.
Perfumers usually pursue a Master’s degree at either a university via a Master ICAP (Cosmetics, Flavors and Perfume Engineering) or ARPAC (Flavors, Perfumes and Cosmetics), or at a school. The most famous are ISIPCA and the Ecole Supérieure du Parfum.
But there are also other ways to become a perfumer:
– On-the-job training! Some raw material manufacturers such as Givaudan offer apprenticeships to train young Nezes in-house to create great perfumes one day.
– Self-taught training is also possible. Some Master Perfumers recommend going to work in raw material factories in Grasse. This allows you to be in direct contact with the ingredients, understand their extraction, and “put your hands in the sludge”!
Go for it, and good luck!
Perfumery is a job of passion, so even if the paths described here are the most common, passion and talent always make the difference.
And in the meantime, if this has made you want to make your own personalized perfume from one of our perfumers’ creations, it’s here 😉.
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