A Perfumer

Fragrance - The Heart of the Art

Fragrance is a synonym for prestige and quality of life. Victor Hugo called it, the breath of heaven". That the breath of heaven becomes reality is something we have to thank the artistry of the perfumer for, devoting himself or herself to creating fragrances, free of everyday routine, surrounded by peace and quiet, and immersed in creative inspiration. To be able to work creatively, the perfumer needs this inspiration, possibly awakened by a remarkable event: a sunset at sea or the sight of a richly flowering alpine pasture. Or perhaps music classical or modern, melodic, rhythmic, synthetic or hot. Perhaps the opposite sex aromatic or wild. New and appealing olfactory substances all that can inspire the perfumer in the creative mission.

But the path to becoming a perfumer is a hard one because it calls not only for talent and endurance, but also solid training and the right mentor in the right enterprise. After basic training, you spend further years alongside senior perfumers who impart the wealth of experience they have gained from interpreting what they have learned from customers and the market, and transforming this into modern, fragrant compositions.

Then, one must be able to create both simple and complex fragrances by combining and balancing these raw materials in creative and unique ways. Another important aspect of perfumery training is the art of incorporating these unique fragrances into various consumer products. The variety of products is almost never ending, including such examples as alcohol for colognes and perfumes, soap bars and liquids, laundry products, shampoos, lotions, candles, and more. You can be sure that wherever there is a great smelling product there was a perfumer hard at work practicing a craft somewhere between art and science!

Perfumers, creators of fragrance, who are known as "Noses" © , are held in the highest esteem in the perfume industry and theirs is the final say as to whether or not a fragrance is acceptable. The primary requisite for becoming a Nose is a keen olfactory sense. It is not enough for the perfumer to be able to distinguish blindfolded between the fragrance of a rose and a tulip, but his sense of smell must be so acute that he can detect in a mixture of 100 or more ingredients the precise amount of the various substances that have contributed to the formula.

In order to become a perfumer one must be able to recognize various raw materials but must have the capacity and artistry to blend them harmoniously. One must be able to tell, for instance, whether a certain lot of labdanum is from Greece or Corsica; whether the oil of ylang-ylang comes from Madagascar or Manila; tell the difference between oils of the same species of plant cultivated in different countries, and which type will achieve a particular result. Lavender oil, for example, can have a top note that is floral, balsamic, sharp, sweet, green or nut-like. The Nose has his counterpart in the wine industry where the skilled expert can tell in an instant the region, type of grape, and vintage of the wine he is sampling.

A truly great perfume is not created in a hurry. Mass-produced fragrances may be blended from a standard formula in a short time, but the original creation of a beautiful perfume may take years to accomplish. If the artist has a picture in mind that he wishes to translate into scent he will spend many weeks and months over it. Surrounded by myriad of bottles, vials, jars, each filled with precious essential oils and other materials, he goes to work. During the blending he is constantly testing his formula. As he works, he dips long slender blotters, called mouilettes (pronounced moo-yetts), into the solution and puts them aside to dry. At intervals these strips are sniffed, to determine what should be added to perfect the composition and to round out the fragrance.

Just as a painter spreads paint over his canvas and then steps back to view it critically checking upon whether more light is needed in an area, or a bit more blue needs to be added to the purple, so does the perfume artist make his tests. Perhaps a minute quantity of jasmine to give smoothness, or slightly heavier note to add more character to an otherwise too light scent. During the building of the perfume it is tested frequently, and under varying conditions. Is it the same in the early morning as it is in the dusk of the evening? Is the scent altered by weather conditions? These and many other checks are made before the perfume is considered a finished product.

The perfume apprentice learns to compose fragrances at an "organ", small laboratory that contains the majority of aroma chemicals and natural oils used in the day-to-day work of a creative perfumer.

Definition:

A perfumer is a term used for an expert on creating perfume compositions, sometimes referred to affectionately as a Nose (French: le nez) due to their fine sense of smell and skill in producing olfactory compositions. The perfumer is effectively an artist who is trained in depth on the concepts of fragrance aesthetics and who is capable of conveying abstract concepts and moods with fragrance compositions. At the most rudimentary level, a perfumer must have a keen knowledge of a large variety of fragrance ingredients and their smells, and be able to distinguish each of the fragrance ingredients whether alone or in combination with other fragrances. As well, they must know how each ingredient reveals itself through time with other ingredients.

Employment:

Most perfumers are employed by several large fragrance corporations in the world including Givaudan, IFF, Firmenich, Symrise, Takasago. Some perfumers work exclusively for a perfume house or in their own company, but these cases are not as common.

The perfumer typically begins a perfume project with a brief by the perfumer's employer or an outside customer. The customers to the perfumer or their employers, are typically fashion houses or large corporations of various industries. Each brief will contain the specifications for the desired perfume, and will describe in often poetic or abstract terms what the perfume should smell like or what feelings it should evoke in those who smell it, along with a maximum per litre price of the perfume oil concentrate. This allowance, along with the intended application of the perfume, will determine what aromatic ingredients will be used in the perfume composition.

The perfumer will then go through the process of blending multiple perfume mixtures and will attempt to capture the desired feelings specified in the brief. After presenting the perfume mixtures to the customers, the perfumer may "win" the brief with their approval. They proceed to work with the customer, often with the direction provided by a panel or artistic director, which guides and edits the modifications on the composition of the perfume. This process typically spans several days to months to several years, going over many iterations and may involve cultural and public surveys to tailor a perfume to a particular market. The perfume composition will then be either used to enhance another product as a functional fragrance, i.e., shampoos, cosmetics, detergents, personal care or marketed and sold directly to the public as a fine fragrance.

Alternatively, the perfumer may simply be inspired to create a perfume and produce something that later becomes marketable or successfully wins a brief. This is more common in smaller or independent perfume houses. Please note no fragrance house will employ you as an artist unless you complete training through a company fragrance school or the ISIPCA. Due to the increasing regulations courtesy of the International Fragrance Association, and of course the Givaudan Fragrance Corporation I doubt there is much original fragrance work being created today. Most modern blends contain close to 100 percent of synthetic materials with little or no essential oils. They lack diffusiveness is part of the reason why a modern blend doesn't last. Through these two organizations the art is slowly being changed, and not for the better.

I love the art, however, using fragrance's carries unknown health risks. Natural artists who call themselves a nose read one or two books on the subject. For the most part they are poorly trained and educated creating home made tinctures containing who knows what. Essential Oil houses adulterate the product. Folks purchase natural fragrances thinking they are pure when they are not. The major players on the other hand today employ close to one hundred percent synthetic materials based on petroleum and its derivatives in their fragrances. This too has unknown health consequences. Read some of the articles in my book titled the Dark Side of Fragrance's © .

Why did I do this web site and enclosed one asks? My web site and books are a both a passion and a hobby. Many years ago I was promoted to a junior perfumer by an employer who needed a copy of my first book titled Reference Book on Fragrance Ingredients ©, then un finished. Not knowing then how the industry worked including the art I soon found myself on the outside looking in. It was said I had talent, but wasn't good enough to become a perfumer even though my work was needed by this company as a bridge for others.

I classify my work as an intellectual hobby, and a way to get even with a former employer and industry who destroyed my career maliciously many years ago. These folks were use to taking what they wanted, and didn't care who the hurt, or ruined in the process. A favorite film of mine on the mob is the Goodfellas directed by Martin Scorsese. After viewing it one will realize that they many criminal enterprises are not run by nice folks. In order to get ahead some individuals would rob and steal from the poor and blind, or behind some ones back or stick a knife in it. It didn't bother them that they work they took was stolen as long as they didn't have to sit down and create it. If they could make money with it that made things just sweeter.

Perfumer's sign confidentiality agreements with their employer which is part of the reason why formula books don't exist. The few that do are generally puff pieces often displaying incorrect materials in incorrect proportions, or percentages. The heart of the art is the perfume composition. Understanding it let alone creating it takes years to learn. Each fragrance house has hundreds of thousands of formulas if not millions, but are too paranoid to display the uniqueness of each fragrance let alone explain how a composition or formula actually works. Again, I think this is part of the reason why sales are in a decline. To many launches pushing basically the same fragrance in different arrangements with a bit more of this and a lot less of that.

As soon as something new comes out fragrance companies employ highly sophisticated gas chromatograph computers and PhD chemists to duplicate it. Instead of showcasing the uniqueness of each blend even though most are quite similar they create myths and untruths through misinformed folks who are on the edge of the business. The heart of the art is kept in the hands of a very select club of individuals. Is the art slowly dying? I believe through massive regulation that in the very near future fragrances will be created by an artificial intelligence type super computers, and the creativity will slowly die with it.

Courtesy of wikipedia and, Fragrance Books Inc.

A Method of Creation & Perfumery by Jean Carles

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