Secrets to climb the ladder to becoming a top perfumer

What is a perfumer you may ask, was it a place that perfumes are made? was it the process of manufacturing the perfumes? for those were one of the many questions I had when I first heard the word “Perfumer”. However, the above does seems to be technically correct. In the Perfume industry a Perfumer is someone who buys the material, blends them, bottles and sells them. Its technically a job description. Back in the day Perfumers were more mysterious creatures than they are today, probably would have been a French male who would brew together different aspects of the bottled perfume. Today a conventional perfumer is someone who produces scents for various product categories. According to perfumer Ruth Masternbroek, “It’s not about what is mixing in front of you, it’s what is going on in your head.” Coming to wonder if this may be a path for you to explore? Well fret not, for I will help you understand if you ought to tread among these creatures and if so how you can ascend to the peak.

Firstly, in order to clearly understand if this is the pathway for you, you need to see if the following description sounds anything like you.

To be a good perfumer it is crucial that you have a “good nose” as adapting a scent for a new generation is like taking a part of a picture and changing some characteristics in a way that the picture is still recognizable. That’s not all, you are required to have a good aptitude in science and an education in chemistry. In addition to the scientific knowledge you require, you are expected to be able to understand the nature of customers, their needs and how the cosmetic industry works in order to create new products.

Now if I were you, this is where I’d take my leave, but if you are still persistent, please do keep on reading as I will be elaborating on a few secrets to help you climb to the top.

According to Judith Hollingshead, perfumery is a blend of both science and art where a perfume is made up of close to a 100 difference ingredients at times. It is vital that a perfumer understands how to incorporate, mix and blend all these ingredients in its correct amounts to create a specific smell that is pleasing and not something that reeks. For instance, a perfumer should understand that a rose consists of “XYZ” elements while Vanilla consists of “ABC” elements, and should be able to understand what sort of smell the amalgamation of “XYZ” and “ABC” will bring about. For this, you require a keen sense of smell, now if you’ve come across times where your friend would smell something bad and you couldn’t detect it, you might want to reconsider your decision of following this path.

As odd as this sounds, you are required to actually enjoy smelling numerous perfumes and scents throughout the day in order to gain that specific smell that you are looking for and desire to constantly push the boundaries of what is possible by questioning what is possible and what is not. Most perfumers are known to be unsatisfied with what they create; they always strive to make it better.

They do say to keep trying and that you will succeed one day. Perfumery is looked at as a performance, where you would piece together different aspects and finally come up with masterpiece like a pianist. Just like a pianist needs to practice to attain perfection a perfumer is required the same level of dedication to perfect experiments while constantly reworking the blend of ingredients to finally produce the masterpiece that’s trapped within your head. It is required to provide a sensorial experience just like a piano rendition.

Fortunately, or unfortunately education is a must, just like with all other fields of career choices out there. You are required to have a degree in cosmetic science or chemistry along with additional hands on experience and specialized training. Further you are expected to learn laboratory skills, team work and time management which are crucial for this job description. Further patience and persistence along with the ability to work with trial and error is essential if you are to have an edge over the others in the field.

Another crucial aspect to walking this path is creativity. True talent comes through with your innate ability to be creative, it is creativity that helps you stand out from the rest. It is also creativity that gives you that little bit of extra acknowledgement you are looking for. This is very clear when considering that a well known top perfumer, claims to have only chosen 5 samples from a lot of 45 solely because they exhibited creativity although some of their formulas may not have been as complex and perfect as some of the remaining 40. The inability to be creative makes your creation too commercial, while what the industry is looking for now is non-commercialism.

If you are wise and capable enough to couple all the above aspects together in order to climb the perfumery ladder, your future looks quite bright and full of fragrances!