A FRAGRENT AFFAIR

"Have a fine sense of smell? Perhaps you should consider a career as a perfumer!"

Do fresh, flowery smells remind you of warm, summer months and the earthy sandalwood and musk tones conjure up the cool winters for you? Do you recognise a perfume just from a whiff of a person passing by? Do you believe that there is a distinct fragrance for every individual, emotion, mood and occasion? If you have a burning desire to work with fragrances and to create different scents, then you should learn the aesthetics of ‘perfumery’. A perfumer is an expert on creating perfume compositions, sometimes, referred to affectionately as a ‘Nose’ due to his/ her fine sense of smell.

THE INDIAN PERFUME INDUSTRY

The perfume industry in India has come of age. The last two decades have seen it change from a cottage industry to a full-fledged commercial enterprise. As the western markets saturate, India along with China is being witnessed as the road to growth and the place of action. Previously, there were only a few popular flavours like musk, rose, etc, but now, the fragrance business is moving from the ‘one flavour fits all’ mode to customised fragrances. This industry is expected to grow at a rate of 200 per cent annually. Consumers in India are graduating from using basic to more sophisticated and expensive fragrances. Therefore, Indian perfume companies are increasingly moving away from marketing and into research and development, trying to figure out the perfect fragrance profiles, price points and pertinent advertising.

Hence, there is a huge demand for qualified and trained personnel in this industry. So far, companies largely made do with graduates in organic chemistry, who were given in-house training and then allowed to develop scents.

A NOSE FOR THE JOB

It’s about the ability to recognise a smell, to be able to pick it apart, to reconstruct it and remember it. Like a musical composer, a perfumer designs fragrances by combining many notes, or individual scents, with fixatives that keep the scents from dissipating. Therefore, a refined, e d u c a t e d sense of smell is a must for any perfumer, but so is a degree, or at least some grounding, in organic chemistry.
There are institutes which offer Postgraduate Programmes in Perfumery. Students are taught about raw materials, olfaction, formulation of fragrances, manufacturing processes, the history of perfumes and the skin physiology.
Courses on the business, marketing, technology in perfumery are also available. As they say, the ‘nose’ knows. A perfumery course can empower it further.

A WHIFF OF ENTERPRISE

In India, skilled perfumers are snapped up by companies such as L’Oreal and Revlon in mid-level technical and managerial posts.
There are Indian flavours and fragrance houses also who employ perfumers. Some perfumers also start their own company.
The fact is that the ingredients a perfume is made of represent about ten percent of the entire price. The rest of the price lies in packaging, commercials, taxes, and so on.
Perfumeries usually cater to fashion houses or large corporations. They usually work on briefs, which may involve cultural and public surveys to tailor a perfume to a particular market.
lternatively, the perfumer may simply be inspired to create a perfume and produce something that later becomes marketable. This is more common in smaller or independent perfume houses. There are also perfumers who customise and deliver perfumes unique to the needs of each client, creating a signature perfume they can call their own.

THE HISTORY OF PERFUME

The history of perfume began in antiquity. It started in ancient Egypt and was later improved by the Romans and the Arabs. Sometimes seen as erotic and mystical, sometimes as spiritual and divine and always linked to beauty, perfumes are capable of stirring up powerful emotions. So, enter the enchanted universe of aromas and spray, dab and splash some life, romance and happiness in the air.

SALARY

In India, starting salaries are around Rs.1.8 lakh per annum. Internationally, an entry level perfumer earns at least $60,000 annually. If his performance is consistently superior, he could even begin to command royalties or percentages.