Perfume makers - BBC podcast

This podcast looked at the industry through the direct perspective of perfumers. This gave me a whole new view of the raw products, without all the marketing flourishes. I think it was an important part of my research to understand this part of the industry, and help me to identify the origins of perfumes we love and buy.

I firstly learnt from the two perfumers on the podcast, that the actual perfume making industry (as in creating the scents) is very small and close nit, this lead me to believe that it is a prestigious and hard job. This suspicion was confirmed when I learnt that I perfumers need to be able to memorise over a thousand raw materials by smell alone, with new synthetic scents being invented everyday. The perfumers explained that when smell is your job it consumes your life, and the raw materials that form your creation need to be like a new alphabet to you.

I found their technical and chemistry abilities really amazing, however even in this most clinical stage of the process creativity, and this being an art form was still very clear. The perfumers spoke a lot about how they can mix as many materials as possible, however it is the scents that provoke emotion and a story that stand out from the crowd, and help them create the scents we smell everyday.

It was really interesting how each perfumer have their own unique connection and interpretation of a scent. Both perfumers for example felt very different things with the raw iris smell. I found this interesting because despite having unique and personal feelings when creating a scent, perfumers are still able to convey one key message to the masses with a scent, which also lead me to think about how many attempts reaching the perfect scent for the majority must be. I also started to think more about the almost secret and personal message that each perfumer’s fragrance conveys, that we perhaps don’t even know about when spraying on our favourite perfume.

I loved that one of the perfumers actually didn’t work in perfume technically but worked for the beauty industry and all the fragrance that is part of the products. This really made me think about how important scents are in everyday things like shower gel, and how they wouldn’t be the same without them. Perfume and fragrance is such a massive part of out lives even without actual perfume bottles, it is in our cleaning supplies, soaps, face cream…etc. There are so many more aspects of life that perfumers come into play, and tell stories and provoke emotion, without us realising.

 

Finally, I was once again intrigued by the way that perfumers describe scent as having texture and colour. I find this really useful and a great way of adding depth and describing scent in a more tangible and visual way, however this is also something that can be interpreted differently by different noses.