How to become a perfumer

A few weeks ago I mishandled a subject in my post and decided to delete it with the comments. Among the deleted comments there was one asking about how to become a perfumer. Obviously there is not much information out there…

Well, anyone can become a self-proclaimed perfumer since there’s no rule to be a self-proclaimed perfumer, but being a “major league player” in perfumery means working with one of the legitimate houses that dominates the fragrance market. Most people don’t know how to enter one of these houses as a perfumer or as a future perfumer. Is it part of the secrecy of the industry? Maybe so.

I may post something related to the “how to” topic in the future, but let me tell you why it is so obscure. It’s quite simple – the industry doesn’t need to publicize the “how to” since the openings for new perfumers are extremely limited. Each house (fragrance supplier) has only one to three openings per year, and there are enough sources to recruit great young talents already.

So, where do they look for the potential noses? ISIPCA is the most known place to look for future perfumers, but there are several other places. I’ll tell you more about it some other time…