Creating the scents of fine perfumes and other products takes a lot of
science. It also takes a lot of creativity and imagination.
Perfumers compare their jobs to those of painters and musicians. Even though
they use a lot of science, especially chemistry, they say perfumery is mostly
an art.
"It's an art, not a science," says Pat Whelan of Florida. Whelan has been
a perfumer for more than 30 years. "It's an art, and anything to do with the
arts relies on the senses, whether it be hearing or sight or sculpting or
taste or smell."
Whelan says our sense of smell is our most under-used sense. The perfumer's
job is to awaken that sense.
"We hear the saying all the time: stop and smell the roses," Whelan says.
"It's because we don't do that, we don't really tune in to our sense of smell.
"A perfumer's job is taking all the subtle scents of nature that you ignore
and we put them in a bottle. So when you put them on in the morning, that's
exactly what you're doing -- you're smelling the roses."
Whelan's interest in fragrances started early in his adult life. At the
age of 21, he started working for an international fragrance manufacturer.
He didn't have a degree, but he was following procedures to measure and mix
chemicals.
He became interested in how the company made chemicals that didn't smell
good into ones that did. That curiosity led him to study and memorize the
various chemicals and their scents.
Whelan likens the various chemicals to notes that a composer or musician
uses to make music. The art is in knowing what combinations will be harmonious.
"Imagine a child pounding on a piano," Whelan says. "Well, if a perfumer
were just to throw the notes together randomly, it would smell to your nose
like the child pounding on the piano would sound to your ear."
Claudette Belnavis agrees that perfumery is mainly an art. She's a senior
perfumer in fine fragrances in New Jersey. She says having a love of fragrances
and "being creative and having a great imagination" is important.
"The scientific part, I believe you can learn easily on the job, in some
kind of training," Belnavis says. "But to be creative is something more innate."
Belnavis also sees her job as being like a puzzle. "It's always a search"
for new fragrances. She also says her job is very satisfying.
"There's a great deal of satisfaction in being a perfumer and seeing products
you've done on the market."
Justin Quigg is learning perfumery from his uncle. Also, Quigg's grandfather
was a perfumer his entire life. This is the way most perfumers got into the
field in the past -- they were born into it.
Quigg says in perfumery, like any art, there's an aspect that can't be
taught, while some aspects can be taught, like when you're analyzing a fragrance
for its components.
"That's mostly chemistry, where you take a fragrance and break it down
chemical by chemical," Quigg says. "But then, on the other hand, it's never
the same and that's where the art comes in. You have to be creative and know
what fragrances will work."