“
The scent of lavender has fresh, energetic tones but it is full of contrasts.
There are also facets of the smell of hay, powder and straw.
I love this smell, which brings me back to vacation moments spent in Ardèche,
”recounts Nadège Le Garlantezec with precision and detail, nose for the Swiss composition house Givaudan, the world's number one flavor manufacturer.
This almost forty-year-old perfumer has made her profession from her childhood passion.
Little known to the general public, this vocation seemed obvious when she was only ten years old.
"
It turned out to me so young, it was the path that was mapped out for me.
From my childhood, I loved guessing smells with my brother and I had a fascination with my grandmother's perfume bottles
, ”she recalls.
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Within this little-known profession, perfumers can exercise their profession differently depending on the structures to which they belong. Some work in composition houses that produce perfumes on behalf of brands. The Swiss Givaudan and Firmenich are the leaders, followed by the American IFF and the German Symrise. The “noses” can also work internally, directly within perfume brands, such as Guerlain or Lancôme, and finally certain perfumers are self-employed.
Independent
“
noses
” and composition houses respond to the demands of perfume companies who sometimes prefer to call on external rather than internal experts.
They then send them a "
brief
" to explain their request by putting them in competition.
“
Customers can simply send us a word, a color or an emotion that we have to transcribe into a fragrance,
” explains Nadège Le Garlantezec.
The perfumer remembers one of the orders received: “
the perfect woman in her imperfections.
"
Each perfume creation project lasts between six months and two years.
Credit: Givaudan
The "
noses
" then seek deep within themselves what this evokes to them and how to transcribe it into perfume. During these moments, Nadège Le Garlantezec prefers to isolate herself and work from home to let inspiration come. “
This is my favorite moment. That's exciting. We start from a blank page. I dive into my emotions, in the past but also in the present. I want to tell a story, but it still has to meet the customer's expectations
”. Once the formula has been written by the perfumer, which can be likened to a cooking recipe with a grammage precise to the nearest tenth for each ingredient, it is sent to the assistant perfumer who takes care of the mixing in the laboratory.
"
It's a very competitive environment
"
Within the composition houses, the evaluation, sales and marketing teams indeed orchestrate the relationship with the customer in order to better understand his expectations but also those of the consumers whom he wishes to reach thanks to this perfume.
Because behind this profession, oh so poetic and creative, the reality of business is never far away.
The objective remains to be chosen by the customer who puts several composition houses in competition, but also the different perfumers who compose them and also
independent
“
noses
”.
“
It's a very competitive environment.
Perfumers lose more projects than they win.
It requires a certain psychological strength
, ”admits Nadège Le Garlantezec.
Each project lasts between six months and two years, from the first creation to all the back and forths with the client to arrive at the final grade.
During their training, perfumers learn to recognize more than 500 raw materials.
Credit: Givaudan
Competition that can be difficult for some perfumers. After a successful career with Givaudan and then Symrise, Nathalie Feisthauer chose to work on her own. “
When you are in the composition house, you are in constant competition both internally and externally. It's not necessarily easy,
”she explains. A career choice made easier when his name is already known in the world of perfumery. “
At the beginning, I had only one client who allowed me to get started and then to live. Today, requests come directly to me, clients know my style,
”says this perfumer, whose workshop is located in the Montmartre district.
Another career choice, Thierry Wasser, for his part, became director of the creation of perfumes for the house of Guerlain.
This 60-year-old is now in charge of creation but also of the choice of raw materials throughout the world.
He thus meets suppliers for four months of the year and is also responsible for the factory which produces all the perfumes.
"
The humanity which is imprisoned in a bottle of perfume, it is in the whole of these activities of transformation and not only in the act of creation
", he claims.
Artificial intelligence is coming into the profession
In addition to the human dimension of the profession, artificial intelligence is even beginning to interfere with it to reach consumers as much as possible. Paco Rabanne recently used algorithms to develop his new male fragrance Phantom. The program identified ingredients believed to boost self-confidence, using the Science of Wellness program, which lists the emotional effects of raw materials, and incorporated them into the scent. The flavor manufacturer Givaudan has for its part developed a robot, Le Carto, to suggest different harmonizations in order to obtain the best combination and to calculate the most appropriate olfactory formula.
Once the formula has been written by the perfumer, it is sent to the assistant perfumer who takes care of the mixing in the laboratory.
Credit: Givaudan
A highly competitive profession
But despite the differences in their daily missions, what unites these beings driven by a passion for smells is their creativity. “
Each creation is the story of a moment in the life of the creator. It can be the memory of a conversation, of a landscape, of a meeting
”, reveals Thierry Wasser, perfumer and creator of Guerlain. An act of creation that requires a certain dose of inspiration. To exercise this niche profession, you need a certain sensitivity. “
Sometimes I tell myself that a part of me has been in the necks of thousands of people who have loved or hated each other and that makes me dizzy,
” recalls Nathalie Feisthauer.
Another common denominator of these “
noses
” is their training. The graduate studies of perfumers can be very varied, ranging from philosophy to law through herbalism, even if the majority still carry out scientific studies, especially in chemistry. But the particularity of training for this profession is the existence of internal schools within the composition houses which train their foals for several years, against a contract requiring them to stay a few more years once trained. These formations are considered the royal road in the community but are extremely selective. The Givaudan internal school receives around 2000 applications per year to select only 3.
During these years of training, the future "noses" learn to recognize more than 500 raw materials, to make agreements between several ingredients in order to create balances and contrasts of odors.
Knowledge of the great classics of perfumery is also essential.
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In France, two higher establishments are also highly recognized: the ISIPCA (Institut Supérieur International du Parfum, Cosmétique et de Aromatique Alimentaire) in Versailles, and the École Supérieure du Parfum in Paris.
For Nadège Le Garlantezec, becoming a nose does not require a particular gift in terms of smell but above all a strong dose of work.
“
We are more attentive to our sense of smell, we value it, we constantly cultivate it,
” she says.