Mom, dad, what is a Nose?

I am a rare and highly coveted profession in the shadows, I require a lot of experience, creativity and motivation, I add my own personal touch to many of your daily products... I am ?

A Nose is a perfumer, an artist of the sense of smell. He is the one behind the creation of all your scented products.

And before explaining his job in detail - we can never repeat it enough - being a nose or having a good sense of smell is not innate: you are not born a nose, you become one and as for all jobs, it takes many years of work. 

What does a perfumer perfume?

This is a rather good question, sincea nose does not only create the perfumes you find in the shops. It can also create the smell of your future deodorant, shower gel, detergent, laundry, candle and so on, while managing to to retranscribe olfactory an idea, a memory or an emotion.

Both an artist and a chemist, a perfumer knows how to transmit emotions thanks to his knowledge of the chemistry of natural and synthetic odors.

It is important to note that a nose that creates home fragrances will not create luxury fragrances or shower gel fragrances: simply because the technical constraints and knowledge of the market are not the same!

To each his own, to each his own

Each type of product requires a specific know-how and knowledge. While it is rather simple to imagine a perfumer with his nose in his perfume bottles, you should know that there are actually 4 categories of perfumers.

1. First of all, the creative perfumers. There are several ways to practice this profession: for a brand, in a composition house or independently.

• A perfumer can be said to be an "in-house perfumer" if he is a perfumer for a brand: this is the case of Francis Kurkdjian for Dior, Mathilde Laurent for Cartier, etc. The perfumer works only for this brand as long as he is under contract with it.

• The "salaried" perfumer is part of a composition house. That is to say that he belongs to a composition house such as IFF, Firmenich or Givaudan and thus works in a company which will produce the perfume for various brands. So there will not be only one perfumer but several who will work together, or not for different projects and brands. Often the composition houses are put in competition by the brands that do not have a perfumer and only one of them wins the contract. Can you imagine the pressure behind the creation of a "La Vie Est Belle" or a "One Million"?

  At Bastille, we work with "salaried" perfumers. Our perfumes and candles were created with perfumers from IFF-LMR, the pioneering laboratory for natural and ethically sourced fragrance ingredients worldwide. Olfactory originality, the talent of the Nez, complete creative freedom and exceptional raw materials have enabled the perfumers to create an original and totally free fragrance collection.

  DISCOVER THE BASTILLE COLLECTION

• And the independent perfumer can work for all brands.

In all cases, the perfumer will respond to a brief given either by marketing or by the client. To help him/her in the realization of the perfume concentrate, an evaluator will be at his/her side to evaluate each trial and to put it back on the right track - according to the briefing. Being a perfumer requires a lot of patience and perseverance because a perfume is not made in one try - if you are intrigued by the making of a perfume, discover all its secrets through our dedicated article!

The following 3 categories are more for perfumers specialized in more technical fields:

2. The ingredient perfumers are specialists in raw materials. They enrich the olfactory palette of the laboratories and raw material companies in which they work.

3. Perfume analysts study the composition of products on the market to help perfumers better identify trends and create products that are adapted to consumer demands.

4. Technical perfumers are those who adjust the formula of an existing perfume to create a range of derived products (creams, candles, etc.) - this is the case, for example, for our Pleine Lune and Rayon Vert candles!

That's it! You already know a little more about this very secret profession. If you dream of becoming a perfumer one day, check out our latest article on "How to improve your sense of smell and become an expert nose?" and start practicing smelling perfumes but also pure raw materials!

The competition is tough so you have to be a little bit ahead of the game ;)