10 Shocking Facts About Learning Perfumery

1. Learning perfumery isn't hard, but mastering perfumery isn't easy:

The easiest phase is the From-Zero-To-One phase.

It’s filled with enthusiasm for learning, most of the information is new but not complex, and there are no real responsibilities or discipline on your shoulders.

But mastering something requires a true willingness to master it.

I’m not talking about mastering perfumery at 50 years old, that to me feels like a failure.

Mastering the craft after 30 years is normal if you only spend 10 minutes a day on it, so that’s not inspiring.

2. The ease of learning and mastering depends on your country/city:

Based on the availability of materials suppliers, governmental rules, importing regulations, and the fragrance business culture.

3. Learning perfumery is based on a three-pillar structure:

1st pillar: Reading & Listening
2nd pillar: Practicing what you read
3rd pillar: Listening to clients, market, and perfumers feedbacks on actual projects you have developed.

4. Don't try to be creative before being ordinary,

Make a lot of ordinary creations, then try to make unique, creative compositions.

You won’t master quality before putting in the quantity.

5. Working in a perfumery company for at least a year can help significantly:

You'll get access to a wide range of fragrance ingredients, meet clients, and understand many dimensions of fragrance creation that you might miss as an independent perfumer.

You'll also get the chance to work on real, direct-to-market projects.

6. If you aren't Independent perfumer, you must love what you do:

Most of the time, you won’t be doing what you love.

Most of the creations will be commercial, and your ability to express yourself and your imagination will be limited; because that’s what the market need and what the client can afford to pay.

Don’t forget, as a perfumer, you’re like the striker on a fragrance company’s team, you’re part of the team, and your job is to help score the goal.

So instead of hating working on these types of projects (which will be the majority), try to enjoy making fragrances that consumers will like, clients can afford, and still have your creative signature in them.

7. Becoming an expert in perfumery is a long and boring process:

Even if you read and keep developing your skills, it still takes time to mature as a perfumer.

Yes, there are shortcuts; like learning how master perfumers build successful and lovable perfume structures (perfume types formulas can help with that), but it’s not an overnight process.

The journey is long, but enjoyable. And yes, at some points, it can be boring too.

8. Learning has no end because the possibilities of blends are infinite:

The number of unique blends you can make by choosing 30 materials out of 1500 is about 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (that’s 7 followed by 62 zeros).

And that’s just with 1500 materials, without even considering the possibilities of changing the percentages of each material.

Can you imagine the unlimited learning potential from blending alone?

9. You’ll need to take breaks "sometimes long ones":

At some point, you might think about changing careers or taking a break from perfumery.

It’s most likely because of a tough client project or facing multiple rejections.

My advice? Blend any fragrance, accord, or base you’ve been wanting to create, then take two days off and go try something new.

10. Creating fragrances may prevent you from developing your skills:

If your projects are all around one client, a certain market segment, or the same persona demographics, your learning curve will slow down.

So, try to jump into different companies, work with different perfumers, and challenge yourself outside your company’s lab.

Focus on learning the craft before focusing on earning from it.

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