Perfume school: inspiration for future perfumers

What inspires a career as a perfumer?

Sandrine Malin is a Senior Perfumer at IFF based in Paris who finds inspiration in the world of fashion as well as her olfactive memory for her work within the beauty care category. The fragrances she creates for shampoos shower gels and other products transform everyday moments for consumers and contribute to award-winning successful brands.
Recently she met with students in the IFF/ISIPCA Master of Science in Scent Design and Creation program to share her path to becoming a perfumer and applying her creativity to this product category.

Sandrine: “My family is originally from the south of France and my grandfather made his living working with ‘fleur d’oranger’. As he owned land that was not yet cultivated he was encouraged to plant ‘Bigaradiers’ (Bitter Orange trees). I participated in the picking the flowers when I was young. I was curious and wanted to learn all about these flowers.

One day my mother took me to the cooperative where these flowers were placed on sheets to be distilled. I was so taken by these mountains of intoxicating white Flowers! That was how I discovered the world of perfume and the profession of being a perfumer.”

Sandrine spoke of other sources of her inspirationwhich fuel her creativity: “The world of fashion and design inspire me through the use of colors motifs and how they work with fabric. Working specifically on creating shampoos I am equally inspired by hair stylists colorists and those who create new looks and hair fashion. But my greatest source of inspiration is travel. Every time I visit a country or place I benefit from what I discover – smelling and getting to know local plants and flowers.”

Future of Perfumery

The students and Sandrine also discussed possible directions for the perfumery of the future.

Sandrine believes that the perfumery of tomorrow will be revolutionary.” We see this kind of innovation within IFF. Perfumery for shampoo and deodorants is constantly evolving. We must adapt our tools to new categories and products before they are even mainstream. The perfumers of the future must be very multifaceted and know how quickly adapt to new technologies.”

What if you could discover and explore a whole new world of fragrance?

Students in the IFF/ISIPCA Master of Science in Scent Design and Creation program explore various professional specializations as fine or consumer fragrance perfumers evaluators or scent design managers marketing sales and technologists and related roles. This new program is unlike any other program in our industry. It breaks ground in teaching the foundations and pioneering advances of designing fragrances.

Our graduates will be extraordinarily well equipped for careers as fine and consumer fragrance perfumers scent design managers technical perfumers and related roles. Together we create the future. Join us.

Start here for a career in fragrance – find out more about applications for the 2018 Master’s of Science Program in Scent Design and Creation.

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