Behind the Scents podcast: How perfumers learn to smell

The International Fragrance Association (IFRA) has published the third episode of its Behind the Scents podcast. Host Charles de Lusignan is joined by Stephen Nicoll, a Master Perfumer and member of the International Society of Perfumer Creators (ISPC), who began his career at a perfumer's bench in 1979 and recently retired after more than four decades in the industry.

Learning to smell starts with memory. As an apprentice in Grasse, Mr Nicoll spent four hours every morning and four every afternoon smelling materials grouped into olfactive families – jasmine first, then rose, then tuberose – until he could put a name to each one. A perfumer, he explains, needs to recognize between one and two thousand materials, and learning them takes "a career".

Training has changed since then. An apprenticeship that once took five to seven years is now condensed into structured programs of two to three, starting with around 500 materials in the first year. So is a perfumer born or made? "I would say the answer is yes," says Mr Nicoll. A good nose matters, but "being able to create an olfactive memory and library in your brain is something that has to be learned" – and so is the creativity to turn it into something that conveys emotion.

The episode also explains why the perfumer's palette cannot run on naturals alone. There will never be enough natural material to meet demand at a price people can afford, he says, and when land is needed for food, "food will win". Many synthetics start from natural sources anyway: crude turpentine, once burned as a by-product of paper-making, is transformed into ingredients ranging from florals to sandalwood notes.

Drawing on his last 15 years in laundry, Mr Nicoll describes how encapsulation – coating microscopic drops of fragrance oil in a shell that breaks when needed – allowed the industry to cut the overall fragrance level in products such as fabric softeners rather than keep adding more. Reformulation, he adds, has always been part of the job, because "the regulatory landscape is constantly changing and evolving … and rightly so". Through the ISPC's work with IFRA, perfumers get early sight of materials that may face restrictions and help decision-makers understand the creative value of ingredients with decades of safe use.

For anyone hoping to follow him, his advice is simple: smell everything, be curious and take care of your nose.

The IFRA Podcast: Behind the Scents is a new series exploring the people and ideas shaping the future of fragrance. Listen to the full episode here:

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