Having worked for more than twenty years in this field, I have worked alongside various people and therefore different professions. Here is my advice if you decide to look for a job in the world of perfumery.
The world of perfume is separate, quite confidential, but this world is nevertheless exciting and offers many job opportunities. These professions are all open to women as well as men.
Possible jobs in
perfumery:
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My advice for working in perfumery
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Perfume sales consultant
This job involves presenting and advising
customers on a selection of perfumes.
To be successful in this field, the first
thing required is to be passionate and curious, to have a good sense of smell,
even if it is a sense that can be trained and improved when exercised
regularly.
The other essential quality is knowing how to
listen to customers, to make them talk about their aspirations and above all
not to impose your own tastes. It is a profession that requires being generous,
having a sense of contact, of welcoming, of being smiling and caring. You have
to be persuasive and have a sense of sales. The quality of empathy is really
necessary, namely the quality of putting yourself in the customer's shoes.
The most important thing is of course to know
the fragrances that you will have to present, but also a knowledge of the
classics of perfumery, as well as the perfumes of the competition or emerging
trends. When a customer wears a perfume and wants to change it, it is important
to recognize it and know the correspondences, in order to be able to offer him
a fragrance that will seduce him, in the same olfactory family.
Always be on the lookout for new perfumes or
cosmetic products such as makeup that come out on this market, it is very
competitive and constantly rich in new products.
Possibility of exercising this profession
with large distributors such as Sephora, Marionnaud, Nocibé or even department
stores, but also in more confidential so-called niche perfumeries.
More and more, it is required to master one
or even two foreign languages.
Classical training: Professional Baccalaureate in Aesthetics-Cosmetics-Perfumery; • CAP, Professional Certificate or BTS in
aesthetics, cosmetics or perfumery. However, some people can succeed in this
profession thanks only to their perseverance, learning and especially their
passion for perfume.
Opportunity for advancement: store manager or director, trainer, salesperson for a perfume brand.
Presenter for a
cosmetics and perfume brand
This profession of brand ambassador takes up
the same qualities and requirements as the profession of advisor. A perfume
animator's mission is to make people discover or rediscover a product in order
to develop its sales.
Training: BTS in Cosmetics, Perfumery and Aesthetics
“Beauty Professions Facilitator/Trainer”
title, level III, registered with the RNCP (National Directory of Professional
Certifications) accessible through initial training or VAE (Validation of
Acquired Experience).
Title “Facilitator/trainer of beauty and
fashion professions” level II, registered with the RNCP (National Directory of
Professional Certifications) accessible through continuing education,
professionalization contracts and VAE (Validation of Acquired Experience).
Level III or II diplomas can facilitate career development.
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Salesperson in
the perfume industry
Sales engineers are people who represent a
brand, they travel and go from perfumery to perfumery or from chain to chain
like Sephora or Marionnaud in order to promote the brand, make commercial deals
with the brand, possibly do some training on the products and new products of
this brand and check the merchandising (presentation on the shelves, placement
on the shelves).
This profession can also be called a sector
manager because they are generally responsible for a region or even a zone in
Travel Retail for airports for example.
The qualities required here are again
passion, a sense of negotiation and sales, a certain charisma and knowledge of
the world of perfumery and fragrances.
A foreign language is a plus but is not essential if you only work in France.
Commercial in
the field of natural or synthetic raw materials
The same qualities are required as before,
but very technical training is necessary. Having followed a perfumery course
like the ISIPCA in Versailles for example.
Raw materials sales representatives must present their raw materials catalogue to major perfume brands, often directly to the perfumers of these brands or to buyers working in raw materials companies (IFF, Givaudan, Firmenich etc.).
Buyer of raw
materials in perfumery
These buyers will purchase the raw materials
from the aforementioned traders.
These have the same background as salespeople, but these people work either in a perfume brand or in large creative companies (IFF, Givaudan, Firmenich, etc.).
Also Visit: Chanel No. 5 Perfume
Raw material
producer and raw material sourcer
A fairly rare profession which consists of traveling the world and meeting different local producers of natural raw materials and offering them directly to major brands or raw materials companies.
Trainer in the
field of perfume
As a brand expert, his role is to convey the
values of the house while ensuring its image. He must present new products
and offer sales techniques to teams in contact with customers. He must also
develop educational tools to successfully conduct training sessions. This job
requires great geographical mobility because he will be required to travel
throughout France and/or abroad.
Passion is still the greatest quality
required, but also curiosity and generosity. Excellent mastery of the products
to be presented and those of the competition are necessary.
Of course, it is the sense of pedagogy which
is essential and this quality is not given to everyone.
Foreign language skills are definitely a plus.
Opportunity for development: France training director, international training director.
Also Visit:
What is a generic or equivalent perfume?
Perfumery
Evaluator
This is a person who accompanies the perfumer
in the creation process, he is an olfactory expert. The evaluator is the
intermediary between the client, that is to say the brand, and the perfumer who
works in a composition company. The evaluator olfactorily guides the perfumer
according to the client's request. Very few evaluators work only for a single
brand.
He is a technical coach for perfumers, who
will help them to develop different olfactory paths, but he will also have to
have a lot of tact and psychology with this perfumer, in order to advise,
support and reassure them.
It is also he who will make a selection,
perhaps create a library with all the perfume concentrates, or all the
creations already proposed to the different clients. Some interesting rejected
olfactory tracks are recycled or worked on again.
Knowledge of the perfume market is essential.
The assessor must be able to manage several projects in parallel.
Qualities: Of course, have a good sense of smell and a creative mind. This
person must have a flexible personality and adaptable to all situations.
Training: Training from ISIPCA Ecole de Versailles or École supérieure du
Parfum, or shorter training from 5ème sens, English is essential.
Possible evolution: responsible for evaluation.
Laboratory
technician
He is the one who will weigh the formulas written by the perfumers. He must be rigorous, organized and very discreet.
Perfume
marketing
In brands or raw material companies, there is always a marketing department, which develops the presentation files of the perfumes offered to customers, olfactory pyramids, olfactory descriptions, market studies and competitor studies.
Commercial
perfume compositions
This is the person who negotiates with the
brand, in particular the price of the perfume concentrate. They will also
monitor what the brand needs, such as toxicological files or the perfume
presentation file with the olfactory pyramids .
Perfumer or
nose, technical perfumer, functional perfumery, aromaticians
All these professions have a common basis in
terms of training, the most sought-after profession, but the most difficult to
obtain because places are very rare, is that of perfumer for fine perfumery.
This one who will be able to work in large
international creation companies like IFF, Givaudan, Symrise, Firmenich or in
smaller very famous companies like Technichoflor, Mane, etc.
Being a perfumer integrated into a prestige
brand is an even more difficult situation to obtain, few brands have their own
creation laboratory, only Chanel, Guerlain, Dior, Vuitton, Hermès and Patou
have one.
They must have studied at ISIPCA or the École
supérieure de Parfums or in internal schools such as Givaudan for example.
These perfumers must have a highly developed creative sense, a lot of patience, experience, charisma, and communication skills, because they will need to know how to showcase themselves, know how to sell themselves if they have to meet end customers, or make presentations to the press or sales force.
Technical
perfumer, senior technician in cosmetics or perfumery
Same training and same profile as before, but
working more in the shadows, they must be more technical than creative. They
will be more able to make reformulations or work to develop perfumes for
cosmetics, laundry detergents and fabric softeners.
Skills in formulation, sensory analysis, quality control.
Aromatician
Same as before but these perfumers will be more specialized in food flavorings.
General
information on the profession of perfumer
To work in the perfumery professions and in
particular in these creative professions, the apprenticeship is very long. It
takes a lot of perseverance and determination, to have a developed aesthetic
sense and to be passionate. You have to know that there are many called and few
chosen.
A perfumer must have great strength of
character, in fact he must be able to accept failures because perfumers are
often put in competition with other perfumers working for other companies.
Having knowledge of chemistry is a plus but not essential training. Few
creative perfumers are chemists.
Those who are publicized in brands or in
creative companies are lucky to have a very comfortable salary.
Generally, perfume creation professions are
offered in the Paris region and among the French regions, the PACA region
stands out with Grasse and its region which are the main production center of
raw materials and manufacturing for the perfume industry.
But as soon as perfumers become successful, they can have opportunities to work abroad, mainly in Switzerland, the United States and Asia. The major cities where the major creative houses are based are Geneva, New York and Paris.
Conclusion if
you want to work in perfumery
In all these professions, the essential
qualities are passion and curiosity. This world is in fact a small world, where
everyone knows each other more or less. It has a very pleasant and very
stimulating environment because it is constantly evolving and rich in novelties.
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