How To Get Into Perfumery – From Enthusiast To Becoming Perfumer

By Emmanuelle Moeglin, Founder & Perfumer  ·  Classically trained at ISIPCA, 20 years in fragrance

Perfumery has long been a closed world. Tell anyone as a child that you could smell for a living and it would have been met with surprise, since most people would not even think of it as a job. Happily, the internet and the opening up of crafts to the mainstream mean there are now many more ways to immerse yourself in scent. Here are five routes in, from curious enthusiast to working perfumer.

1. For the social: join a community

Want to widen your knowledge but not sure where to start? Surround yourself with other scent lovers. At EPC, our Academy and our in-store events bring together people at every level, from total beginners to seasoned noses, to smell, blend and talk fragrance together. Learning with others is one of the fastest and most enjoyable ways to train your nose, because so much of perfumery is shared language and shared memory.

So much of perfumery is shared language and shared memory.

2. For the readers: read, listen and learn

There is a wealth of writing on scent, from quick critique to serious history. A good starting point is our own EPC Journal, where we explain ingredients, techniques and the stories behind fragrance without the jargon. When you are ready to build a shelf, see our guide to the best perfume books to learn from perfumers, the titles working professionals genuinely return to.

3. For the curious noses: take a workshop or blending experience

Workshops are how Experimental Perfume Club began. We wanted to democratise perfumery and bring blending to everyone, letting anyone with a love of scent have a play. Today you can start with a Blending Discovery Session in our Covent Garden studio, or go further with the Luxe Blending Experience, guided start to finish by our team. There is no quicker way to understand how a fragrance is built than to build one yourself.

There is no quicker way to understand a fragrance than to build one yourself.

4. For the practical: blend at home

Blending at home is a wonderful place to begin: your own space, your own pace, free to learn through trial and error. An online course will guide you through the process. Our Fundamentals of Perfume Creation course gives you all the guidance and material to start wherever you are in the world. If you would rather simply get to know the raw materials first, our ingredient sets help you learn each note on its own, which is exactly how perfumers build their palette. And our beginner's guide to blending is full of practical tips to get you started.

5. For the serious: go to perfumery school

You have read, you have played, and now you want to master the real craft, perhaps to become a perfumer or an evaluator. There are options for that too.

I trained at ISIPCA, a prestigious school leading in fragrance, cosmetics and flavour, and loved my time there. Founded in 1970 by Jean-Jacques Guerlain, it has trained countless professionals now working across the industry, and offers both full-time study and shorter summer courses. L'École Supérieure du Parfum in Paris offers a five-year training straight from school. The Givaudan Perfumery School sits outside Paris, with a campus in Singapore; other houses such as Mane, IFF and Firmenich run their own in-house academies, among the best in the world and fiercely competitive to enter. To retrain in the world's perfume capital, the Grasse Institute of Perfumery teaches in several languages. And if you are London-based and want to study closer to home, University of the Arts London runs short scent courses covering the perfumer's palette, blending accords and translating ideas into scent.

Whichever route you take, I hope it is a joyful one.

ISIPCA. Picture courtesy of ISIPCA.

Ready to start? Read our beginner's guide to making perfume, browse the best books to learn from, or explore our online courses.

Frequently asked questions about getting into perfumery