👃"The Nose": The sweetest job in the fragrance industry

Brought to you by [Quartz Obsession] "The Nose" March 06, 2018 Picking up the scent --------------------------------------------------------------- Imagine handing out fancy business cards that say “The Nose.” That’s the job title those in the fragrance industry use to describe master perfumers. But it’s somewhat of a misnomer: Part chemist, part artist, the job requires more than just superior olfactory prowess. It requires a head for business, the heart to create an elixir with emotional resonance, and tough skin to thrive in the [highly competitive, billion-dollar industry](. Though they’re largely behind the scenes, fragrance and odor experts are in high demand. Noses not only create fine fragrances, they also formulate the smell of dishwashing soap, candles, food, kitty litter, trash bags, car interiors, and even [luxury condos](. If you can detect an aroma, it’s likely that a nose was involved. Let’s sniff around, shall we? 🌐 [View this email on the web]( By the digits [$45 billion:]( Projected value of the global perfume industry this year. [60:]( Number of fragrance producers (which employ 13,000 workers) based in Grasse, France—known as the “Silicon Valley of perfume.” [6 million:]( Number of jasmine flowers that go into 1 kilogram of “absolute,” the basis of several Christian Dior perfumes. [5.55%:]( Market share of Elizabeth Taylor “White Diamonds,” still the top-selling celebrity perfume in the US. [£143,000:]( Price for 30 ml of Clive Christian No.1 Passant Guardant, the Guinness Book record holder for the most expensive commercially sold perfume. The heady scent sold at Harrods comes in a crystal flask encrusted with over 2,000 diamonds. [5%:]( Percentage of the global population with anosmia, the inability to smell. Fun fact French perfumer Jean Carles, co-creator of Miss Dior and author of the classic guide to [perfume making]( insured his nose for $1 million. 🐦 [Tweet this card]( Brought to you by AT&T Business Can you outwit a hacker? --------------------------------------------------------------- As hackers continue to use email as means of destruction, email security is still a priority for companies of all sizes. One malicious email has great power, and can do considerable damage to a company’s bottom line. This interactive allows you to try your hand at outwitting a hacker.[Take the quiz on qz.com]( Brief history Notable noses --------------------------------------------------------------- [1200 BC:]( Tapputi-Belatekallim lived in Mesopotamia and used flowers, calamus, and myrrh to create perfumes for the king. She’s not just the first known “nose”—she’s also credited as being the first chemist. [1370:]( A scent called “Queen of Hungary’s Water”—a cure-all and elixir for the 70-year monarch—is considered the first European fragrance. Several versions are still sold today. [1709:]( Italian-born perfumer Johann Maria Farina introduces the world to eau de cologne or “Kölnisch Wasser” (water from Cologne), a subtler alternative to strong perfume. His factory in Cologne, Germany is the oldest perfumery still in operation. [1868:]( British chemist William Henry Perkin creates the first synthetic fragrance from the fragrant plant compound coumarin, which evokes the smell of mown hay. [1921:]( Chanel No. 5 launches. Formulated by Russian-French nose Ernest Beaux to evoke the “smell of soap and freshly scrubbed skin,” per Coco Chanel’s wishes, this is still widely considered the world’s most famous perfume. [2012:]( The Vatican commissions [Italian nose Silvana Casoli]( create a signature fragrance for Pope Benedict. The [style-conscious pontiff]( was, incidentally, the formerly the archbishop of Cologne. Field study Noses at work --------------------------------------------------------------- While more and more perfumes and household scents are entirely synthesized in laboratories, luxury labels like Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior (both owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton) tout the superiority of natural materials in their formula. Dior’s nose, François Demachy, is a specialist in raw materials. He locks in entire harvests from growers around the world, including two family-owned farms in Grasse, France that grow roses and jasmine exclusively for Dior’s perfumes. Compared to the predictability of lab-made scents, relying on nature-dependent sourcing is slow, laborious, less predictable, and—when it all comes together—incredibly romantic. The shelf where perfumers organize their tiny vials and “compose” their scents is called a “perfume organ.” Demachy has a [dreamy garden]( 250 varieties of flowers, fruit-bearing trees, and herbs, plus 20 kinds of mint. Demachy says he abstains from spicy foods to protect his sense of smell. A nose for flowers Sketching a scent --------------------------------------------------------------- To create a new fragrance, Demachy “sketches” a scent concept with a particular clientele in mind. Then he goes into his laboratory at Les Fontaines Parfumées, sampling from over 2,000 bottles of absolutes, refining that idea with each whiff. He spends months smelling, sampling, and at times consulting with Louis Vuitton’s nose, Jacques Cavallier-Belletrud, whose office is down the hall. Developing a fragrance can take up to five years. Aside from the roses and jasmine from Grasse, Demachy, whose perfume résumé includes bestselling editions of Fahrenheit, Dior Homme, Miss Dior, and Tiffany, also experiments with unusual substances like ambergris, [an odious grey wax]( vomited by sperm whales. Several essences—sometimes up to 30—are blended into samples to ensure the fragrance turns out exactly as the nose intended. Using fans of fragrance test strips, Demachy and his lab assistants monitor the smell of each batch before the top secret formula is finalized. Pop quiz Which is NOT a real perfume scent? BaconDumplingsFuneral HomeLobster Correct. At least not yet! Incorrect. There are actually several bacon body sprays in the market. Among the earliest porky perfumes is Bacōn by Fargginay. It was formulated in 1920 by a Parisian butcher named John Farginnay who knew that the smell of sizzling meat never fails to put us in a good mood. "Funeral Home" and "Lobster" are scents by Demeter. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. The sniff test How to become a nose --------------------------------------------------------------- “It’s a long journey,” nose-in-training [Ugo Charron]( tells Quartz. Aspiring perfumers typically have an undergraduate degree in chemistry, and go through 5–10 years of training and professional apprenticeships. The curricula includes advanced chemistry classes, blending, raw materials, safety regulations, storytelling, and of course, a lot of smelling. At the end of the training, a perfumer must be able to ID around 500 scents within seconds. Train your tongue to say “savoir faire,” if you want to be a top nose: The world’s most prestigious schools and internships are in France, widely regarded as the world’s capital of perfumery. Many perfumers study at [ISIPCA]( in Versailles or apply for one of the hard-to-get student placements in big French (or French-speaking) international fragrance houses. 🤖 Robot fact! Electronic noses are used to detect spoiled food, gas leaks, or even [knock-off perfumes](. [NASA’s ENose]( is so sensitive it can [sniff the difference between Pepsi and Coke](. Side hustle Nosing as art --------------------------------------------------------------- For a 2015 exhibit by artist Sophie Calle, renowned French-Armenian perfumer Francis Kurkdjian formulated a perfume based on the smell of money. The smell of a US dollar bill is “like a cooked rice, a chiffon type of paper. And then you have the kind of dirty, leathery scent, on the back,” Kurkdjian told [Esquire.]( Artist and self-described hyperosmiac [Jared Boechler]( exhibited his paintings next to custom scents that inspired them. For a portrait of his mother, noses [Maria McElroy and Alexis Karl]( formulated a scent that combined acetone, wheat, hot bread, fire, and burnt wine. Watch this! Mel Brooks snorting canned fresh air called Perri-Air from the 1987 film Spaceballs. (Brooks was probably borrowing from Marcel Duchamp, who famously [bottled 50 cc of Parisian air]( called it art.) Poll Do you spritz perfume or go "eau naturale"? [Click here to vote]( I'm drowning in the sweet stuffKeeping it muskyI'm an asomniac Quartz’s new project [How It Got There]( demystifies how the world’s most important companies make their products and get them into your hands. [Read the series here.]( The fine print In yesterday’s poll about [indigo]( 60% of you said history’s most absorbing hue makes you feel “all aglow.” Today’s email was written by [Anne Quito,]( edited by [Jessanne Collins]( and produced by [Luiz Romero.]( Images: Laurent Carre for Quartz (lead image, “noses at work”), Reuters/Benoit Tessier, Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch, Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji. sound off ✏️ [What did you think of today’s email?](mailto:obsession%2Bfeedback@qz.com?cc=&subject=Thoughts%20about%20%22The%20Nose%22&body=) 💡 [What should we obsess over next?](mailto:obsession%2Bideas@qz.com?cc=&subject=Obsess%20over%20this%20next.&body=) 📬 [Forward this email to a friend](mailto:replace_with_friends_email@qz.com?cc=obsession%2Bforward@qz.com&subject=%F0%9F%91%83%20How%20%22The%20Nose%22%20is%20the%20sweetest%20job%20in%20the%20fragrance%20industry.&body=Thought%20you%27d%20enjoy.%20%0A%0ARead%20it%20here%20http%3A%2F%2Fqz.com%2Femail%2Fquartz-obsession%2F1222455%2F%0ASign%20up%20for%20the%20newsletter%20at%20http%3A%2F%2Fqz.com%2Fquartz-obsession) The correct answer to the quiz is Dumplings. 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