Robert Siegel

Abstract: A day in the life of the small fragrance house perfumer. The small house perfumer wears many hats—fragrance creator, customer liaison, writer, crisis manager, last minute shopper and more. Here, author Robert Siegel presents a frank, humorous view from the trenches, offering a look inside the ever-evolving day-to-day responsibilities, pressures and quirks of the fragrance business.

9:00 AM
Monday morning. I arrive at work, ready to tackle several new projects due this week. On the way, I had been thinking about how I want to finish that pomegranate fragrance I’ve been working on for one of our West Coast candle customers, reassuring myself vehemently that it’s not a big rush, even though I’ve had it on my desk for a few days, and now I finally have a chance to work on it, after having been occupied all of last week creating several new baby wipe fragrances for a prominent client.

9:15 AM
Checking email. Here’s one from our purchasing agent:
     “Help! Production is making an old formula, and needs a replacement for mousse de chene yuogo absolute. We last purchased it from Camilli, Albert & Laloue in 1989.”
     OK, I can assist. I look at our inventory list of oakmoss absolutes. Seems we have about 10 of them, though I see we have no stock on most. We need to clean up this list someday. OK, here’s one that seems close.
     “Use code number 3232” I tell her. “We’re better off anyway, since it is IFRA-safe. I know this raises the raw material cost by 14 cents, but that old material’s price was outdated anyway.”
     We’ll worry about that later.