The Computer as the Perfumer’s Helper

Perfumery and computers are completely different, and therefore they compliment each other perfectly. Perfumery is a totally creative activity, not based on any known scientific or physiological rules or standards. Perfumery is truly a creative business where talent and experience count for everything.

Computers are the perfect idiot. They will never have an original creative thought, but they forget nothing and calculate perfectly. They can give back to you whatever you put in, nothing more and nothing less. By putting in the tremendous variety of detail that every perfumer must accumulate over many years of training and practice and retrieving it quickly, the computer makes the perfumer’s job both easier and more efficient.

One of the major advantages of a computer-based formulating system is the retention of all formulation work done by the company, whether experimental or final formulas that are sold. This means that a formula file can be searched for odor characteristics, cost levels, stability data and application information. More than once I have seen perfumers searching frantically through old notebooks to try to find formula work previously done that was never properly filed or identified.

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