We are live at the Grasse Institute of Perfumery.
I just finished my first class, and I got to meet some perfumery students.
I wanted to introduce you to them, so what I'm gonna do is pass along the camera and
everybody's going to introduce themselves, and tell us how they got interested in perfumery.
Her we go, here's student number one.
Which of you ladies wants to go first?
Me.
All right.
Okay, hello?
I'm Julia from Spain.
I'm a student here in GIP (Grasse Institute of Perfumery).
And since I have memory I have been so interested in perfumery.
So that's why I decided to come here to learn more and to become a perfumer one day if it's
possible.
Yes.
Wonderful, nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
Okay, and you?
Hello, I'm Caroline.
I'm from Brazil.
My first contact with perfumery was four years ago when I came to France and I did an internship
here.
So I graduated in Brazil in chemical engineer and I decided to follow this career because
it's amazing.
And we can put our feelings inside a bottle.
So for me-
Oh I love that.
Feelings inside a bottle, that's a beautiful way to describe it.
And you said you're a chemical engineer.
Yeah.
Does that help you understand the art a little bit better knowing the technical side of things?
Yeah, but I think that for perfumery you have to be a very sensitive, very empathic, and
I think that helped me a lot.
Oh my God, I'm gonna get all emotional over this.
It sounds so beautiful.
All right, great, wonderful.
Well it's nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
And thank you for being here.
Okay, so let's check out somebody else.
Who are you?
Hello, good morning.
I am Chileste from Italy.
My first experience was in Florence.
Okay.
In a cosmetic, perfumery company.
So I had my experience there, and I started to know a little part of the perfumery world.
And I became passionate.
So you got a taste, you got a taste of it and then you became passionate.
Okay.
Exactly.
And I figure out some raw materials by myself.
And yeah, I became very passionate.
And I decided to apply to this school.
And-
Was it difficult to get in?
Yes, because we have a very long interview.
Four hours more or less.
Yes, four hour, more or less.
And so we have test, olfactory test.
And an interview with a director.
And yeah, we are actually 12 (students) every year.
So 12 in all of the worlds.
A very exclusive group then.
And then from all over the world too, right?
You were saying you were from Italy.
Yes.
Some people are from Brazil.
So it's a very eclectic group.
Yes.
Wonderful.
So I'm happy, and I would like to become a perfumer.
Wonderful.
One day.
Well it's nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
Let's see who else we have here.
Hi, who are you?
Hi guys.
I'm Jordan, there are guys in perfumery as well as you can see.
Yeah.
I'm a minority.
That's right.
So I'm actually passionate about perfume for a very long time.
And I-
Starting when?
Starting since I was a young boy, I think I was collecting bottles.
Wow.
Trying to recognize the smell that people were wearing.
Okay.
So very passionate about it, and-
I didn't catch really quick, where are you from?
Oh, I'm from France.
My accent I think give me away a little bit.
Oh I guess not!
I am tone deaf.
So I'm very happy to be in this school as Chileste was saying, we are 12 students from
all over the world.
And I love that, you know, the fact that you are different references.
We have different we are smelling, different culture.
And I having this opportunity for one year to become a perfumer is just amazing.
Right.
So one year.
I hear it's an intensive, so-
It is intensive, but I think you know we have to start by this way.
I mean we have like 400, 500 raw material to learn.
Right.
In a year.
And we also need to combine them to create different smell.
So yeah, we're all very motivated.
Right, so you're teaching your nose.
Yes.
Okay.
And also how to describe the smell.
So it's not only about being able to say, it smell like lemon, but what does lemon can
you describe.
You know?
Can you describe what lemon smells like?
And have a real acute understanding of.
Absolutely.
Okay, wow that's really impressive.
So welcome to Grasse, and welcome come to the school.
Thank you, I really [crosstalk 00:04:42] nice to meet you too.
All right.
Who else do we have?
Hi.
You wanna jump on camera real fast, let's squeeze in.
Okay, so we can both get in here.
Hey.
Who are you?
I'm Olivia.
I'm from London.
London.
As you can tell from the accent.
So I studied biochemistry, and I thought I was gonna go into cancer research or something.
I did a few internships.
But I realized I needed something a bit more creative, so years ago my family used to visit
the south of France, and my sister would point out all these perfume factories.
She was like, this is the most amazing career.
But she didn't like science, so when I liked science she was like, okay I'm taking you
to make a perfume for yourself.
And as soon as I did it I realized-
That was it.
This is it for me, I have to do that.
So I was working for a year in England in retail.
And marketing and research and development.
And yeah, then I applied for this school and I got in.
Wonderful.
And how is school going so far?
How far along are you?
It's good.
We're just about to start actually making the perfumes.
So currently we're just students and soon we'll actually be like trainee perfumers.
Wow.
Legit perfumers.
Exactly.
Legit perfumers.
Okay, great.
So we have time for one more.
Would you like to hop on camera?
Hi, okay.
You are?
Hello, I am Nikola from France.
Hi, Nikola.
Hi.
Nice to meet you.
So I'm have a degree of chemistry.
And after I used to work, I did the master of Montpellier, of flavor and fragrance.
And after I used to work for two years in quality control, in a company of perfumes.
And raw materials.
And after I changed my mind because I'm passion in perfumes and about formulations.
So I would like to become perfumer or an evaluator, I don't know yet.
But that's why I come to GIP (Grasse Institute of Perfumery).
And it's very interesting, very hard because we smell a lot every day of raw materials.
They smell a lot, I like that.
Good things, hopefully.
So much.
But it's good, we learn a lot of things very interesting.
Happy to be here.
Wonderful.
Okay, so we have some people saying hi right now.
We have minimalist23, hi minimalist23, thank you for joining what we're doing-
That's me.
Oh that's you.
We are interviewing right now some student perfumers at Grasse.
And we also have Olivia, do we have an Olivia in here?
Olivia Nushka, oh okay.
Great.
So we have one more student that we needed to interview, let's hop on over.
Who are you mystery fellow?
Hi.
I'm [inaudible 00:07:24] Kim from South Korea.
And I studied art history.
And then English literature, so it's not like any other people like here.
So how did you get into perfumery then?
I always.. it's kind of a hop.
yes.
I also I always have strong desire to express myself.
And then the perfume is very good media to me.
Yeah.
And then, yeah.
How did you make the jump, I'm curious?
How did you, given that you didn't have a background in perfumery, how did you know
that this was it?
I studied in Korea, it's like a perfume institute.
And then I just studied for one year, and then I just applied here and then yeah.
I'm here.
It's very very inspiring and everyone is super nice.
We smell a lot.
It's very intense, but-
I'm gonna make you guys a shirt that say, we smell a lot.
And let people infer whether that's smelling bad or smelling good.
Smelling good.
Yeah.
Wonderful.
Well it's a pleasure to meet you.
Yes.
Pleasure to meet you.
Great.
Well that's some of the students that are here.
Some of the 12 that are studying.
What I'm going to do is you will get to hear some of the stories of these students, you'll
get to meet some of the professors teaching theses students.
And we're just gonna enjoy our week and have a great experience in fragrance.
I'll catch you guys soon.
Bye.