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Perfumer
Creates fragrances for perfumes, cosmetics, and consumer products — a "nose" artist.
Did you know?
Chanel No. 5 got its name because Coco Chanel picked the fifth sample vial that perfumer Ernest Beaux showed her in 1920.
How subjects help
- Chemistry: Blend scent molecules and know which ones fade fast and which linger for hours.
- Biology: Understand how the nose detects smells and why a scent changes on each person's skin.
- Art & Design: Compose a fragrance like a piece of music, with top, heart and base notes.
- Business Studies: Create scents that fit a product's budget and what customers actually want to buy.
A famous name
Ernest Beaux: Perfumer who created Chanel No. 5 in 1921, one of the best-known fragrances in the world.
Try it yourself: Sort kitchen smells into families
- Smell each one gently by wafting the air towards your nose. Never sniff cleaning products or unknown bottles.
- Describe each smell in three words.
- Sort them into families: fresh (citrus), green (herbs), warm (spices), sweet.
- Which two would smell nice together, and which would clash?
Perfumers learn to recognise and describe hundreds of scents, then combine them like notes in music.
Also try: Run a fair test with sugar.
Known for it in
France, Switzerland, USA, Italy, India