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Dominique Gindre
I鈥檝e just been told that the perfume I wear every day contains hints of patchouli and moss, and is just a little bit 鈥渙ld womanly鈥�. I鈥檝e also been told not to worry because those scents are coming back into fashion. Phew.
The man casting this judgement should know 鈥� as a perfumer, or 鈥渘ose鈥�, at fragrance house Takasago, Dominique Gindre has been trained to distinguish over 2000 smells. Takasago makes fragrances for fine perfumes, such as Cool Water by Davidoff Parfums and Boss Spirit for Hugo Boss, and detergents and shampoos.
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Dominique鈥檚 favourite smell is 鈥淣arciso Rodriguez for Her鈥� but he鈥檚 more familiar with the whiff of clean clothes as he specialises in making your laundry smell nice. 鈥淎 customer will give me a brief before they launch a new product. I go away to my computer and concoct the recipe for this fragrance out of natural extracts and artificial aromatics. This is then handed to a lab assistant who makes it up and then I smell it to see if it matches the brief,鈥� he explains. Sometimes he gets it right on the first attempt, but often it can take up to 100 different mixtures to capture the perfect aroma.
The hardest part of the process is understanding the brief, Dominique says, as every smell is individual to every nose. This makes it difficult to match the adjective to the smell 鈥� one man鈥檚 鈥渇resh鈥� is another woman鈥檚 鈥渇ruity鈥�.
Dominique studied chemistry and biology at Cergy-Pontoise University near Paris, France. At weekends he worked in a perfumery to earn some cash. 鈥淚t was here I discovered the perfume world,鈥� he says. Although Dominique failed their English test, his natural ability in chemistry and olfaction meant he was accepted into the prestigious and Flavour in Versailles. Here he spent two years learning the smells of raw ingredients and then how to mix them. 鈥淯sually you are a good perfumer after 10 years, but employers will take you on after three,鈥� he says.
Dominique has been in the business for seven years now. He admits the industry is tough to get into: 鈥淭here are just a handful of really top perfumers in the world. You must be motivated, passionate and prepared to work really hard.鈥� But the job does have its rewards. 鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing better than having a customer really like a smell that you鈥檝e created from scratch.鈥�
聯There鈥檚 nothing better than having a customer like a smell that you鈥檝e created from scratch聰