The Perfumery School employs a structured training technique, designed by its founder – Jean Carles – and continuously updated over 60 years. Aspiring perfumers at the Perfumery School systematically learn the entire spectrum of fragrance genealogy and develop an olfactive memory of hundreds of ingredients.

Students spend three years studying; learning lists of raw materials by contrast; memorising the characteristics of each olfactive family, before moving on to the subtleties between family members. Only when this knowledge is embedded can students move on to learn the techniques involved in blending an accord.

Modern perfumers do not create in isolation, so Givaudan perfumery students will also spend time learning about the chemistry of fragrance, understanding how technical departments work alongside the creative ones in a global company, as well as developing their inter-personal skills.

The creative spirit is nurtured in the Perfumery School, with students encouraged to travel, to explore, to imbue themselves in everything on offer to them and to experiment with translating their experiences into scent. It is a time of creative freedom, a time when youthfulness can inspire fresh interpretation of familiar themes.