Early Life
Sophia was born on March 8, 1945, in Ljubcha, a village not shown on maps, in the Novogrusky region of Belarus. Belarus was then part of the former Soviet Union and formally gained independence in 1991. Sophia’s childhood memories were not of toys, but of nature and woodland flowers, including roses and jasmine. Another early memory concerns the years just after the war, when there was no refrigerator: on trips to the market together, Sophia’s mother would have Sophia smell food and judge its freshness from Sophia’s facial expression. Even at this age, Sophia had an excellent sense of smell.
When Sophia was fifteen, the parents, thinking of their daughter’s future, moved the family to Poland, where Sophia entered the education system for the first time. Sophia reportedly adapted immediately, learned quickly and was so clever as to whisper answers to classmates. Studying physics and chemistry and particularly gifted at mathematics, Sophia initially wanted to become a doctor. However, unable to afford medical school, Sophia earned a bachelor’s degree in analytical inorganic chemistry, a field involving analytical techniques such as chromatography, at a Polish university.
The turning point came in 1965, when a Jewish family whom Sophia’s father had helped during the Nazi dictatorship invited Sophia’s family to the United States. After immigrating, Sophia heard that it would be possible to attend medical school later and began working in a laboratory at New York University. However, the sight of a container of blood made Sophia feel faint, revealing that a medical career was not possible. Sophia then interviewed at an IFF (in Japanese) laboratory and somehow managed to be hired as a technician in perfumer Ellie Fox’s laboratory. The laboratory made deodorants and soaps, and Sophia’s first creation was a soap formula that remained on the market for the next 25 years. This laboratory experience taught Sophia the joy of having many people use something one has created every day. Sophia then reviewed the soap formula, examined the ingredients in detail and investigated why a particular ingredient was there or why another was present in excess. Sophia remained in the laboratory for four years while also studying organic chemistry.
It makes me happy when people are satisfied with my products. My goal is to help women smell good at as little cost as possible.
Sophia Grojsman
Meeting Mentors and Becoming a Perfume Legend
I had smelled the fragrance materials in the laboratory, but I had no idea at all how perfume was made. My impression was that you picked flowers, put them in alcohol and mixed them together.
Sophia Grojsman
In IFF’s laboratory, Sophia had two encounters that would profoundly shape a career in perfumery: with perfumers Josephine Catapano (in Japanese) and Ernest Shiftan (1903–1976). At the same time, Tom Joy, a salesperson at Estée Lauder (in Japanese), introduced Sophia to Mrs. Lauder, creating a connection with Estée Lauder as well.
Ernest Shiftan, IFF’s chief perfumer at the time, was the person who encouraged Sophia to become a perfumer. Shiftan later became a vice president at IFF. Sophia always tries to keep formulas simple when creating an accord (in Japanese), an influence of this mentor.
Josephine Catapano (December 29, 1918–May 14, 2012) was the legendary female perfumer who composed Youth Dew, Estée Lauder’s first perfume and bath oil, in 1953, as well as Guy Laroche’s Fidji (1966). When Catapano became head of management, Sophia, a favorite of Catapano’s, gained an opportunity to receive training. This opened the way for Sophia to begin a full-fledged career as a perfumer.
Sophia compares perfume creation to music. Sophia usually begins by finding the main chord and never includes more than five to seven notes in a single chord. This is based on the belief that trying to improve a scent by adding notes only makes it “dirtier.”
Many of Sophia’s creations are celebrated perfumes, but two particularly important examples are Yves Saint Laurent (in Japanese)’s Paris and Lancôme’s Trésor.
By the Way…
Also known as a master of roses and the queen of roses, Sophia has created rose perfumes including the dewy rose of Paris (1983), the soft, powdery rose of Trésor (1990), the blue rose of Champagne (1993, YSL) and the white-cloud rose of True Love (1994, Elizabeth Arden (in Japanese)).
I love all flowers. But I think rose (in Japanese) is the note best suited to perfume. It is feminine, smells of petals and is wonderfully youthful.
Sophia Grojsman
Above all, Sophia Grojsman has an inseparable connection with laundry products such as soaps and fabric softeners. Sophia also loves creating laundry and body products! Among the known examples is the April Fresh scent for Downy, released by P&G in 1991, which Sophia created.
Fine-fragrance (in Japanese) perfumers attract attention because of their connection to the world of fashion, but in fact, in their skill at handling scent, they cannot match toiletry perfumers, who do something like the work of a great poker player. In other words, toiletries require the technical skill to paint a beautiful world over the odors of foul-smelling chemicals.
Thierry Wasser
Sophia has continued making perfumes in the hope of bringing women happiness and has never created products for men or fragrances containing a masculine character. Except, that is, for Outrageous!, created for Frédéric Malle (in Japanese).
I do not like putting masculine-smelling materials into women’s fragrances. Lemon and ozonic notes tire me. Those smells suggest cleanliness rather than sensuality, so I think they belong in laundry products and room sprays. That is why I give every ingredient a meaning and try to use ingredients that fit my ideas. If the smells I used were strange, I would get bored. For that reason, I try to avoid citrus and fresh scents in my perfumes.
Sophia Grojsman
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