“Translating the consumer’s language into the perfumer’s language.”
Paula Cantuaria, evaluator, from an interview published in 2020
We often see a perfumer’s name credited as the creator of a perfume. But who smells prototypes that have neither a name nor a bottle, considers whether they are approaching the fragrance requested, and shares that judgment with the perfumer?
That is the work of an evaluator. The word “evaluator” can easily suggest someone who awards scores to finished products. Within fragrance development at a fragrance company, however, evaluators are also creative partners who interpret requests, consider a fragrance’s direction, compare candidates and help move improvements forward.
They turn differences discerned by smelling into words that lead to the next prototype. Following this work shows how a perfume emerges not only from a fine nose, but also from the combined understanding of different specialists.
- What Does an Evaluator Do?
- Interpreting the Request and Setting the Fragrance’s Direction
- Comparing Prototypes and Explaining the Reasons for Improvements
- How Evaluation Differs From Perfumery, Quality Control and Consumer Research
- How Are the Sense of Smell and the Language to Describe It Developed?
- The Collaboration Behind a Bottle of Perfume
- References
What Does an Evaluator Do?
An evaluator’s central role in perfume development is to assess the fragrance against the purpose of the request and advance its development with the perfumer. Job titles and responsibilities, however, vary between companies and departments.
Givaudan calls the relationship between evaluation, perfumery and sales the “golden triangle.” Evaluators understand both fragrance and the market, and move projects forward with perfumers, laboratories, marketing, sales and others. The company also uses the title Creative Fragrance Director for a senior level of this role.
At IFF, a Scent Design Manager (SDM) helps set a fragrance’s direction, provides inspiration, interprets the request and connects understanding of markets and consumers with creation. Different job titles cannot be assumed to mean exactly the same duties at every company, but they share a connection between fragrance creation and the development process as a whole.
Givaudan’s historical account places the introduction of evaluation as a professional role in the late 1970s. It cites increasing product variety, consumer demands and changing trends as factors behind this development. This is the company’s account of the history, not a statement that the profession emerged in the same year at every company worldwide.
Interpreting the Request and Setting the Fragrance’s Direction
Turning a Brief Into Judgments That Can Guide Creation
Development starts with the client’s requirements, known as a brief. IFF’s description of the role includes interpreting briefs and specifications, consumer insights and marketing as part of the creative process, and meeting customers’ technical and creative requirements.
It is therefore not enough to assess a prototype in isolation as “a good smell.” The evaluator must bring the context of the project’s goals and its intended market or brand into the judgment made while smelling. The work involves creativity, the client’s strategy and a technical understanding of fragrance formulation at the same time.
“An SDM is involved in every aspect of the process.”
Kristin Brunner, IFF, from a role profile published in 2017
This does not mean that an SDM performs every specialist task alone. It means considering the creative direction and the conditions needed to make the project work together, rather than in isolation.
Knowing the Market and Stepping Back From Personal Preferences
In an interview published in 2020, Paula Cantuaria was asked about the difference between personally liking perfume and evaluating it against a brief. She described setting aside personal preference as a process of learning every day. What mattered was a deep understanding of the market and the consumer.
While based in Singapore, she developed fragrances not for that country but for surrounding countries. The city where someone works and the market for which the fragrance is intended are not necessarily the same. This distinction illustrates how an evaluator’s judgment cannot be limited to preferences within their own everyday surroundings.
Comparing Prototypes and Explaining the Reasons for Improvements
Choosing Which Ideas to Take Forward Through Blind Evaluation
In a 2015 interview, Naila Hamayed described how she approached a project involving several perfumers. She gathered their ideas and conducted blind smelling sessions with the sales representative. Considering factors such as fit with the brief and the composition of the client’s existing fragrances, she selected ideas to take forward as proposals. She then communicated those choices and the reasons for them to the perfumers.
This is the process she described; not every project involves the same number of people or follows the same steps. What matters here is how impressions gained by smelling become reasoned judgments in relation to the request.
“When you critique a creation, you have to give objective reasons and explain why.”
Naila Hamayed, Givaudan, 2015
Understanding why an improvement is being requested allows the perfumer to consider how to incorporate that feedback into the work. Hamayed says that having the other person understand her perspective and reasoning is part of building trust. More than merely scoring a work, the language of evaluation is also language that enables collaboration to continue.
Considering How a Scent Changes and Performs in a Product
Evaluation is not limited to the first impression rising from a bottle or smelling strip. In personal-care development, Givaudan also studies how a fragrance fills a space and whether it remains perceptible after the skin or hair has dried. Development extends to the situations in which scent works within products such as shampoo.
The conditions that need to be evaluated differ between perfume and everyday consumer products. Beyond the appeal of the scent itself, the questions include what it will be formulated into and in which situations it needs to be perceived. This is why evaluators, perfumers and application specialists are involved.
Cantuaria’s preference for home-use tests likewise reflects the importance she places on consumers spending time with a fragrance. A choice based on a single sniff and the way a scent is received in everyday life involve different questions.
How Evaluation Differs From Perfumery, Quality Control and Consumer Research
All of these roles involve evaluating fragrance at some point. To understand the differences, it helps to consider not only who does the smelling, but also what decision the evaluation is meant to inform.
| Role | Main responsibilities | Connection with the evaluator |
|---|---|---|
| Perfumer | Creates and improves fragrances as formulas, considering combinations and proportions of fragrance ingredients. | Smells prototypes with the evaluator and shares the direction and intended revisions. |
| Development evaluator | Compares the request, the market and prototypes to guide candidate selection and creative direction. | Connects judgments from creation, sales, technical work, research and other areas with development. |
| Quality control | Checks that products meet specified quality requirements through analysis, inspection and other procedures. | May use sensory evaluation, but for a different purpose from selecting development proposals. |
| Consumer research and sensory analysis | Investigates consumer responses or measures a scent’s perceptual characteristics and intensity. | Research and measurement results inform development decisions. |
Checking Quality Versus Choosing a Creative Direction
ISIPCA’s training for laboratory technicians covers product development based on formulas, analytical and control testing, and sensory analysis. Listed career paths include research and development, production, and analysis and quality control. If we consider only the act of “smelling to check,” the boundaries between roles become invisible.
Development asks which fragrance to develop further. Quality control, in contrast, centers on checking product quality. Givaudan also describes safety assessment and formulation control during manufacturing as organized systems. An evaluator’s judgment that a fragrance smells good does not, by itself, complete checks on safety or manufacturing quality.
Even a Trained Nose Cannot Stand In for All Consumers
Givaudan’s 2009 research overview distinguishes sensory analysis from market research. The former uses human perception to describe and measure the characteristics of stimuli. The latter is used to understand consumers’ subjective evaluations and associations. It also distinguishes trained sensory panels from perfumers and development evaluators.
Following this distinction, experts’ understanding of a fragrance’s structure or differences and target consumers’ liking for that fragrance are not the same question. Bringing both kinds of insight back into creation requires judgment from those responsible for development.
The boundaries between departments are not always fixed, however. IFF’s 2021 profile describes SDMs interacting daily with clients, sales and technical teams, while also handling project management. Roles overlap, and their combinations vary from project to project.
How Are the Sense of Smell and the Language to Describe It Developed?
Repeatedly Learning About Ingredients, Market Products and Practical Work
The career of Rajani Jha, speaking in 2020 as a senior evaluator at CPL Aromas, offers a concrete account of learning through work. She entered the fragrance industry in a scent design support role at IFF, studying raw materials, perfumes, market products and market trends under senior perfumers and evaluators.
She says she learned sample preparation in the application laboratory, compounding and raw materials in the sample laboratory, and market research and testing in the consumer insights department. Alongside her ability to smell, she developed an understanding of how samples were prepared and for whom they were being evaluated.
“I like to go back and study perfumery raw materials every day.”
Rajani Jha, 2020
Even once it becomes part of daily work, learning through smelling ingredients and finished fragrances again continues. The memories that provide a basis for comparison are also developed in order to evaluate new prototypes.
Learning Formulation Also Provides a Foundation for Collaboration
ISIPCA, an educational institution specializing in perfume, cosmetics and flavorings, lists both evaluator and perfumer among the career paths for its “Fragrance Expertise Formulation & Applications” program. The curriculum includes olfactory evaluation of fragrance raw materials and formulation of accords, sensory analysis, analytical techniques, marketing, project management and team management. An accord is a coherent olfactory composition created by combining several fragrance ingredients.
The fact that evaluators also study formulation does not mean that they enter the same profession as perfumers. It provides a shared foundation for understanding the materials their collaborators use and the choices they make in creation.
Givaudan, meanwhile, mentions successful evaluators from language-degree backgrounds alongside those who complete specialist training after a science degree. No particular school or subject can be described as the sole route into every company. Training for perfumers is also discussed in our article on the Givaudan Perfumery School (in Japanese).
The Collaboration Behind a Bottle of Perfume
IFF’s SDMs compare themselves to translators and editors. Both metaphors share the idea of understanding another person’s expression and working to help it reach its audience.
Knowing about evaluators’ work makes it harder to see the completion of a perfume solely as the moment when a perfumer has a flash of inspiration and writes a formula. Reading the request, smelling candidates, explaining reasons and refining the work with different specialists: this back-and-forth is also part of giving form to a fragrance.
References
- Original interview with Paula Cantuaria (2020): Persolaise
- History and responsibilities of evaluation, and collaboration with perfumers and sales: Givaudan, “Creative Fragrance Director”
- Kristin Brunner’s description of the SDM role (2017): IFF
- Original interview with Naila Hamayed (2015): Sergey Borisov, Fragrantica
- Fragrance performance and evaluation in personal care: Givaudan, “Experts in personal care”
- Laboratory technician training and career paths including quality control: ISIPCA
- Safety assessment and manufacturing quality management: Givaudan, “Product quality”
- Roles of sensory analysis, market research and sensory panels (2009 research overview, pp. 7–8): Givaudan
- SDMs discussing their careers and responsibilities (2021): IFF, “Meet a Scent Design Manager”
- Original interview with Rajani Jha (2020): The Interview Portal
- Training for aspiring evaluators and related roles: ISIPCA, “Fragrance Expertise Formulation & Applications”
