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The Perfumers Driving the Fragrance Industry

While brand names and celebrities get the public to buy scents, it’s leading behind-the-scenes noses who fuel innovation and set key trends.

A test tube with pink fragrance ingredients. — With the creation of perfume formulas outsourced to just a handful of fragrance manufacturers like Givaudan and DSM-Firmenich, many of the top selling fragrances across the market are created by a recurring set of figures. (Shutterstock)

By

Emily Jensen

26 March 2024

BoF PROFESSIONAL

If a shopper were to go to a perfume counter and smell Tom Ford Ébène Fumé and Clinique Happy, it would be difficult to see commonalities between the two; the former is a smoky, woodsy scent that retails for nearly $300, the other a citrus and floral blend that costs a third of the price. But the creator of both scents is the same person: the perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux. But you won’t find his name anywhere on the bottle.

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Beauty:Fragrance

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