Join me at ISIPCA’s Summer School

I’ve often regretted I didn’t even know perfumer was a thing, much less that there was such a thing as a perfumery school, when I was a teenager in Montreal. Today, I’m thrilled to announce that though I never studied at ISIPCA, I’m going to teach there: the Versailles School of Perfumery has asked me to give two courses in their “French Touch” Summer School, a 10-day program entirely dedicated to perfumery “à la française”, from 27 June to 8 July. The course is open to all (who can afford it).

I will be teaching perfume history – a mad dash through 4000 years of perfumery in a single morning, focusing on 10 scents that changed the world (though I’ve cheated by adding another two).

After participants have spent a few days being initiated to raw materials and learning the basics of fragrance formulation, I’ll be swooping in again for a day and a half of olfactory evaluation exercises.

Now the more academic approach here would be to run through fragrance families. But the aim of those 10.5 hours being to make sense of what’s come before, I’ve put together a program of exercises, games and discussions that’s much less academic and, hopefully, more fun and challenging. The focus will be on the questions that the online perfume community has been discussing for a decade: How do you make sense of a scent? What makes a good perfume?

I’m informed there are still a few places available. Should you be so inclined, I’d love to see you there!

 

You’ll find the details by clicking on this link.