Interview with Wanting He, Perfumer at Iberchem Guangzhou

Today we caught up with Wanting He, Iberchem’s perfumer at Iberchem Guangzhou in China.

Wanting has been working at Iberchem for 5 years. She graduated in Fragrance and Scent Technologies at Shanghai Institute of Technology. During her studies, she was given the opportunity to train at ISIPCA in Paris. When she finished her training, she started working at Iberchem, and has been there ever since.

For those who are not familiar with your profession, what do you do on a day-to-day basis as a perfumer?

As a perfumer, my job is to create fragrances and scents for all kinds of applications, from fine perfumery to detergents, air fresheners, and personal hygiene. The work I devote most time and effort to is the creation of the fragrances themselves, that is, to create them from scratch according to the client’s requirements. It entails mixing ingredients and raw materials to achieve the final product, which undergoes endless refinements in order to perfectly satisfy the client’s expectations, always including my own personal signature in each and every one of the creations.

It’s a very interesting process and can be very special indeed on some occasions. For example, once a customer wanted a fragrance with the same aroma as a milky tea made with taro (an African root vegetable). To get to know the aroma well, and to enable me to create a fragrance as closely resembling it as possible, I spent two weeks drinking this particular tea in different places in order to get to know all the variants. As you can imagine, it’s a lengthy process involving lots of trial and error before I could finally achieve the desired result.

What do you most like about working at Iberchem?

Iberchem is a very dynamic company with a good corporate culture. The company is always striving for ways to improve and innovate. Being able to work with the very latest technology on the market is also a very important factor for me as a perfumer.

It is an excellent place for a perfumer to develop their career and to grow and improve every day because you are involved in a variety of different projects with different applications and creative processes.

The most important part for me personally was the fact that Iberchem offered me the opportunity to become a perfumer. When I finished my training I joined the company’s laboratory analysis team and, little by little, I underwent internal training through the IRIS internal training program. Finally, I became a junior perfumer, my dream job ever since I was a little girl.

In your capacity as a perfumer, what would you say are the olfactory trends in China at the moment?

The current fragrance trends in China are all about natural and fresh fragrances, especially among the younger population as they are the most environmentally conscious of all.

The most in-demand fragrances today are fresh, but not overpowering, such as floral, fruity and herbal aromas. Out of these three, floral notes lead the way in China, as they are generally the most culturally accepted here, and traditionally what we have always been accustomed to.

However, having said that, consumers are becoming increasingly open to trying new products and flavors from all over the world. However, changing people’s buying habits and personal tastes is a fairly lengthy process.

What is your favorite olfactory accord?

My favorite accord is tropical fruity. Fruity notes are definitely some of the most common ones in the perfumery world, as they combine so well with floral, citrusy, and green notes among many others.

I find this accord to be particularly special, as it signifies passion, vitality, and youth.

It has a striking intensity, so just applying a couple of drops of it can really change the fragrance; it can create a distinctive touch for those who wear it.

How would you define China’s aroma?

That’s a difficult and personal question to answer. In my opinion, the aroma that would best describe China is the one of traditional Chinese medicine, which uses a wide variety of plants. The two most common are the angelica and ginseng. I think all Chinese citizens have used traditional medicine at some point in their lives, and you could say that it has always been a part of us.

Many types of traditional medicine can only be found in our country, which is why I feel that it is one of the things that most represents us. People outside of China know very little about this traditional medicine and see it as a mystery. This is why I think it’s an aroma that represents well China.