PART 2 – Flashback Interview With Antonio Palomino, Chief Perfumer
- Iberchem Fragrances
- 26 October, 2017
- Categories: Interview, Fragrances
The role of the perfumer
Palomino’s office is what one would expect from a perfumer’s workplace: glass walls and a full-height window letting the Mediterranean sunlight flood the room. Most of the space is occupied by a large table filled with formulas, numbered vials corresponding to tests, blotters and more blotters. “The increase in the number of launches has obviously changed the perfumer’s daily work. Most of us need to work faster, and our work is more and more guided, not to say dictated, by the trends of the market. For instance, although I would like to work with galbanum, if the market says the consumer doesn’t like this note, chances are that I’ll have to work with a different one. Creativity is still here, it simply articulates itself differently.”
Greatest achievement
During his 45 years in the industry, Antonio Palomino has worked on countless projects and given life to thousands of fragrances, from fine perfumery to personal care products. However, his greatest achievement is not an olfactory one. “The thing I’m the proudest of is all these perfumers [pointing at the perfumers working in the adjoining rooms as an example] who have been trained at Iberchem. We have great talent here, and I’m pleased to say that they gained most of their knowledge and expertise here, working with us.”