Wow, three decades is a long time. Did you ever feel like changing your career though?

It was when the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami hit Indonesia that I had second thoughts about my profession. From where I was in France at the time, watching the devastation that hit Indonesia was heartbreaking. And it shook me to my core; suddenly, I felt like my job wasn’t as important anymore because as a perfumer, what did I do that contributed to society at all? These healthcare professionals and human crisis workers were all saving lives that were devastated, so what was I doing to help? I wanted to leave everything to join a humanitarian organisation and help those communities. But I had two very young children at the time, and I couldn’t afford to just drop everything. 

I love what I do though, don’t get me wrong. After the tsunami happened, my colleagues at the time listened to my doubts, and they told me this: “Though the impact [we make as perfumers] may not be visible straightaway, the things we create do bring a kind of joy to people.”

There’s a beauty in that, and it made me feel better—it made me fall in love with my job a little more. To not only be able to create, but to create for others as well as myself? It’s hard to put it into words, but it satisfies one’s soul.

There’s a joy in creating for others while making something for yourself as well, isn’t it? Sharing that idea or that feeling you have in the form of a perfume?

Absolutely. And because we make fragrances with people from all walks of life in mind, it is welcoming in a sense that it is required that perfumers learn to understand and embrace all of society and humanity. In the various fragrance companies that I worked with, it was multiracial and multicultural. It was so beautiful and it was what made our fragrances so unique. At the end of the day, our goal is to create a fragrance that no matter the demographic, they would want to wear it.

Has the fragrance industry changed since you joined?

Yes, absolutely. In so many ways I think—and because I’ve gone through different phases myself—aspects of my job have changed as well. When I first started, I was creating fragrance for detergents and from there I changed companies; at the time I joined, it was called Givaudan Roure but now it’s just Givaudan. Givaudan Roure used to be a smaller company when I first joined and now it’s one of the three main players in the fragrance industry across the globe. 

It’s also a very competitive job; there are many preliminary stages for us to go through and often more than not, four or more perfumers will work on a perfume. And sometimes, one project will take us four and a half years to produce. 

I remember taking on a project that took 10 years to do. It’s a lot of refining and tweaking, and not a lot of people realise that to distil these raw materials, it takes a lot of time.

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As a perfumer, are there any scents that you gravitate towards whenever you create a fragrance?

I think I had phases, but one thing that’s always been my staple is spices. And that’s where my Malaysian roots come in. My mother is Malay and my father is Indian, so my mother would cook us Indian food and use all these spices, making her own mixtures for the curry. I remember that she used to grind coriander and cumin and I grew up with that. Which is why I always add a dash of spice to my formulas. One time, during one of the many stages I’ve been through, I was in this tonka-benzoin (a type of balsamic resin with a sweet vanilla body) phase—background notes I was obsessed with. I also love ylang ylang as well.

Warm scents are always my go-to; I love having a sense of comfort for the base notes so I use a lot of very warm scents which is my Malaysian roots talking. But I also love fresh citrus; I like mixing bergamot or mandarin with very woody background notes. I had a phase where I was doing citrusy fragrances as well. With Idôle, I also had a period where I played with roses. And at some point, the combo of orris, amber and pear notes. I like coming up with new ideas as I go along, changing and switching through different phases. 

What are some of the most favourite creations you’ve ever done?

This is a hard question! It’s like trying to choose your favourite child. But because each fragrance tells a story, every single one of them is important to me. The first two fine fragrances that I made were important to me because they were what established me as an official perfumer. It’s the Sisley number three; they’re relaunching it again so I’m super happy. It had notes of ginger, vetiver and patchouli; it’s very refreshing.

And of course, Lancôme’s Idôle was very important to me. It was a very challenging project because for large-scale commercial projects, we would run test fragrances in certain countries, and if people liked it, then you win the project. So for L’Oréal, we tested in France, the United States, and China too. The team cried together when we were enlisted to create the fragrance; it was a huge milestone for us, so to speak, because L’Oréal was always one of the biggest benchmarks every perfumer wanted to work with.

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