Steve Nicoll, Master Perfumer at IFF and an ISPC member, as well as part of the ISPC/IFRA Committee, is sharing the core content of his presentation from the IFRA Global Fragrance Summit 2025 held in Singapore with the entire ISPC perfumer community.
Steve’s session focused on “From Apprentice to Master Perfumer: A Personal Journey Through Fragrance, Innovation and Mentorship.” He also discussed the collaboration between IFRA and ISPC.
“I always wanted to understand how things work and that curiosity has motivated me every day throughout my career. Perfumery is a career where we are constantly learning, presented with challenging opportunities to excel.
IFRA
The first IFRA standards were published in 1976 and my early work focused on making sure that I used those to create compliant fragrances. Today, almost 50 years later, we are close to the 52nd amendment and recently I received IFRA’s 1217th information letter.
Originally I felt that IFRA were “the enemy” working to limit my creations, ban materials, set levels that were a challenge. Later I came to realize that what they were doing was working to protect Perfumery and the people who use fragranced products. Establishing safe use levels with a good margin to protect consumers and us from over exposure.
Historically IFRA’s guidance originated from Ingredient safety studies carried out by RIFM and member companies. Today, the industry is moving towards more ethical, non-animal based safety assessments utilizing state of the art in-vitro and in-silico methodologies.
In recent years we have seen more and more legislation of fragrance ingredients both Natural and Synthetic. The European REACH and Cosmetic Regulations are a prime example, plus a lot of country specific registration requirements of new ingredients. This makes it much more challenging when creating global themes.
The changing legislation landscape is not all bad when we accept that it offers us an opportunity to change the status quo. To do things in a different way, to create a new solution that can deliver a fragrance that will still delight a consumer.
ISPC
Six years ago I joined with Perfumers and members from the ISPC to work with a group at IFRA directly. Our role is to support them in defending the Perfumer Palette in a number of ways. For example we can provide historic demonstration formulas highlighting the challenges in removing specific materials in classic themes, helping them understand the uniqueness of the material, etc
For me this is critically important, we need to continue to have Industry work hand in hand with IFRA to help preserve our palette as much as possible and I encourage all of you here to get involved where possible.
Innovation
As a Perfumer our role is to delight the Consumer, one way I believe we can do that is by using Technology. About 20 years ago I was part of the team at IFF who helped develop our first Capsules for liquid Laundry products. Market products at the time were missing the dry performance consumers wanted and our only recourse was to add huge amounts of fragrance to the products in the hope that enough would survive through the process.
With our original capsule technology we were able to refine it and the fragrance contained inside it to deliver something superior to the consumer when the fragrance is released. One other big benefit is that it is much more efficient and so we require significantly less total fragrance in the product and less ends up in the environment.
Another area of innovation I have been involved with is new molecule discovery. We define by category our needs and then communicate that to the R&D team. We then assess everything that is made against those business needs and competitive benchmarks. Always being open to something unexpected.
With the changing regulatory landscape it is very important to continue to develop new molecules that meet the needs of Perfumer Creations.
Closing thoughts
It gives us the opportunity to touch so many people through our creations and enhance their lives, even if only in a small way. That should make us happy.
As a consumer fragrance Perfumer I know that many of my creations will not survive over time. Fragrances can change or be updated to reflect the current consumer trends and needs or the regulatory landscape.
My Legacy will not just be the creations I have made over the years, but also the help I have been able to give Perfumers as they launch their careers.
My hope is that they can continue to create groundbreaking new fragrances that will delight consumers, utilizing a broad palette of beautiful ingredients that includes both centuries old naturals and synthetics as well as cutting edge innovative new molecules and technologies – guided by risk based IFRA standards and a proportionate regulatory framework rooted in science.”
We Thank Steve for his contribution to the ISPC/ IFRA Committee in defending the perfumer palette!
