Name: Alice Rebeck
Job Title: Senior Perfumer, Agilex Fragrances
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Name: Alice Rebeck
Job Title: Senior Perfumer, Agilex Fragrances
Location: Piscataway, New Jersey, USA
What led you to the fragrance industry?
Fate! I answered an ad for a lab tech … It happened to be in a flavor lab. That got me started in this business.
Can you share a defining moment or breakthrough in your career as a perfumer?
More fate! When my next company was acquired by a flavor and fragrance company, I was given the choice of transferring to the GC lab of the fragrance division or moving to Indianapolis to stay in flavors. I chose to stay put. The raw materials were mainly the same, and smelled the same. I just had to get used to sticking the blotter in my nose instead of my mouth.
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced when entering the perfume industry, and how did you overcome them?
My biggest challenge was the “good ol’ boys” club. Don’t laugh. Anyone who wasn’t working 50 years ago has no idea what it was like for a woman in any position other than menial or administrative. We were OK as minions, but not managers.
What changed that? I hate to sound like a preview of a Lifetime movie, but the EEOC [U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] and NOW [National Organization for Women] slowly changed attitudes about women in the workforce.
Can you describe a time when a fragrance formulation didn’t turn out as expected? How did you address the issue?
Unexpected outcomes happen all the time. It is addressed by checking the formula for silly mistakes and then trying a new combination. People look at fragrance as an art, but its roots are firmly based in science. Sometimes unexpected reactions happen, like a purple colored oil. Trial and effect are critical to fragrance development and perfumer training.
How do you find the right balance between artistic expression and the technical limitations of perfume formulation?
Technical limitations are dictated as much by regulatory restrictions as the technical requirements of an application. There is as much, if not more, creativity in technical and regulatory revisions as there is in initial formulation. A perfumer has to know each ingredient, the odor profile, volatility, solubility and relative strength, to be able to make a stable, compliant, effective fragrance.
Are there specific skills or knowledge areas you believe are crucial for a perfumer to master?
Chemistry and math. Like it or not, fragrances are made up of molecules, both natural and synthetic. Without knowledge of how these molecules can interact the perfumer is handicapped. We don’t need a Ph.D. in chemistry, but basic principles are necessary. You don’t have to be able to write the molecular formula but you need to know things like: aldehydes and amines react violently sometimes.
