The Perfume Industry in France- Could you be a ‘Nose’?

The Perfume Industry in France is one of the most important sectors of the economy, with several university schools and colleges across the country training the next generation of perfumers in the highly-scientific, yet mysterious, arts of fragrance creation.

On Thursday 25th September, students from Years 7 and 9 attended a workshop run by Mrs Russell to see if they had the potential to become one of the highly-skilled ‘Noses’: the perfumers responsible for creating perfumes.

Students were introduced to five key scents and had the opportunity to smell them. They then learned about the lavender fields of Provence and the town of Grasse, the ancient centre for perfumery in France. They also watched a video about the history of the perfume industry in France and the qualifications needed to become a ‘Nose’. At the end of the session, they smelled the same scents again but this time without knowing which was which- they had to identify them from fragrance-memory alone! A tiebreaker was set to see if anyone could identify a mystery scent.

Each participant was given a lavender bag as a souvenir of the lavender fields of Provence. Emylia C in 7JFL correctly identified all five scents and has been crowned as the Sacred Heart Champion Nose of 2025!