Global fragrance giant Givaudan’s perfumery school in Paris has enrolled its first Taiwanese student, Ho Cheng-han (何承涵), a practicing fragrance designer.
Ho, 29, said that she comes from a family of fragrance designers, adding that her sister Ho Yi-hua (何怡樺) created President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) customized fragrance “Pacific Wind 2011” and is a published author.
Ho Cheng-han said that she had long been interested in the family’s trade and began training a year after she graduated from a college in the UK, adding that she applied to Givaudan’s school after one year of training in Grasse, France.
Givaudan employees may apply to the school with an entrance interview, while outside applicants must submit a resume and pass a battery of olfactory tests and at least a dozen interviews, she said.
Outside applicants who pass the tests and interviews must undergo a final interview conducted by the school’s head and the directors of the company’s departments, she added.
Trainees are considered employees of Givaudan, which subsidizes their living and travel expenses, Ho Cheng-han said, adding that after completing a four-year curriculum, graduates are ready to work as perfumers for the firm.
“I am very lucky to become the first Taiwanese to enroll in the school. I have always wanted to become a perfumer,” Ho Cheng-han said. “Because of my father’s love of essential oils, there were always the woody scents of lavender, rosemary and roses at home.”
“My childhood in Nantou County’s Jhong Sing New Village (中興新村) also exposed me to a wide range of plant and flower scents,” Ho Cheng-han added.
Perfumery is an art and a science, and the school often takes trainees to art museums and opera houses for inspiration, she said.
The first year of study is dedicated to monomers and natural ingredients, requiring students to memorize more than 500 scents and pass several tests to advance to the second year, she added.
The school, now based in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil, was founded in Grasse in 1946 under the direction of Roure perfumer Jean Carles.
The school has trained more than one-third of the world’s perfumers. Its alumni include luminaries such as former Hermes chief perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena, Guerlain perfumer Thierry Wasser and former Chanel perfumer Jacques Polge.
The Switzerland-headquartered company has perfumery departments in many nations, with its offices in Singapore and Shanghai serving as its centers of operations in Asia.
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