Looking back in my records, I find that I took the PerfumerWorld Foundation Course in 2005 and I have been recommending it to others ever since.

I paid for the course almost immediately after discovering that it existed. If you don't know it already, training in fine, creative perfumery is almost impossible to find today. Even within the world's largest fragrance houses, training in perfumery is minimal and limited to a handful of carefully selected employees. The ISAPP in France offers perfumery training but requires several years of daily classroom attendance, and the ability to speak French fluently is recommended.

In fact, PerfumersWorld is the only institution — worldwide — that offers serious perfumery training on a home study basis. I was lucky to have discovered them.

When I sent in my money I had been looking for a way to learn more about perfumery. I had already purchased several "professional level" books on perfumery, one of which cost more than the PerfumersWorld Foundation Course! These books were somewhat helpful but there was much discussion of the raw materials of perfumery and, without these materials at hand, or any way to obtain and "play" with them, the book simply teased without delivering the information I sought — knowledge of how perfume — the compound or "juice" — is actually created. And how I could learn to create an original perfume myself.

Going backward in time, at the point when I discovered, and ordered, the PerfumersWorld Foundation Course, I was already selling, successfully, a fragrance I had bottled myself. In fact, I was already involved with all aspects of putting a fragrance on the market (on a small scale) — buying the fragrance compound, buying bottles, caps, spray pumps, labels, and then getting the juice into the bottle and offering it for sale.

Then I wrote a book about how to do what I had done and this book was (and still is!) selling quite successfully.

But the more books I sold, the more I became interested in perfume itself. I wanted to understand how the "juice" was created. I wanted to get beyond the mystery and play with the raw ingredients. I had no expectation of becoming a perfumer — at the time, that seemed like a hopeless fantasy — but I did want to understand more about perfume and the creative process. So when I learned of the PerfumersWorld course, I blindly ordered it, without any hesitation. As I mentioned, the price of the entire Foundation Course was less than one of the "professional" books I had already purchased.

This is what happened

I ordered the course directly from PerfumersWorld in Bangkok. The course — packed then as it is today — arrived in a box exactly like the one seen below. Of course I was excited. When I opened the box, the first thing that caught my eye were the wooden boxes containing the PerfumersWorld "Fleuressence"^® bases, 26 of them created by PerfumersWorld to illustrated The ABC's of Perfumery, a perfumery training method developed by Stephen V. Dowthwaite, founder of PerfumersWorld. He developed this perfumery training method to assist Asian students who, though they spoke a variety of languages, all were familiar with the English alphabet.

The bases themselves are composed of various prime materials and together, as a set, they allow the creation of a wide (very wide!) range of fragrances. "Zolvent" — the "Z" in the ABC's — is a non-alcoholic solvent supplied with the course in place of perfumers alcohol. The course was developed to be sold internationally and supplying alcohol with the kit would be a potential problem in some countries. In the United States, perfumers alcohol is available from a number of sources.

Click to enlarge image Shown above are A Short Introduction to The ABC's of Perfumery and The Perfumer's Workbook, your two essential perfume creation tools.

The 26 Fleuressence bases come packed for trans oceanic shipping. Each bottle is well sealed to prevent leakage. Each bottle top becomes a dropper bottle when you insert the glass dropper into the hole in the bottle top's rubber seal. The glass droppers are packed separately for safe shipping. Plunking them into their tops is your first step in becoming a perfumer!

The 10 lesson online part of the course requires that you go to your computer, log on, and start downloading your first lesson. But, for me, the chance for a hands-on experience creating perfume was far more tempting than reading an academic lesson. So I (like I'm sure many others) started by going to the 56 page A Short Introduction to The ABC's of Perfumery book that comes with the package which explains the PerfumersWorld teaching method and then, BINGO, gives you 36 fragrance formulas you can mix immediately, using nothing more than the bases and materials supplied with the kit.

But these formulas are not presented as gimmicks to make you feel good about having purchased the course. Each of these formulas illustrates a fragrance group ("aliphatic," "fruit," "narcotic," etc.) or a fragrance type ("chypre," "oriental," "fougere", etc.) — all of which can be made from the 26 bases supplied with your kit.

But backup a moment. Before you start mixing, it is essential that you read the instructions on how to mix ... and the safety instructions. You are now working with real perfumery materials, not toys, and from this moment forward, you must always work safely, just as you would always drive safely behind the wheel of a car. All perfumery materials — whether synthetic and natural — must be treated with respect. They are not children's toys!

So my first evening with the PerfumersWorld Foundation Course was spent "creating" (or re-creating) some of the perfumes whose formulas were given in the 56 page book. My only "frustration" came from the instruction which tells you to wait 24 hours before passing judgment on what you have just mixed. (As time goes by, I've become more and more aware of just how essential this waiting period really is!)

The good news was that, the next day when I sampled the perfumes I had made using the smelling strips provided with the course, I found that I had "created" real perfumes, perfumes that I could bottle and give to my wife. And yes, she was delighted by Mr. Dowthwaite's formulas!

This was my beginning.

Next steps

The dramatic demonstration I got from mixing the fragrance formulas inspired me to get busy with the online course. Thus I logged in with my student id and began Lesson One which goes over the materials you have received in your kit and explains their use — and importance.

There is a good deal of reading here but, if you want to build up your background in perfumery, this reading is important. It doesn't require a technical background. Personally, I have never studied chemistry and chemical notation makes my head spin. But as you start in on the written material and begin to learn something about the industry, you begin to realize that you are getting your information from someone who knows his way around both the creative and the commercial ends of the business. In fact, Mr. Dowthwaite both teaches at King Mongkut University in Bangkok and gives technical assistance to both Thai and Chinese fragrance and flavor firms.

I also went to work with The Perfumer's Workbook software which comes on a CD and is easily installed on any windows computer.

Now here's my true confession. Although I do a lot of work with computers and use a lot of different software, I struggled with The Perfumer's Workbook. Why was this? Probably because I was being exposed to so much information that was new to me — the 26 bases, mixing, discovering what an amazing difference changing the proportions in a formula could make.

I "solved" my problem with The Perfumer's Workbook by slowing down and working with one feature at a time and I soon discovered that The Perfumer's Workbook, with a database of over 500 perfumery materials, was (for me, anyway!) worth several times what I had paid for the entire course.

In time, as I began to get experimental and start to work out my own formulas using the 26 "ABC's of Perfumery" bases, I would write my formulas into The Perfumer's Workbook (that's what it's for ... professional record keeping!), and then examine each formula to see how long it would last on a smelling strip (and, in words, what it would smell like!) and then — for my own self eduction — see what prime materials I might substitute (or add) to the bases I had selected, to give my formula more "depth" or "smoothness". The software makes the calculations and suggestions!

Thanks to The Perfumer's Workbook software, I slowly became familiar with more and more perfumery materials, some of which I had read about in my "professional" books but now could see where they might fit into one of my own formulas.

And the really good news was that when I decided that I wanted to experiment with a material that wasn't included in the Foundation Course, I could order as small quantity of it from PerfumersWorld. They will sell you as little as 10 grams of any perfumery material in their inventory. I now know of perhaps one other vendor who will take orders this small but that vendor does not carry the wide range of perfumery materials found at PerfumersWorld.

But the "deal" gets even better. If PerfumersWorld is the source of the materials you've used in your formula, you can send them just the formula and they can make it up for you in bulk quantities! You could, of course, send your formula anywhere, or even make it up yourself, but when you work with PerfumersWorld, you'll get an excellent match between what you expected and what they deliver. Why? Because both of you are working with materials that came from the same source. You learn very quickly that many perfumery materials can vary dramatically when obtained from different sources!

Just the beginning

For me the Foundation Course was just the beginning. As I was already in the business of producing perfumes (from compounds I bought from other sources), I now set my goal to developing original fragrances for my business. It was NOT an overnight process but with patience and a lot of trials — and some dead ends — I created my first original fragrance, bottled it, and now offer it for sale.

Click to enlarge image Starting with the 26 Fleuressence bases, my own collection of materials has worked up to the display you see here.

Since taking the PerfumersWorld Foundation Course, I have continued with my perfumery studies by expanding my "perfumers organ" (see photo) to include perhaps 80 materials that were NOT part of the original kit. For a while I tried to get away from the base and "do it my way" and, indeed, my second "commercial" fragrance, "Summer Air," was created with mostly prime materials.

My "ultimate" creation to date

Anyone who is considering purchasing the PerfumersWorld Foundation Course no doubt wonders how far beyond the 26 "ABC" bases they must go before they can come up with a formula that is totally their own (even though commercial perfumers don't hesitate to use bases in their creations!)

Last summer I noticed my wife was wearing a perfume I didn't recognize but found to be particularly beautiful. It left a pleasant "wake" when she walked through the room and, hours after I had first noticed it, I could still smell it one her when she walked through my office again.

When I asked her what it was, she told me it was something I had made for her the previous year! It had no name, simply my code on the bottle. So I searched and found the formula. It had simply been one of my many forgotten experiments.

I made up a new batch batch to make sure that I had the correct formula. Then, when I looked at the formula, I was inspired make up a slightly different version. I gave my wife samples of each, one marked "London" and the other, "Paris", to see which version she preferred. When she selected the "Paris" version as her favorite, I sent the formula to PerfumersWorld, they sent me back two kilos of the compound, I added the alcohol (PerfumersWorld just makes the compound — you add the alcohol yourself), bottled it, and now it's ready to sell.

A Happy Coincidence

As I was getting the "Paris" formula made up for me by PerfumersWorld, I was also negotiating an arrangement to sell their Foundation Course from this website, from a stock I have received from them. As I have already mentioned, since I purchased the course myself, I have been recommending it to others. I think my enthusiasm for the course has even surprised Mr. Dowthwaite, it's creator.

But here's one more example of why I have fallen in love the the PerfumersWorld Foundation Course. As I was starting to think about how it would advertise it on this website, I realized that my newest original fragrance, code name "Paris", was made from the Fleuressence bases I received with my Foundation Course — the same bases that you will be receiving if you purchase the course. The only ingredient in the "Paris" formula that is not from the original kit is a tiny sprinkling of "something" that was suggested by The Perfumer's Workbook software that came in the course kit!

To me, this new perfume of mine is the final proof of the value of the PerfumersWorld Foundation Course — and of The ABC's of Perfumery perfumery training method and The Perfumer's Workbook software. Therefore, if you re ordering the PerfumersWorld Foundation Course from this website, for shipment to any U.S. Zip Code address, I will include a bottle of "code name Paris" with your order — to help inspire you on your own professional journey into perfumery. (I regret due to packing considerations I cannot make this offer to international customers.)

So there you have it. My testimonial for the PerfumersWorld Foundation Course. One final word for U.S. buyers. When you see and smell the "code name Paris" perfume you will receive with your order placed through this website, I'd like you to know that, when I costed the product out, the entire finished perfume — juice, alcohol, bottle, etc. — cost me just $1.53. That should give you a little bit more inspiration for launching your career in perfume!

You can order the PerfumersWorld Foundation Course below.

Philip Goutell
Lightyears, Inc.