I’m just wondering what comes first? I’m a romantic so I’m picturing this perfumer walking in a forest, coming up with ideas, pitching them somehow somewhere?
Or is it less romantic? A house comes up with this wild fantasy and hires perfumer xyz to make it a reality? How does this work?
@Ceesie, I have no idea but a guess. Since bean counting is of utmost importance these days, I suspect it's way less romantic, especially for designers and the larger niche houses.
It might be a hybrid approach depending on the house. They might experiment with notes and accords and ask themselves to define what they get with some of these experiments. Certainly there is a brief, but by the time that comes a perfumer has tons of ideas in their mind. And then tweaking and refining come into play.
Perfumers coming from (learning at) high profile labs, for example Givaudan are working on accords and molecules all of the time so that when a contract and brief are presented they already have a head start and refine from there.
It takes years and years and years of studying to become a perfumer. He/she has to be a chemist first (so little romance there 
it is all about sience in that stage) and then will be trained to be a perfumer.
Today they seem to be more motivated by marketing and trend watchers (and we can all smell that lack of fantasy often unfortunately)
But if your read the stories behind the classic Guerlain perfumes like 
L'Heure Bleue Eau de Parfum , 
Mitsouko Eau de Parfum (to name a few) or the story behind a perfume like 
L'Air du Temps Eau de Parfum you will surely find the romantic soul of the perfumers that created those perfumes...
Ah... those were the days ...
Many mainstream fragrances start with a corporate meeting where marketing teams, brand managers, and stakeholders brainstorm ideas based on market trends, target demographics, and sales potential. The objective is to create a scent that resonates with consumers, aligns with the brand's image, and maximizes profitability.
The brief given to the perfumer typically outlines specific goals: the target audience, the mood or theme (e.g., "luxury," "youthful energy," or "clean and fresh"), and even benchmarks like successful fragrances to emulate. While the perfumer has creative freedom within those constraints, their work must adhere to the business goals.
That said, there are exceptions — especially in niche perfumery — where artistry and storytelling take precedence over mass appeal. Even in those cases, though, the realities of production costs, regulations, and market positioning come into play. Perfume is, at its core, a product, and while it can be deeply artistic, it's also very much a business venture.
Pick up a copy of Chandler Burr's The Perfect Scent. It follows the creation of two Perfumes, Hermes' Un Jardin sur le Nil and Sarah Jessica Parkers Lovely. Burr was the fragrance reviewer for the New York Times and his work provides a great deal of insight into how the large houses create a fragrance. In most cases it starts with a brief created by the fragrance house and proceeds from there. Though the focus is different, further insight will be gained from Gabe Oppenheim's The Ghost Perfumer, Creed, Lies, & the Scent of the Century.
Maybe you know this already, but there is a very interesting 4-part BBC documentary on making perfumes - it is called 'Bottling the memory'. This is a link to part one.
Oooh nice one @CloudsAround I’m going to check that out for sure!
