Base Notes

Three decades in, Malaysia born Givaudan perfumer Shyamala Maisondieu is still as passionate as ever about her art

- Koyyi Chin 

Much like baking, there is an exact science to perfumery.

From the freshness of the raw materials used and the way they’re processed, to the levels of oxygen the product is exposed to and the cohesion of ingredients, the business of perfumery can be organic yet technical.

For Malaysia-born Shyamala Maisondieu, who has over 30 years of experience under her belt and has to date over 80 fragrances that she’s had a hand in making, perfumery seemed to be the perfect job, seeing as she majored in chemical engineering and was a creative at heart.

Interviewing Maisondieu, who is based in France, Tatler gets a peek behind the curtain about what it takes to be a Givaudan perfumer.

When did you realise that perfumery was what you wanted to do after graduating from chemical engineering?

Shyamala Maisondieu (SM): It was a long time ago when I first met my mentor. It was 1992 and I just turned 23. I didn’t know what I wanted to do at the time, but I aspired to be an astronomer at first. Growing up, I was always looking at the stars.

But when I met this perfumer, who introduced me to the job and employed me after just one interview, he told me that “there were more astronauts than there were perfumers in the world”.

And the more he described the job, the more I was intrigued. The process was so much like my chemical engineering background; chemistry was the science of mixing ingredients, to put it simply, and that was very much like what perfumers did. Something clicked in me, and I thought to myself, “This is it! This is what I wanted to be.”