RAFAEL TRUJILLO,
MIGUEL, AND
TRACEY LONG
OF P&G AT THE
2018 CAPITOL
HILL PERFUMERY
EVENT
his or her hair. When you hug a stranger, you don’t do
that—because you’re not bonding with that stranger
the way you are with your child, your partner, your
friends, and part of that bonding is smelling them.”
So even if we don’t realize it, scent is everywhere
and we’re continuously smelling. Miguel is passionate
about sharing these stories, especially in the face of in-
creasing fear and misconceptions about fragrance and
fragrance safety. “Over time, well-meaning individuals
and groups have claimed a narrative about fragrance—
often urging consumers to avoid scents because scents
are ‘bad’—particularly if they include complicated
chemical names,” he says. “The biggest misconception
that consumers have about fragrance is that a compli-
cated chemical name means that it’s bad for you. This
simply is not true.”
“Another example that I always give people,
is: Imagine dihydrogen oxide,” he says. “This is a
substance that is proven to be one of the strongest
materials in the world. It oxidizes iron until it destroys
it. In sufficient quantities, it can kill you. It can wipe
out a town in sufficient quantities. People should be
terrified of dihydrogen oxide. Well, dihydrogen oxide
is water. Just plain water. But that’s the chemical
name of plain water… Everything we eat, everything
we breathe, everything we touch has a long, compli-
cated chemical name. Everything,” he adds. “So we
need to help the general public understand what these
ingredients really are and the role fragrance plays in
our lives.” Given this, he’s encouraged by and engaged
in Fragrance Creators’ recent efforts to better inform
and tell the story of fragrance, particularly through
two key efforts, The Fragrance Conservatory and the
FEATURE
Importance and Benefits of Fragrance Initiative.
Being developed for launch in late 2019, The Fra-
grance Conservatory is a consumer-focused website
aimed at providing credible and engaging informa-
tion about fragrance—fragrance ingredients, safety,
sustainability, perfumery—in an open and inviting
learning environment. Emphasizing high design value,
the site will help bring fragrance to life for all people.
“There is no better time to bring this to the public,”
says Miguel. “The Fragrance Conservatory will allow
you to put, in plain terms that consumers can under-
stand, what all these fragrance ingredients are,” how
they’re used and regulated, where they are found in
nature, what they smell like, and more. “The associa-
tion’s push for transparency, in clear terms using a uni-
form and unified language and approach, is critical.”
Similarly, he’s encouraged to see Fragrance Cre-
ators making progress in uncovering and highlighting
the benefits of perfumery and fragrance as part of its
new expanded program and dedicated committee,
the Importance and Benefits of Fragrance Committee
(IBFC). In addition to compiling a reservoir of sound
science-based information that can be used to develop
communications collateral, experts in the group are
also looking into possible new areas of research in the
area of scent and odor. “We have to be able to show
why fragrances are actually needed for consumers,”
he says, “how they can help society—for example,
fragrance drives malodor technology that promotes
public health… We as an industry need to work togeth-
er to address this.”
MAXIMIZING PERFUME’S POTENTIAL
“My theory is, we’re ripe for somebody to show
up with innovation and to shake up the industry
completely.”
The need for innovation, unity, and leadership are
common themes for Miguel when he reflects on the
current state of the industry. In his session “The Four
Biggest Threats to the Perfume Industry,” delivered at
the 2018 World Perfumery Congress, held June 4-7,
in Nice, France, Miguel outlined the ways in which
he advises the industry to acknowledge and overcome
its biggest internal and external threats in order to
survive.
“To me, innovation is the lifeblood of a company,”
he says. “It is the lifeblood of what I do. My job is
to create the future, so we’re always innovating. But
when I look at the fragrance industry, the fact is, our
industry has been consumed for the past 300 years
with making perfumes that people like—the same way,
with the same approach.” He believes that’s a good
thing—it’s what has built this industry—giving people
what they like. “But for me, what’s missing is the
innovation. Most of the innovation goes into creat-
ing new molecules and new ways to create perfume.
That’s it. There’s no innovation about the benefits of
Issue 1, 2019 | FRAGRANCENOTES.ORG | 11