NOTABLE NOSES
pursue new avenues, new scents, and new approaches while also coloring within the lines that we all have to do to an extent in our roles?
KILLGO: Well, it’ s in my nature to push the limits a little, to not always do things the way that they’ ve been done before. I definitely respect and appreciate everything I learned about fragrance through training, realizing how things are made and understanding fragrance types. But when you’ re early on in your career and still learning, you have to do things your own way, and a lot of times you stumble across something that is even better than how someone told you it should have been done. I stumbled across a lot of experiences where, by doing it a different way, I found great success.
In terms of creative process and innovating, you have to look and think outside the box. I look beyond my project, to fashion, cuisine, nature, for inspiration. I think nature is the original perfumer. And so often when I’ m creating, my goal is to try to capture, as much as possible, the way something should smell in nature.
DANGELICO: You seem to be a“ visionary” personality, someone who doesn’ t follow the same path as everyone else and may feel constricted by rules and regulations. How do you balance your passion and craft with the needs and regulations of the industry?
KILLGO: I think half of me is very analytical and the other half is visionary, so the way my brain works fits this job quite perfectly. I think most regulatory people are also very process-oriented. So, it’ s not necessarily a challenge for me to balance both. It’ s all about understanding what consumers want, what consumers are going to need, and being able to tell that story. Being able to take your ideas and your concepts and validate and explain them to someone. There’ s no better way to win someone over than by letting them smell something, having a concept right in front of them to experience, and telling them the story that goes along with it. That’ s really all you need to do.
Every time our industry has had a challenge with a raw material, whether it’ s because it’ s unavailable or because it has a restriction, we get creative because there’ s more than one way to create a particular scent. You just have to find a different way. Our industry is known for being innovative and we can work around any challenges that come our way.
DANGELICO: As an association, we are committed to promoting and protecting fragrance in the face of these unprecedented challenges. We believe that to know fragrance is to love fragrance, so it is our role to encourage legislators, influencers, and the public to think about and appreciate these stories, these memories, these connections. Can you speak a little bit about your perspective on the policy piece? Why is this something a perfumer should care about?
KILLGO: It’ s easy to realize the importance of protecting our industry, and by protecting it I mean I can’ t imagine a world without fragrance. It would be terrible. I also think that many of the policies affecting our industry are not founded on complete or accurate data. Unfortunately, many policies are born out of a lack of education or fearbased strategy versus a scientific approach.
Fragrance is such a complicated piece, as we use so many different materials. We have man-made molecules, we have natural materials, and those natural materials are fragrances in and of themselves. It’ s important to understand that we have been using fragrance for a very long time and that our industry is very safe. And I think that
we need to continue to promote its safety. If you are passionate about fragrance, about our industry, you should be passionate and actively engaged in protecting our industry from misinformation, etc.
DANGELICO: Part of that thinking is why the association invests so much in our advocacy program, one aspect of which is our Capitol Hill perfumery event, showcasing both the industry’ s science and creative artistry. Having been involved in several perfumery events, why do you think that is such an effective approach?
14 | FRAGRANCENOTES. ORG | Issue 2, 2018