Travis McIntosh
STATUS: Chief Sniffing Officer
OCCUPATION: Publisher & Managing Director
FAVORITE MATERIALS: Seaweed, Oud, Jasmine, & Osmanthus
IN HIS OWN WORDS: I was introduced to the art of fragrance construction through one of my earliest jobs at Perfumer’s Apprentice in 2004. We would welcome in visitors, serve them tea and snacks, and instruct customers on how to create a fragrance by hand. Through teaching others to be creative with scent, I developed a keen interest in the materials. As an artist I was fascinated by the medium of fragrance, but lacked the skill (and still do) for constructing my ideas and concepts through fragrance as succinctly as I do visual art. Through this role I gained a passion to give each person who used our palette of ingredients the ability to develop any concept with the tools we had, which fostered my love for the ingredients and collecting every type of “note” a person may ask for so they can articulate their thoughts through scent. My favorite part is when they complete their scent and I get to smell it with their story in my mind and be able to experience their expression.
FAVORITE PERFUME EXPERIENCE: Visiting the souks in Dubai and smelling the rich and exotic ouds and other exotic notes commonly used in Middle Eastern fragrance. I loved seeing perfume through the lens of an older culture, and to both see and smell the way fragrance and society play off of one another and become one.
NOTES: My intention was to become an art historian, and eventually an art restorator. Working in the fragrance industry swiftly shifted my ambition by allowing me to continue to learn about (sensory) art and history but also to help people to be creative in the now, rather than study it or try to preserve it retroactively. Fragrance constantly allows me to learn new perspectives and see how many ways scent is interpreted through different lenses.