Joseph Bauermeister - Perfumer

Joseph Bauermeister is the founder and head perfumer at Perfume Making Company. A shared obsession with craft made him a natural fit for creating our denim deodoriser. He spent time in Aberteifi, walked the landscape, and built the scent around what he found; cedarwood and oak moss, the coastal air moving in from the sea and into the town.

I am the founder and head perfumer at Perfume Making Company, a specialist perfumery based in Brighton that works with both individuals and brands like Hiut to bring their vision to life in the world of fragrance. A lot of what I do is connecting the client to an idea or concept and then helping translate that into a perfume formula that's able to communicate that idea with others. I get to flex both the artistic and scientific parts of my brain but there's also a lot of methodical work that goes into certification and safety testing. 

In one word... compact! A lot of perfumers have extensive perfume organs but I prefer to work with a smaller range of materials that I know in great depth and can rearrange as needed. My set-up is a small, well ventilated lab space with a fire-proof cabinet, small fridge for heat sensitive materials, and a larger cabinet for storing equipment. That being said, a lot of my work takes place outside the lab, either out in nature or as I'm wandering around observing, daydreaming and making notes about what I'm experiencing and feeling. 

Usually my day will start with reviewing notes or thoughts I've captured while out and about and then 'auditioning' materials for the fragrance. It might be something the client has said or an elusive feeling that I encountered while out on a walk, but I'll generally just start by pulling materials out and lining them up according to what kind of part I think they might play in the composition. Once I feel like I'm ready, that's when the spreadsheets come out (exciting I know!). I'll start with a draft formula, usually I take a big swing with the first draft and try something more experimental before starting to balance it out/fine tune. With a complex formula I might be stood over my scale for hours dropping exact fractions of a gram into a vial to make the concentrate.

When out looking for inspiration I don't tend to listen toanything as I try to be as immersed in the scene/moment as possible as I feel like small things like the wind through some leaves or the crunch of my boots against a chalk path influence me slightly. But in the lab this varies greatly, when smelling materials or fragrances I quite enjoy easy listening like Bonobo or Nujabes. But when formulating or compounding for multiple hours at a time I really need to focus so I often turn to pop music or artists whose songs I know well enough to not get distracted like Kylie Minogue or Sabrina Carpenter.

Gosh - so many people. I got started with my creative career back when I was living in East London and I was very lucky to have been introduced to many creatives including photographers, fashion designers, painters etc. Many of whom were balancing their creative careers with their day jobs or other sources of income in order to pay rent and just generally stay afloat. I think anyone can find beauty in the world if you place them in a field of flowers in southern France, but what really inspired me early on wasn't necessarily other perfumers, it was the people around me who could put in a full day of hospitality work, ride the tube home and then open their hearts to create.

I often get told by other perfumers that my work has a sort of inner warmth to it! A recurring theme for me is people's relationship with nature and the relationship that they have with each other through it. Nature is inherently incredible and its beauty is vast, but what really inspires me is how people find themselves in it and what it means to them. When I'm people-watching I'll often see people and try to imagine what their dream garden or landscape would look like.

Out of my physical tools - probably my micropipette! It makes it easier to create drafts of fragrances in small quantities, waste as little as possible and be extremely precise. It took some getting used to at the start but I honestly couldn't do without it. 

This might be surprisingly practical for something like perfumery - but I often remind myself 'it needs to be what it needs to do', whether that's to captivate somebody's imagination, send them to a specific place or make them feel a particular way... the message I'm trying to communicate and the impact I want the fragrance to have is my north star. My only rule is with any creation I need to be risking something or giving something of myself, whether it's a memory of bathing in the Welsh sea at 8 years old (in Winter no less!) or playing in the forest till late with my siblings. I always want to have a level of personal investment in the story I'm trying to tell.

Doubt is your friend! It's a tricky thing to master but your doubt is a tool and it's yours alone. Don't injure yourself with it (especially if it's sharp) and don't let other people use it against you. If you're like me, it's probably a lot less likely that you'll be able to stop doubting yourself (even if people tell you to!), but you can change your relationship with doubt if you see it as a natural part of your creative process. Doubt allows you to see all the possibilities, to see everything that something could be. Then when you're ready, confidence is what will allow you to grasp it with both hands and say 'okay I've seen all the routes I could take, I'm trying this one'.

I'm quite tactile when it comes to my clothing. I really enjoy heavy or textured fabrics, something comfortable paired with an eye-catching colour/pattern. I used to be quite socially anxious but these days I like wearing outfits that make me feel at ease, feel more in tune with my personality and might make somebody else smile. I wear a lot of blue, sun-faded and well-loved pieces of clothing that I've typically had for years.