The man behind some of your favorite scents

Frank Voelkl is a well-dressed German man you’d walk past on your Manhattan commute without a second thought. But his work has likely been on your neck, your vanity, your partner or your ex. If you’ve worn fragrance in the last two decades, you’ve probably worn Voelkl. He is, arguably, the perfumer of the millennial olfactory oeuvre: Le Labo’s Santal 33, Glossier’s You, Phlur’s Father Figure, scents for Ariana Grande and Jennifer Lopez, work for Dolce & Gabbana, Calvin Klein and more.

Voelkl is a master perfumer at DSM-Firmenich, one of the world’s leading fragrance houses — and is only the 16th in the company’s century-long history. It’s a rare distinction — there are more registered astronauts than master perfumers, who sit on the councils that choose which materials to pursue next, so you smell their predictions years later. “I would say we’re the ultimate experts,” Voelkl says, with exactly the right amount of modesty and fact.

Voelkl’s perfumes are recognizable: clean but not sterile, woodsy but transparent, airy and modern without being clinical. The hugely popular “skin scent,” freshly washed skin remembered through a romantic haze, is practically defined by You and Father Figure. A bottle of You sells every 40 seconds, according to Glossier. Santal 33 turned creamy sandalwood into a sexy, mineralic fog. At its peak, whole blocks of Manhattan trailed its sillage.

He likes almost everything he makes, but he wouldn’t wear all of it. His own taste runs to smokey, leathery materials, which he sneaks in at “very, very small, subliminal” doses. Any more, and, he finds, people read them as fire, danger, shadow.

Perfume is rarely given such airs outside of its own ecosystem – but the master perfumer designation creates a distinction the beauty world recognizes at a global scale. Masters advise the companies they work for on decisions both big and small. They sit on the councils that decide which materials to pursue next. You smell what they’ve predicted, years after they made their choices known. A master determines pathways to possible fragrant futures — and near ubiquity and instant smell-recognition is a hard skill to replicate.

Voelkl has learned that success relies on the success of a workshop – a team of many voices, not just his own. “As a perfumer, we work with managers, evaluators, sales, marketing, the clients themselves. Our work is being edited. I see the evaluators as editors.” They often tell him a composition is too green or smokey to be commercial. “I listen to everybody and absorb the comments.”

But it’s up to him, in the end, to decide which notes to take, and how to stay on the path to creation with the people who walk alongside him. He quotes a colleague’s advice often given to their trainees: “Don’t take the bus until you know where you’re going.” He explains his version as the following: “Hold a clear destination, stay open to a place nobody else has been, and accept the collaborators walking the road with you.” It is a matter of intuition and collective knowledge – and knowing when to listen to your own gut.

“In the end, you’re alone. You’re alone as a creator, and you have to make that call.”

A perfumer’s raw materials are in a chaotic stage of both perpetual innovation and rapid disappearance. The industry is in the middle of a structural reformulation wave because of it. If you’ve noticed your longtime favorites being re-released recently — they’ve been swept up in this situation, and it’s been years in the making.

From a chemist’s first search to the perfumer’s modification exploration, there are years and millions of dollars of research before the customer gets wind of anything happening. “You have to be five, ten years ahead — easily — in your thinking and in your strategy,” reflects Voelkl.

Part of Voelkl’s job as a master and Senior Perfumer is to guide the research around the research and preservation of certain smells. Because certain natural fragrant materials are disappearing, and it happens more often than it has in past decades. Bay oil, for example, was wiped out almost entirely by Tropical Storm Erika and then Hurricane Maria hitting Dominica, where 70% of the global supply was produced. Natural disasters have devastated the distillery network. “Since then, we don’t have bay oil anymore,” Voelkl says, looking out the window. It is the material he misses most, and for a specific reason: “it smells like metal”, the only ingredient on his palette that did. He’s been searching for a replacement for years. A new old-spice-family material comes close, he says, but fragrance still on the market had to be quietly re-engineered around the absence.

Other losses are regulatory. Fragrance compounds like Lilial and Lyral — “my fetish floral,” he calls the latter, a floral that lasts like a musk — are effectively off the table. One ingredient changing status sets off a chain reaction: Galaxolide, he predicts, will likely be gone from fragrance within five to ten years, another material in a veritable ocean of fragrance. “It’s another wave coming.” The wave never quite stops, and so the reinvention continues. Your favorite perfume, reinvented in ways you can smell but can’t quite spell out. Voelkl is there, lining the molecules up just so.

While Voelkl’s work feels omnipresent in beauty stores likes Sephora and Ulta for his work with PHLUR, By Kilian, and Marc Jacobs – the smellscape of makeup shopping, really — if you ask him about his hit rate, he shrugs it off. “Statistically, I haven’t won that many briefs,” he deflects with a half-smile. “You’ll never know about the ones I didn’t win.” To date, he has more than 200 perfumes to his name. For context, there are entire years in which only 200 perfumes were ever released at all. The man is booked , even if rejections litter the laboratory floor. The wins make millions of dollars per perfume.

“Sometimes those briefs are big, big projects you get very invested in. You do have to be emotionally involved to create. And sometimes they don’t go through, and you have to deal with that. It happens certainly more often than being chosen. You have to remove yourself emotionally,” says Voelkl. Like any artist seeking opportunities, rejection is part of the process.

He has no batting average pinned to the wall and resists the idea that all briefs are equal. Some carry commercial weight, others the thrill of introducing a brand. There is, he admits, a private checklist. “I never did one for Yves Saint Laurent. I never did an Armani. I would love to,” he notes wistfully. In his head, there’s a Hall of Fame shelf with gaps in it, after more than 20 years of near ubiquity.

For centuries, the perfumers behind the bottles were rarely listed anywhere to the public eye. Incredibly successful brands like INITIO and CREED still demur from divulging the perfumer’s they work with for their launches. The myth of the brand is paramount. But it’s becoming more of an industry norm for perfumers to not just be credited but treated as celebrities in and of themselves, their portraits shown alongside their finished work at events and unofficial merch is sold in their name on TikTok shop. Brands like Frederic Malle, Essential Parfums and the new brand Anecdote by Artists list the perfumers prominently alongside the name of the perfumes. Most of Voelkl’s work has been behind the curtain — known to the industry, not quite unlisted, but not front of bottle, either.

But you can, in the end, create many successful perfumes and never be deemed a master of your field. What really leads to the title? Fragrance should leave a lasting impression. “You must be creating work that added to the map,” he explains. The second is character. “We are at the heart of it all.”

弗兰克·沃克尔是一位衣着考究的德国男士，你或许会在曼哈顿通勤路上与他擦肩而过，而不会多看一眼。但他的作品很可能就出现在你的颈间、你的梳妆台上、你的伴侣或前任身上。如果你在过去二十年里使用过香水，那么你很可能用过沃克尔的作品。可以说，他是千禧一代香水界的领军人物：Le Labo 的 Santal 33、Glossier 的 You、Phlur 的 Father Figure，以及为 Ariana Grande 和 Jennifer Lopez 设计的香水，他还为 Dolce & Gabbana、Calvin Klein 等品牌调制香水。

沃克尔是帝斯曼-菲美意（DSM-Firmenich）的首席调香师，这家公司是世界领先的香水公司之一，而沃克尔是该公司百年历史上的第16位首席调香师。这是一项极其罕见的殊荣——注册宇航员的数量都比首席调香师多，而首席调香师们正是公司决策委员会的成员，负责选择下一步研发的原料，因此，多年后你依然能闻到他们当年的预测。“我认为我们是真正的专家，”沃克尔谦逊而又务实地说道。

Voelkl的香水辨识度极高：干净却不冷漠，木质香调却又通透，轻盈现代却不失精致。广受欢迎的“肌肤香”，仿佛刚洗过的肌肤在浪漫的薄雾中若隐若现，几乎成了“You”和“Father Figure”的代名词。据Glossier报道，“You”平均每40秒就售出一瓶。“Santal 33”则将柔滑的檀香木香转化为性感而充满矿物气息的迷雾。鼎盛时期，它的香气甚至弥漫了曼哈顿的整片街区。

他几乎喜欢自己做的所有东西，但他自己却不会全部穿戴。他偏爱烟熏皮革质感的面料，并会以“非常非常少、不易察觉”的方式巧妙地融入设计中。他发现，如果用量过多，人们就会将其解读为火焰、危险或阴影。

香水很少在自身生态系统之外享有如此高的声誉——但“调香大师”这一称号却在全球范围内为美妆界树立了独特的地位。调香大师们为他们所在的公司提供各种大小决策方面的建议。他们参与决定下一步原料研发方向的委员会。多年后，你依然能闻到他们预言的香气。调香大师们指明了未来香氛发展的方向——而这种近乎无处不在的香气和瞬间辨识度，是其他任何调香大师都难以复制的技能。

沃克尔明白，成功取决于整个团队的成功——一个汇聚各方声音的团队，而不仅仅是他一个人。“作为一名调香师，我们需要与经理、评估员、销售人员、市场营销人员以及客户本人合作。我们的作品会不断被修改。我把评估员看作是编辑。”他们经常告诉他，某些作品过于青涩或烟熏味过重，不适合商业用途。“我会认真听取每个人的意见，并认真吸收这些建议。”

但最终，他要决定记下哪些笔记，以及如何与同行者一起走在创作的道路上，这都取决于他自己。他引用了一位同事经常给学员的建议：“在知道目的地之前，不要坐公交车。” 他解释说，他的版本是：“设定一个清晰的目标，对无人涉足的领域保持开放的态度，并接受与你同行的伙伴。” 这关乎直觉和集体智慧——以及何时倾听自己内心的声音。

“到头来，你只能独自一人。作为创作者，你只能独自一人，你必须做出最终决定。”

香水原料正处于一个混乱的阶段，既不断创新又迅速枯竭。正因如此，整个行业正经历一场结构性的配方调整浪潮。如果你注意到自己一直以来钟爱的香水最近重新上市——它们也受到了这场变革的影响，而这场变革已经酝酿多年。

从化学家的最初探索到调香师的改良尝试，在消费者得知任何新进展之前，都需要耗费数年时间和数百万美元进行研发。“你的思路和策略必须至少领先五年、十年，”沃克尔反思道。

作为一名调香大师和高级调香师，沃克尔的工作之一是指导对特定气味的研究和保护。因为某些天然香料正在消失，而且这种情况比过去几十年都要频繁。例如，月桂油几乎被热带风暴艾丽卡和随后袭击多米尼克的飓风玛丽亚彻底摧毁，而多米尼克曾是全球70%月桂油的产地。自然灾害摧毁了蒸馏厂网络。“从那以后，我们就再也没有月桂油了，”沃克尔望着窗外说道。这是他最怀念的原料，原因很明确：“它闻起来像金属”，这是他调香盘中唯一带有这种味道的成分。多年来，他一直在寻找替代品。他说，一种新的、属于传统香料家族的原料比较接近，但市面上仍然在售的香水不得不悄悄地进行重新调配，以弥补月桂油的缺失。

其他损失则源于监管。像铃兰醛（Lilial）和铃兰醛（Lyral）这样的香料化合物——他称后者为“我最爱的花香”，一种持久如麝香的花香——实际上已被淘汰。一种成分地位的改变会引发连锁反应：他预测，佳乐香精（Galaxolide）很可能在五到十年内从香水界消失，成为浩瀚香水海洋中的又一成员。“又一波浪潮即将到来。”这股浪潮永不停歇，因此，香水的革新仍在继续。你最爱的香水，以你能闻到却难以言喻的方式被重新演绎。沃克尔（Voelkl）就在那里，精心排列着各种分子。

尽管沃克尔的作品在丝芙兰和Ulta等美妆店随处可见，这得益于他与PHLUR、By Kilian和Marc Jacobs等品牌的合作——可以说，他的作品已经融入了美妆购物的“嗅觉世界”。但如果你问起他的成功率，他会耸耸肩，轻描淡写地说：“从统计数据来看，我赢得的订单并不多。你永远不会知道我没赢的那些。”迄今为止，他已经创作了超过200款香水。要知道，有些年份一年内，香水的发行量也只有200款。即使实验室地板上堆满了被拒稿的香水，沃克尔的档期也依然繁忙。而那些最终成功的香水，每款都能带来数百万美元的利润。

“有时候，那些项目规模庞大，你会投入很多精力。创作时，你必须全身心投入。但有时，项目最终会失败，你必须面对这个现实。这种情况发生的频率肯定比被选中要高得多。你必须让自己从情感中抽离出来，”沃克尔说道。就像任何寻求机会的艺术家一样，被拒绝也是创作过程的一部分。

他没有固定的工作成功率，也不认同所有工作都同等重要。有些工作承载着商业价值，有些则能带来推广新品牌的刺激感。他坦言，自己有一份私人清单。“我从未为伊夫·圣罗兰做过工作，也从未为阿玛尼做过。我很想做，”他略带惆怅地说道。在他看来，经过二十多年的近乎无处不在的工作，他的名人堂里仍然空空如也。

几个世纪以来，香水背后的调香师鲜少出现在公众视野中。像INITIO和CREED这样极其成功的品牌，至今仍不愿透露其合作调香师的信息。品牌的神秘感至关重要。但如今，调香师不仅被署名，更被视为明星，这正逐渐成为行业惯例。他们的肖像会与作品一同出现在各种活动中，非官方的周边产品也会以他们的名义在TikTok商店出售。像Frederic Malle、Essential Parfums以及新品牌Anecdote by Artists这样的品牌，都会在香水名称旁醒目地列出调香师的名字。Voelkl的大部分作品都鲜为人知——业内人士有所耳闻，并非完全默默无闻，但也没有出现在香水瓶的正面。

但最终，即使你创造出许多成功的香水，也未必能被公认为该领域的佼佼者。究竟是什么造就了这一称号？香水应该给人留下深刻的印象。“你必须创造出能丰富香水世界的作品，”他解释道。其次是个性。“我们才是这一切的核心。”