Carlos Benaïm

The Middle East is a place on the globe that fascinates many perfumers. Indeed, it is a land steeped in sunshine, which allows many highly fragrant plants to grow there. Mingling with this are the subtle scents of spices traditionally used in the cuisine of these countries. It is also in this place that perfumer Carlos Benaïm was born. There is thus no doubt that his creativity draws on his childhood memories. Carlos Benaïm's career path Carlos Benaïm was born in Tangier, Morocco. It was also there that he grew up and absorbed the oriental atmosphere and the scents typical of Morocco. Fascinated by scents from an early age, he expressed his wish to become a perfumer very early on.

He therefore directed his studies toward the sciences and was first trained as a chemical engineer. This later allowed him to join a training program, in 1967, at the company International Flavors & Fragrances, better known as IFF. This international company is today one of the leading players in the manufacture of fragrances for the perfume industry as well as for the food industry. It holds, more precisely, third place worldwide in this sector in terms of revenue. Joining this major company marked a true turning point in Carlos Benaïm's career. There he was trained by Bernard Chant and Ernest Shiftan and learned a great deal from these two perfumery experts. A pure IFF product, Carlos Benaïm never left the company and currently holds the position of senior perfumer there.

Memory as a source of inspiration

As his childhood in Morocco suggests, Carlos Benaïm is someone who likes to immerse himself in his memories in order to create. The particular alliance between scent, flavor and memory constitutes his olfactory universe, he says. Certain scents are thus capable of stirring particularly strong emotions in him. For example, when he was a student, he was made to smell several raw materials with his eyes closed. One of them made him red with anger and he felt an immense violence rise within him. It was the scent of Atlas cedar from Morocco. Yet, as a child, he used to accompany his mother to the butcher's and would watch in horror the bloody carcasses of animals. The smell that rose to his nose was that of the floor, covered in Atlas cedar. It was then that he understood the impact of scents on the subconscious. On the other hand, other scents are for him synonymous with comfort. He enjoys, for instance, using tobacco, an ingredient that evokes his paternal grandfather. For him, perfume is far more than an art. It is a revealer of emotions.

Carlos Benaïm's sensitivity, combined with his unparalleled expertise, has earned him numerous accolades throughout his career. He notably received a Lifetime Award from the American Society of Perfumers in 2004 as well as a Lifetime Award from the Fragrance Foundation in 2014.