OLFICTION /ɒlˈfɪkʃ(ə)n/
noun
1. The meeting point of olfaction [the action of smelling, the sense of smell] and fiction [literature that describes imaginary events and people, storytelling].
2. A unique fragrance consultancy specialising in perfumery and storytelling.
We love using our unique set of skills and experience to help our clients in all kinds of fragrance-related matters.
We are passionate about inspiring people. We want everyone to enjoy scents, to enjoy their sense of smell and to learn more about the world of fragrance.
We are Nick Gilbert and Pia Long and we’ve lived fragrance for most of our lives. We share a love of all things fragranced, a similar professional background and a pragmatic approach to problem solving. Our growing collaboration became a signpost. We have worked behind-the-scenes in the fragrance industry for a variety of businesses over the years and built our own specialisms. It became clear that our clients would benefit from being able to tap into our combined expertise and Olfiction was born.
The business we started in 2016 has now grown to include additional staff, expertise and resources to help us meet almost any kind of client demand.
Pia Long is our Creative Perfumer. She became a published writer at the age of 9 and after landing a fragrance and cosmetics role in her teens, has worked in almost all areas of the industry: sales, marketing, training, instructional design, retail support, product development, quality control and perfumery. The twin passions of writing and fragrance have shaped Pia’s life and career. She has a uniquely broad insight into how fragranced products end up on the market; who makes this happen – and how people shop for fragrance. She has worked as a junior perfumer for a global cosmetics brand, a perfumer and technical manager for a fragrance supplier, and perfumer & training manager for a fragrance industry consultancy. Pia contributes to many publications and media, including the trade magazine Perfumer & Flavorist, and BBC. She is a council member of the British Society of Perfumers.
Nick Gilbert is an experienced fragrance trainer, evaluator, and marketer. His career started in fragrance retail and moved on to marketing, fragrance development, evaluation and training development for some of the world’s most highly regarded brands. Nick’s thoughtful and expert guidance on internal and external messaging, and on fragrance range development, is an invaluable resource for our clients. Nick also has a proven track record on how to help brands engage consumers online. He is an experienced fragrance blogger and copywriter, and creates evocative product descriptions, insightful articles and engaging content. He is a popular guest on BBC radio shows, and co-hosts the award winning FumeChat podcast with Thomas Dunckley. Nick was described as “the most knowledgeable person on fine fragrances I’ve ever met” by a renowned R&D perfumer, which is no mean feat.
Our current perfumery team includes Ezra-Lloyd Jackson, a talented young designer with a passion for perfumery, who joined us as a lab assistant in 2018, and has since developed into a perfumer’s assistant. Ezra is undertaking further in-house training towards a Junior Perfumer role. Marianne Martin joined us in 2019, as a part-time consultant perfumer and chemist. Marianne’s perfumery and chemistry experience spans 40 years in the trade, and she is a respected perfumery tutor with a global outlook, known for her perfumery teaching on the cosmetic science degree and distance study courses by the Society of Cosmetic Scientists. Marianne is also the current Vice President (and a past President) of the British Society of Perfumers.
Thomas Dunckley, also known as The Candy Perfume Boy on social media and in FumeChat (the award-winning perfume podcast he runs with Nick Gilbert) – is our in-house fragrance blogger, copywriter, and trainer. In his day job, which Thomas still works in part time, he is a senior HR manager for the NHS. Thomas has won the Jasmine Award five times over the years, for both his writing and his visual talents. In 2020, he had the honour of becoming a Fragrance Foundation awards judge. At Olfiction, he is a favoured fragrance copywriter by many of our clients, and contributes to the running of our internal and external training programmes. Thomas is also the Fragrance Expert for Escentual.com.
