Marina Barcenilla. The art of perfumery, the difference between working with natural and synthetic ingredients, toxicity and sustainability in commercial perfumery. The scent of space, anosmia and how essential oils can help retrain your sense of smell.

Marina Barcenilla is a multi-award winning Independent Perfumer and Fragrance Educator with two decades of experience as a Perfumer and natural fragrance specialist. In addition to being the Nose behind her two niche perfume brands, Marina Barcenilla Parfums and AromAtom, she creates fragrance for other British brands and has mentored a number of perfumers who have founded their own brands. She’s also a Planetary Scientist and an Astrobiology Doctoral Researcher. Her scientific research is currently focused on the search for life on Mars with the Perseverance and Rosalind Franklin Mars Rovers. She has managed to combine her two passions, fragrance and space, to create a science education project that uses fragrance and the sense of smell to teach people about Astronomy and space exploration called “AromAtom: Discover the Smell of Space”.

She recently received and Academic medal from the Spanish Academy of Perfume in recognition of her two decades of work as a Nose, and of her approach to science communication using the sense of smell. As an Academician of this not-for-profit foundation, her role is to contribute to the advancement of perfume as an artistic discipline, and to the study of fragrance, its influence and potential within other fields.” 

It was great to have a chat with Marina, I am taking her Natural Perfumery course on line and so had lots to ask her about, including her journey to becoming a perfumer, how synthetics are used in fragrance and how they compare to using natural ingredients in perfumery. We also talked about sustainability and the potential toxicity in natural essential oils. We also chatted about loosing your sense of smell (anosmia) and how covid has pushed that to the front of peoples minds about her work in science and research as she hopes to encourage more children to enjoy science and space.