Tropic Skincare by Luca Kelly
Technical Perfumer & Fragrance Innovation Lead
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Technical Perfumer & Fragrance Innovation Lead
Technical Perfumer & Fragrance Innovation Lead
About the Role
We’re seeking a highly creative, technically skilled, and safety-conscious Technical Perfumer & Fragrance Innovation Lead to shape the future of scent at Tropic.
This is a rare opportunity to take ownership of fragrance across a fast-growing, purpose-led beauty brand with its own labs, chemists, and UK manufacturing facility.
You’ll define how Tropic products smell, how fragrances are created and communicated, and drive more development in-house. Fragrance is key to the product experience—it transforms routines, creates memories, and makes products deeply loved.
At Tropic, we strive for beautiful, safe, and consciously formulated fragrances that enhance our products without compromising our values. Your role spans skincare, body care, haircare, wellbeing, and fine fragrance. You’ll refine existing scents, develop new directions, and build a clean fine fragrance range with the quality and emotional depth of prestige perfumery.
This position demands a perfumer who blends creativity with technical expertise—someone who can craft evocative fragrance ideas while deeply understanding stability, allergens, IFRA standards, and how scent behaves in product bases.
Key Responsibilities
Fragrance Creation & Product Scent Ownership
- Own Tropic’s fragrance direction across skincare, body care, haircare, wellbeing, and fine fragrance.
- Review, refine, and optimize existing scent profiles.
- Create new fragrance directions for future launches, limited editions, seasonal collections, and brand moments.
- Develop fragrance briefs, olfactive concepts, mood boards, and scent stories aligned with Tropic’s values and positioning.
- Define a cohesive fragrance architecture for Tropic, ensuring a signature scent style across categories.
- Collaborate with product development, R&D, brand, marketing, and manufacturing to refine fragrance execution.
Clean Fine Fragrance Development
- Lead the development of Tropic’s clean fine fragrance range, embodying sophistication, longevity, and emotional depth.
- Explore natural-origin materials, essential oils, isolates, and responsibly sourced aroma compounds.
- Craft fragrance narratives around mood, memory, nature, wellbeing, identity, and ritual.
- Oversee testing, refinement, and evaluation across diverse fragrance formats and applications.
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Safe and Responsible Fragrance
- Champion Tropic’s commitment to safe, conscious fragrance, considering allergens, sensitisation risk, IFRA standards, and cosmetic compliance.
- Evaluate natural fragrance materials with scientific and regulatory awareness—recognising that "natural" does not equate to safety.
- Develop internal and consumer education on Tropic’s fragrance philosophy (what we use, what we avoid, and why).
- Stay abreast of advancements in fragrance safety, allergen labelling, green chemistry, and sustainable materials.
In-House Fragrance Manufacturing
- Support Tropic’s growth of in-house fragrance manufacturing, covering comounding, dilution, storage, quality control, and scale-up.
- Establish systems for raw material evaluation, fragrance trials, batch consistency, and documentation.
- Assess equipment, workflow, and supplier requirements to build internal capability.
- Partner with external fragrance houses where necessary while expanding Tropic’s expertise.
Aromatherapy, Wellbeing & Education
- Bring expertise in aromatherapy, essential oils, and the emotional impact of scent.
- Create fragrance experiences that feel beautiful, purposeful, and emotionally resonant.
- Develop consumer-facing and internal fragrance education (e.g., scent families, notes, natural materials, aromatherapy principles).
- Support launch content, training, and behind-the-scenes storytelling to make perfumery accessible.
What We’re Looking For
Essential
- Formal training/qualifications in perfumery, fragrance creation, natural perfumery, or cosmetic fragrance development.
- Strong grasp of olfactive structure, scent families, raw materials, and evaluation.
- Deep knowledge of IFRA standards, allergens, sensitisation risk, and cosmetic compliance.
- Experience developing fragrances for skincare, bodycare, haircare, and fine fragrance.
- Exceptional sensory evaluation skills and ability to deliver clear, structured scent feedback.
- Creative nose with commercial judgement.
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Desirable
- Aromatherapy qualifications or training in essential oil use.
- Experience in fine fragrance, eau de parfum, or wellbeing-focused products.
- Background with natural fragrance, isolates, upcycled, or sustainable ingredients.
- Hands-on experience with in-house compounding, scaling, or lab setups.
- Knowledge of green chemistry, sustainable sourcing, or low-allergen strategies.
- Talent for developing consumer or educational content around fragrance and scent experience.
What We Offer
- Role: Full-time, Monday–Friday (9am–5pm), with flexibility for the right candidate.
- Location: Tropic HQ, London.
- Salary: Competitive, tailored to experience.
- Benefits:
- Hybrid working, 33 days’ holiday (enhanced annual leave).
- Enhanced family leave, Private Medical Insurance, Medicash plan, life insurance.
- EAP via the Wisdom App, generous product allowance + 50% family/friend discount.
- Retail discounts, Cycle to Work and Electric Car schemes.
- Free breakfast bar, dog-friendly HQ (pool table & chill zone), on-site parking.
- Regular social events and wellbeing perks throughout the year.
- Start Date: Immediate.
About Tropic
Founded by Susie Herbert (our CEO), Tropic started when she sold homemade body scrubs in Greenwich Market as a teenager. Now, we’re a UK’s fastest-growing beauty business, certified vegan, cruelty-free, and CarbonNeutral®.
Our mission is to build a healthier, greener, more empowered world. We’re seeking creative, ambitious people who share our drive for innovative yet sustainable beauty.
If you’re passionate about skincare, community empowerment, and fragrance agility, this could be your role.
Tropic’s Commitment to Equal Opportunities
We foster respect, belonging, and fairness: our team reflects our values. No discrimination based on protected characteristics, and we provide reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities at every stage.
Our focus is on skills, experience, and qualifications—because the best candidates deserve the best process.
Apply now if you’re ready to shape the future of fragrance at Tropic!
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