April 2026
Joseph Mohohoma is a master perfumer dedicated to sharing his knowledge and ushering African fragrance, flavour and emerging young talent onto a global stage.
“Growing up, I didn’t know what a perfumer did or that such a profession even existed,” says Joseph Mohohoma, now a highly respected master perfumer (or “nose”).
Today, he is a Director of SensoryFX, a leading fragrance and flavour house headquartered in South Africa and servicing 23 countries across the continent and beyond.
Joseph grew up in rural Limpopo, where career paths at the time seemed limited to policing or teaching. Determined to explore wider opportunities, he moved to Johannesburg.
His entry into the industry was humble. He began as a cleaner at a multinational fragrance and flavour company before moving into production as a compounder, blending ingredients for various products. From there, he progressed into quality control.
“He told me I had a good nose and asked if he could teach me.”
His trajectory may have continued into sales, had it not been for a pivotal moment. The company’s Director of Perfumery, GS Ramade, recognised Joseph’s exceptional olfactory sensitivity.
The company supported his development. Joseph trained in India before travelling to the United Kingdom and France, where he worked alongside perfumers and refined his craft.
There, he would be left alone in a room filled with raw materials — tasked with smelling, evaluating and memorising them.
“I learnt and evaluated odour profiles of many raw materials with regular testing,” he recalls. “The testing also included identifying materials within a compound and estimating their percentage usage.”
His ability to detect subtle differences and articulate precise descriptions distinguished him early on.
“I’m truly grateful for the path my learning took,” he says. “It allowed me to discover my inherent passion and talent for perfumery. It feels like a natural fit — I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
When the multinational was acquired in 2000, Joseph transitioned into an evaluator role, travelling across markets to select fragrances suited to different African regions. But the pull toward creativity remained strong.
He accepted an offer from the then-unknown SensoryFX, launched by his former manager Johan du Plessis, leaving behind the scale of an international corporation for what he describes as “a tiny space and a scale” — and a significant opportunity to grow.
The move required expansion beyond fragrance.
“I also had to integrate flavours into my repertoire,” he explains. “It was a new dimension compared to my previous role. But fragrance and flavour are closely related, and my sense of smell allowed me to adapt quickly,” he adds with a chuckle.
Joseph’s passion for lifelong learning has led him to train emerging perfumers, flavourists, and quality controllers at SensoryFX. “This isn’t a skill you can simply acquire from a university and immediately apply,” he explains. “You need a minimum of three years to truly determine a candidate’s creative ability in this field.”
To be truly creative and effective, aspiring perfumers and flavourists must learn a vast array of raw materials and retain them with precision. A perfumer, for example, is expected to identify more than 200 materials by scent alone.
Raw materials for perfumery incorporate a diverse range, including essential oils extracted from natural sources such as flowers, leaves, fruits, seeds, resins, and wood. Over time, synthetic compounds—artificially created chemicals designed to mimic natural scents—have been integrated into the perfumer’s repertoire to help conserve natural resources.
Leveraging his extensive experience, Joseph can instantly assess a scent or flavour and recommend the precise adjustments needed to perfect the final formulation.
“It’s not a skill that comes without effort; it requires profound dedication. In fact, we often draw parallels between becoming a perfumer and the demanding training required to become a medical doctor. One typically only starts to achieve an established level of expertise after about seven years, and continuous learning remains essential.”
Joseph explains that South Africa doesn’t offer specific university or college programs for perfumery. This means aspiring perfumers typically need to pursue their specialised education abroad.
He emphasises, however, that while qualifications in chemistry or a related field provide a solid foundation, on-the-job training remains the most effective route to excelling in this specialised profession. “It truly doesn’t matter how academically qualified you are; an acute sense of smell is an absolute prerequisite,” he explains.
“Pursuing your dream to become a perfumer requires patience,” Joseph says. “There’s no shortcut to mastering this profession.”
Some promising candidates have stepped away over the years, unwilling to endure the time required to build depth. For Joseph, this is where mentorship becomes critical.
He believes Africa needs more perfumers and flavourists — individuals capable of expressing the continent’s cultures through scent and taste. There is growing demand for indigenous fragrance compositions incorporating materials such as baobab, buchu and fynbos, as well as flavours that interpret Africa’s rich culinary heritage with equal sophistication.
As markets develop, the opportunity to tell distinctly African sensory stories continues to expand.
Among those shaped by Joseph’s mentorship is Carla van Aswegen, now Head of Fragrance. A Food Science graduate who joined as an intern, Carla’s trajectory has been rapid.
“I never dreamt I’d head up a fragrance division,” she says. “It’s a remarkable journey of constant learning—finding creative satisfaction in transforming diverse raw materials into scents for everything from luxury personal care to everyday homecare.”
Flavour development carries its own creative discipline — one that demands technical precision alongside imagination.
Riana Claasen, Head of Flavour Development at SensoryFX, began her career in the company’s quality control department, building a strong analytical foundation.
At one stage, she held a managerial position. Yet she chose to step away from management to pursue hands-on formulation — exchanging structure for creation.
Today, she leads flavour development across multiple markets, guiding projects that balance scientific rigour with evolving consumer preferences. Her progression reflects the same belief Joseph instils in his teams: mastery requires commitment, humility and time.
Carla’s continued evolution in fragrance and Riana’s leadership in flavour development — alongside the ten other aspiring perfumers and flavourists currently under Joseph’s guidance — form part of a broader vision.
Joseph dreams of establishing an African perfumery academy: a centre of excellence where emerging talent can be trained locally, shaped by mentorship and rooted in the continent’s own sensory heritage.
For him, success is not defined solely by global reach or commercial growth. It lies in building a legacy — one where African fragrance and flavour creators take their place confidently on the world stage.
Through exploring emerging trends, SensoryFX is committed to understanding consumer motivations, allowing us to create flavours that delight and inspire.
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