Sue Phillips, Fragrance Expert, Podcast Summary
This Fragrance Friday, Ekta talks to Sue Phillips, Fragrance Expert, to discuss her journey as a small actress to become a world-renowned fragrance master. Born and raised in South Africa, Sue always had a calling to speak and inspire people, so when she was granted to opportunity to act in a Hollywood play at only ten years old, it set the stage for her always to be one with an audience.
“So, my story really begins in South Africa, I was born and raised in South Africa from Johannesburg and at 10 years old I was in a play because one of my mother’s friends was a Hollywood producer. And she had told my mother, “Grace I need a 10-year-old daughter, I need a 10-year girl for a daughter in the play, and I’d like to use Sue”. Anyway, I got the part it was quite lovely and there were two other young girls that had to rotate because we were all in a sloth, and you can imagine at 10 years old being in a Hollywood type play. Any way that kind of gave me the theater back and I started to really think about theater, and I wanted to be in a theater.” (Phillips).
Even though her dream began with acting, Sue saw that there was so much more that she would be able to do in business along with working in a cliental personal service as well!
“So, I always wanted to study abroad at World Acadamy of Dramatic Art when I finally auditioned there were about 5,000 people and about 3 spots and all of them were English, so sadly I didn’t get that. And I came to New York and realized that I wanted to be in New York, so I went to a head hound, and they said, “what do you do,” and “I said I’m an actress” and he said, “forget that we have thousands of other works than actors and actresses.” And he said, “what else do you do” and I said, “Well I did end up doing a business course” and he said, “were you any good.” And the way he asked me the question I knew that was my ticket into America and I said “yes!” (Phillips).
After she was granted the opportunity of working in the Global luxury beauty company Elizabeth Arden as a Training Director, she gained excellent knowledge of the production and branding of fragrances on the market and catering to clients’ needs.
“So that’s how landed up eventually getting my green card and I went to get some interviews and I landed up having an interview at Elizabeth Arden for the National Training Director. Now by this stage I had been in New York for about a year or a year and a half, I was singing and acting at night with these little Rinck Dink company clubs. But I was able to stand and perform in front of people and so they thought I’d be great in training and that’s how I started my career in training at Elizabeth Arden. And they asked me to really become interested and knowledgeable about fragrance.” (Phillips).
Sue shines a new light on the importance of stage setting when presenting a fragrance product through this opportunity. From this, she revolutionized the branding of scents, granting her the well-deserved title “The First Lady of Fragrance”!
“So, I started doing training seminars with different people in other stores and every time I was in the market, the way I created fragrance experience, had beautiful music and I and beautiful fragrance wafting in the air I had lovely visuals. So, when people came in in the beauty advisors over the counter came into these training seminars, which would be held in a conference room of a hotel I totally changed the landscape, or the ambiance of that room and I turned it into a magical fragrance oasis.” (Phillips).
You can listen to the full episode here:
Authors: Jasmine Boskent & Remy Vidal
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