My name is Billy McCallum. I am a UK-based perfumer from the south coast with a strong catalogue. Any information you would like to know about my journey into perfume is just down below!
This all began a long time ago on a visit abroad, when my mum introduced me to perfumes at the airport duty free. From the first sniff, my infant mind was blown. Of course, at the time, I did not know anything would come of it, but this was certainly the first interaction of a long saga of smelling (and eventually creating) perfumes.
Around 8 or 9 years pass and I had barely interacted with perfume since my visit abroad, until I received my first fragrance from my dad - Iced by Hugo Boss. My life was changed, and I wore this fragrance daily for a good two years. My nose (rather slowly) started to become more adventurous. My next perfume was Paco by Paco Rabanne, then Le Male EDT by Jean Paul Gaultier. A critical turning point was just around the corner - my discovery of niche perfume boutiques. Montale, Mancera, Parfums De Marly, and Kilian in a trip to Paris, and I knew that there was no turning back now, though little did I know that I was only in the shallow end, but nonetheless my horizons were expanded. Penhaligon's, I first experienced back in London, and I ended up purchasing the (heartbreakingly) now discontinued Halfeti Cedar - my first niche perfume of my own.
Slowly but surely, I was spending more and more time researching perfume, and I eventually started posting perfume reviews under the TikTok account @parfumsdechaleur. While I was still very much in "mainstream" territory, my TikTok account started growing rather quickly. Soon enough I had reached around 2000 followers, when I decided to reach out to the brand Sarah Baker Perfumes, with ~120 followers. I received my first ever PR package - a sample set, and I was over the moon. My series of reviewing these perfumes performed rather well analytically, and only a few months afterwards, I was invited to the exclusive launch party of Peach's Revenge in Jovoy Mayfair - the pinnacle of my perfume career at the time. I soon started to work with other brands, such as BORNTOSTANDOUT, Kingdom Scotland, and most recently Paco Rabanne. At this point I knew that there was no other choice but perfume, and I was (and still absolutely am) in love with perfume.
As I started to dig deeper into less "mainstream" niche perfumes, my follower count started to plateau at around 5000 followers, as it was a small audience, though I loved what I was doing.
I realised that my perfume was not simply a hobby anymore, but it was now an integral part of my day. Forgetting to wear perfume in the morning would leave me feeling upset all day, so I began to carry a crew of samples on me, my own private perfume library, but soon enough, those perfumes started to lose their excitement. It was then that I had an idea - to make my own perfume. I spent months and months researching, reading, asking questions, finding out whatever I could about perfume creation. I came up with my first perfume - a rose-forward, red berry, fig, earthy, red wine perfume. The materials took a couple of weeks to arrive, and I was so, terrifically excited. After 5 prototypes... I had nothing. It was okay. Not a bad perfume, not a good one. It was missing one, very important thing - natural materials. After all of this research, I had neglected natural materials, and this was where my perfume had fallen short. I did not have a presentable perfume, but I knew what I needed to do. I invested in geranium essential oil, tomato leaf absolute, and maté absolute (also featured in Rot), and the perfume was elevated ten-fold. I learned a valuable lesson from this, and that was to never spare an expense when it came to formulation, otherwise the perfume would be no good, and barely a perfume at all.
In Spring 2025, I was featured in the The Scented Letter - an honour that I am still starstruck by, and certainly a high point that I will not forget about, after meeting Alison Pitcher from The Perfume Society at the launch event of Peach's Revenge. The article was about younger men diving into perfume, which I was happy to offer my opinions on.
Then, in late 2025, I started a new TikTok account dedicated to my perfumery, (@yoursbilly.perfumer), which within only a matter of days shot to over 1000 followers, and I plan to expand this account further, having already received such positive feedback from my followers.
In 2026 now, I have divised many more perfumes, very artistic in nature - from light floral perfumes with interesting twists to dense smoky animalic perfumes, I am proud to say that I have come a long way. Starting by reviewing perfumes in my bedroom to having a releasable catalogue of perfumes, I can only say that perfume has been the most extraordinary part of my life so far, and I cannot wait to see what the future of perfume brings.
If you are looking for a perfumer for an avant-garde perfume for your brand, please do get in touch via email from my contacts section, and I will be honoured to see what I can do.