Make my own perfume

“Once I had selected several scents I did like, the perfumer had me dip strips of paper into each bottle. Then she’d combine different strips together and I’d wave them in the air together and see how I liked the combination. As she’s the pro, she knew which combination of notes to use, and in which amount, in order to strike a good balance. Once we landed on a combination I liked, I mixed a small sample for me to try on my skin. Then I went outside for a few minutes to let the scent develop (and to get some fresh air so that I could perceive the scent more accurately). Ultimately I chose a combination of palo santo, Peruvian balsam, red sandalwood, and green pepper. [...] It makes me feel like a forest fairy.”

“The perfume you make is made from specially pre-prepared perfume blends. There were 21 perfume blends, created by a Master Perfumer, which we could choose and mix from. The idea was that each of the blends was a perfume in itself already, so you would choose a few, typically one base, one middle and one top note, to create your own bespoke favourite blend. And believe me - that was difficult enough! Sometimes you might really like one scent, and love another, and then combine them to find it was just plain odd or unpleasant together. [...] So we sniffed and pondered and set aside some scents and selected others, and combined them with each other and pondered a bit more, and every once in a while smelled coffee beans to \"re-set\" our nose. We would wave the perfumed paper strips in front of our noses with a variety of combinations and try select the best mixture.”

“A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending a 1:1 workshop where I got to create my own perfume! I had no idea what to expect - I wondered if I’d just be set free to sniff all the 100+ bottles of scents or if it would be a little more structured. I didn’t know until I got there that it was a private workshop, so that was a nice surprise and it def helped me maximise the time there, which was just 1 hour. [...] after explaining to her what I was going for, the perfumer brought out a selection of bottles for me to smell (unmixed scents like amber, tuberose, etc), and then I’d tell her which I liked and which I didn’t. I was surprised that some of the things I thought I’d want, like leather, I didn’t like in the end. It really did smell like bacon, like the perfumer warned me about. Being vegan, it was a no from me.”