Want something interesting to do that is a bit different and off the beaten path in Paris? Try a custom perfume workshop. I mean, how many of us have a unique fragrance? Not made for us, made by us. It was fun. I know zero about making perfume but the workshop I chose made it easy. Am I now a perfume expert? No. But I did something different, in Paris, and now have a 100 ml bottle of a custom perfume that I can reorder any time. The workshop is 1 hour and if I recall was 89 euro. Less expensive than a bottle of perfume! The workshop is also in English (phew). I have no affiliation with this perfumery.
There are several perfumeries in Paris. This tracks because many high end fragrances originate there. Most of these places will make a scent for you based on what you like or don’t. I chose one where I made it myself because I wanted something a little more hands on–I wanted to be the chemist, if you will. Galimard, founded in 1747, had a workshop near Galleries Lafayette (added bonus) and times that worked for me. I signed up online before I left the states (just in case) but I was actually the only person in there for the morning class. Note that I was in Paris in February, not exactly the height of the tourist season.
Your station is a small desk with loads of bottles in front of you divided by sticker into base notes, heart notes, and top notes. Overwhelming, no? Who knew there were all these fragrances? Most people have heard these base, top and heart or middle terms about perfume which makes sense when you think about the different layers of a perfume. A custom perfume meant I chose which notes I wanted for each layer based on my preferences. Floral? Musky? Amber? Herbal? You choose 2-5 base notes and the percentage of each. And this process repeats itself for the heart notes and top notes.
Base notes have larger molecules and last longer. This is what you will smell at the end of the day as they linger for hours. Top notes have small molecules and those scents wear off quickly, usually within the first 20 minutes or so. And, you guessed it, the heart notes make up the bulk of the perfume and really tie everything together and last an hour. And there is the extent of my perfume knowledge!
Once you decide how much of each of your choices you want, you fill a small beaker to the designated amount. After you fill the beaker (are these tubes beakers? Can’t recall high school or college science lab well enough!) they mix it together and put the result on a smelling strip so you can smell your base notes, which give the perfume its weight and depth. These don’t necessarily smell awesome on their own. They don’t smell bad but more just incomplete. Then you move onto the heart notes, which “push” the top notes and support your base notes and give your custom perfume some character. I gravitated toward marine and floral, which sounds about right. Interestingly, scents you think you might like smell different alone. For example, I love lavender but did not use it in my perfume at all.
This process of adding to the beaker repeats itself and they mix the base and middle notes and let you smell it before you move onto your top notes. The top notes are the ones you smell immediately when you spray it on and the ones that don’t last all that long. Since this is custom by amateurs, they made general suggestions about percentages of each fragrance I chose, e.g., “x scent is quite strong so maybe less than 25% would work best,” but you are free to divide your fragrances up however you want. If you chose four scents for the base and middle, you decide which one has 10% or 15% or even just 3%. I think this is where the magic is in perfumes when the experts are involved as they have a better handle on the mixology than mere mortals like myself. It was a guess on my part beyond the general guidance, but this was part of the fun! Low risk if I did not like it in the end; it isn’t going on the shelf at Nordy’s!
Finally, the top notes. I found this one to be the hardest. The scents that are used for top notes were the most familiar and I was drawn to more than I needed. Think scents such as rose and citrus and grass. I went through and picked out maybe 10 and then went through a couple more times to narrow the selection down to 3 or so. And, voila, it gets mixed and put into a little jar to take home, which looks exactly like these int he pictures. This is the hard part: naming your perfume. Honestly, you don’t have long to think and be inspired by this so if you want to make a custom perfume in Paris, start thinking!
Overall, this is a great rainy day activity or something to do if you are loathe to wait in line at the museums anywhere. I was traveling solo but this would fun with friends or even a mother-daughter or son. It is also a great way to get out of the crowds for a few hours. After you make your custom perfume, you can walk across the street to Galleries Lafayette and compare your scent with the dozens of perfume counters there to see how yours compares to the favorites you wear from the store! (I did not do this but kinda wish I had with all my newfound knowledge.)