Paris: Create Your Own Perfume with a Professional Nose

You'll Mix Three Scents in One Afternoon, Then Walk Out With One

You'll learn fragrance composition from a professional perfumer with two decades of experience, create three sample scents by blending from fifty different essences, and take home your chosen scent in a 50ml bottle with its own formula card. The workshop includes all materials, packaging, and a reference book on perfume-making: no prior knowledge needed, and you can reorder your exact scent anytime if you want more.

Step-by-step itinerary

Create your own perfume scent

• Meet experienced perfumer
• Learn perfume composition concepts
• Explore about 50 scent compositions
• Compose three sample scents
• Select one scent to keep
• Receive 50ml bottle of chosen scent

The experience

The moment you sit down at the workshop table in Paris, you realize you have no idea what you're doing. Fifty small bottles of fragrance concentrate sit in front of you, labeled with words like "top note," "heart," "base", and your job is to turn them into something that smells like you. Marina, the perfumer leading the workshop, has spent twenty years training her nose to do this professionally. She's about to teach you the same system she learned as an apprentice, except you get to break all the rules and see what happens.

The workshop walks you through the actual architecture of fragrance: how scents layer, how they evolve on your skin over time, why some combinations clash and others sing. You're not just smelling. You're learning the language perfumers use: notes, chords, the way a fragrance opens and then settles. Then you start playing. You compose three different scents as samples, testing each one, adjusting, sometimes scrapping it and starting over. There's no "right" answer, which is both liberating and slightly terrifying.

By the end, you choose your favorite from the three you've made. Marina bottles it for you (a full 50 millilitres in proper packaging), and you leave with your own signature scent. The workshop includes all the raw materials, the bottle, and the packaging. If you fall in love with what you've created, you can reorder the same formula later using the notes you'll keep. A book on perfume composition goes home with you too, so you're not just walking away with a bottle. You've got the reference to understand what you actually did.

Public transport gets you there easily, and the workshop suits any fitness level. It's all seated work at a table. The whole experience is a few hours of actual creation, the kind where you're making decisions and smelling the results in real time, not watching someone else do it.

What’s included

• Your afternoon includes instruction from Marina, a perfumer with 20 years of professional experience.
• access to approximately 50 different fragrance compositions.
• materials to create three sample scents.
• a 50-millilitre bottle of your chosen scent with full packaging.
• a reference book on perfume composition and the concepts behind fragrance-building.
• and the ability to reorder your exact formula in the future if you want more of the same scent.

Information

Lasts 1h 30m, runs Monday to Friday at 10:30, 14:00 and 17:00, from € 98 per person, with a live guide in English, Spanish and French, in groups of up to 8 and with free cancellation up to 24 h before.

Days and timesMonday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: 10:30, 14:00 and 17:00Wednesday: 10:30 and 14:00Another day? ›

GroupUp to 8

Live guideEnglish, Spanish and French

Meeting point and pickupNo hotel pickup: you go to the meeting point. Ends back at the starting point.

AgesAdult (7 to 77 years) · Under 7: can't be booked

Cancellation and refundsFree cancellation up to 24 h before the start. After that, no refund.It may be canceled if the minimum number of travelers isn't reached. If that happens, you're offered another date or a refund.

Prices and times updated 4 days ago

Good to know

Low physical effortPublic transport nearby

Operated by ABC DU PARFUM

Is this one for you?Right for anyone who wants to understand how fragrance actually works and leave with something they made themselves: the small group size and hands-on format mean you're not watching a demo, you're doing the work and keeping the result.

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Top questions

What languages is the tour guided in?

Live guide in English, Spanish and French.

Do I need perfume experience to join?

No. The workshop teaches you the concepts from the ground up (notes, chords, how fragrance evolves on skin), and is designed for perfume fans of any level.

Can I make more than one scent to take home?

You create three sample scents during the workshop and choose one to bottle in 50ml. You can reorder that same formula later if you want additional bottles.

What if I don't like the scent I made?

You compose three different scents and select your favorite. If you change your mind later, you can experiment again or reorder a previous formula using your notes.

Is the 50ml bottle included in the price?

Yes. The bottle, packaging, all raw materials, and a reference book on perfume composition are included.

How do I get to the workshop location in Paris?

Public transportation options are available nearby. The workshop is accessible by metro or bus.