This blog post is part of a new series called “A Tangible Challenge” where each month I take one in-person class related to something I know nothing about. The goal is to step outside my comfort zone and create something new. I am so excited to share this month’s endeavor: perfume making. (Read January’s adventure in pottery; February’s adventure in plants; March’s adventure in mosaic art lamps; April’s adventure in dumplings; May’s adventures in candles; June’s adventure in embroidery; July’s adventure in soap, and August’s adventures in painted shells here.)
With several big trips on my calendar in the coming months, I spent one weekend toward the end of August poring through my research on various classes looking for what might delight me in September. The description of one felt so different than anything I’d done previously this year… or even anything I’d done previously in my 30 years. This month, I would make perfume.
The description read: Discover the art of bespoke fragrance creation at Bios Apothecary's workshop in Brooklyn, New York. Immerse yourself in a library of over 130 natural aromatics and create your own signature scent using therapeutic-grade essential oils and rare extracts from around the world.
This definitely counted as something new. My friend—who conveniently lives near me—and I took the ferry from our neighborhood to Greenpoint on a Sunday in early September. Riding the ferry was half the fun and I found myself again feeling grateful to live in such a charming place. When we arrived at the store, it felt like walking into an old-timey apothecary… which makes sense as the host of this class is called Bios Apothecary.
We were led to a curtained off back area where those 130 scents lingered. They were sorted by scent type like musk, fruity, citrus, woody, gourmand, spicy, and green. We were invited to smell as many of them as we liked and then dip our special smelling sticks into the bottle so we could later hold multiple scents against our noses at once.
On the table I noticed a closed jar of coffee beans and was thrilled that my knowledge from my earlier candle classes taught me that smelling coffee beans is a reset—especially useful when one goes from smelling almond to sandalwood to carrot seed in the blink of an eye. Each of the scents also was labeled whether it was a base note, a mid note, or a high note. It was then that I realized I truly knew nothing about perfume and aromachology.
I ended up picking a perhaps odd variety of scents (they recommended no more than 8). My perfume is part ylang ylang, almond, rich amber, ambrette, pear, cucumber, anise, and coriander. And if that sounds very chaotic and unique that’s because it is. And yet somehow when I waved the scents in front of my nose on their drippy little cards, it felt right.
We had the option of getting an oil based perfume roller or an alcohol based spray. We both chose the spray and it now sits proudly on my dresser. This class was definitely one of the more out of my comfort zone as I’ve never been particularly into perfume (whether I made it or not!) It left me with a lot of appreciation for an art form I only barely dipped my toe into. One of the neatest things is the ability to register your unique scent with the apothecary. If you do, you’ll be able to refill your perfume or turn your scent into another beauty product.
I had a lot of fun with this one and who knows, many in a few months, I’ll be writing about my new favorite ylang ylang, almond, rich amber, ambrette, pear, cucumber, anise, and coriander face cream. For now though, I’ll stick with the perfume.
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