Design your own fragrance
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A perfumer can name one’s own tailor-made perfume.
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Perfume was once considered a luxury, but it has become an important aspect of defining oneself. As people try to find their own style, bespoke goods such as shirts and suits gained popularity and a customized perfume can put a finishing touch on the world of personalization.
Scentlier, a Korean home fragrance brand, opened its tailor-made perfume course last December. The program, available by reservation, takes about one to two hours depending on individual preference.
To provide a smoother experience and ensure the quality of the final product, Scentlier offers 11 types of premade perfume bases, blended by a professional perfumer.
“Making a perfume from scratch is difficult for a novice and it might end up a mishmash, so we provide the base, which is about 70 percent completed compared to an ordinary selling perfume,” said Kyung Kyu-hye, a perfume designer at Scentlier. “The customer can fill in the remaining 30 percent with over 50 additives.”
Customers are excited to create something of their own in this era of individual style. “It was a unique experience finding my scent,,” said Kim Ji-won, 32, an office worker who took part in the program. “The personalized perfume soon became my favorite in my vanity.”
A perfume organ at Scentlier Hongdae, where customers can make bespoke perfume / Courtesy of Scentlier
Perfume-making process
The one-day perfume class begins with smelling about six of the 11 bases. The customer can only identify the fragrances with initials to prevent prejudice.
“As the olfactory sense becomes tired and dull easily, we do not offer all of the scents at the same time,” Kyung said.
After testing the perfumes, the designer explains each base, including the most popular ones such as fruity floral and aromatic fougere. If the customer likes a certain scent, the designer suggests more fragrances similar to that one.
Since a perfume is closely related to imagery, the perfume designer helps find the guideline through a survey. Participants are asked to write down their impressions of each perfume base, think of their personality, favorite scent and color and draw a picture of the individualized perfume.
“Fragrance is something personal. Each person smells differently, based on one’s memories and emotional state. That is why we ask to visualize the personalized scent,” Kyung said.
Choosing the base, which will take about 60 percent of the perfume, will set the direction. If the base comes from the same family, the customer can mix more than two bases, but otherwise it is recommended to choose one and include more additives.
“Interestingly, combining two fragrances might result in a totally different scent or something close to either of them,” the designer explained. “The change of fragrance is something beyond expectation.”
After selecting the base, the customer can choose additives to give more distinctness to the perfume.
“What differentiates perfume from air freshener is that a perfume has top, middle and base notes. An air freshener has the same scent from beginning to end, but a perfume starts with top notes and ends up with base notes that last longer,” Kyung said. “Making a perfume is like composing music. The scent has to be sustainable with changes and a perfumer adjusts the dynamics.”
The customer is given a smelling chart and a handful of additives. The additives vary from floral Rose Petal and Hyacinth to fruity Apple, Peach and Orange as well as exotic Beaver Oil and Tonka Nut.
However, Kyung recommends seven classic scents — Bergamot, Lily of the Valley, Grapefruit, Rosewood, Cassis Fruits, Green Tea and Sea Scent — often used in perfumes and not interfering with the base too strongly. The basic offerings could be different depending on the base one chooses.
“A good perfume is round. Pointed perfumes can be distinctive, but will tire out the nose easily. Bergamot and Lily of the Valley can round out the scent, embracing various elements,” the designer said. “Grapefruit has a good balance of bitterness and sweetness, while Cassis Fruits is sweet but a bit artificial. Rosewood can add a woody and earthy smell to the perfume.”
The customer writes down impressions of each additive, selects what to put in to the base and adds them in drop by drop.
After mixing the first round of additives, the customer can experiment more, consulting with the perfume designer. However, putting too many additives is not always right.
“A perfume has a minimum of dozens of flavors up to hundreds. Adding too many flavors might make the scent too heavy. Instead, layer different perfumes — spraying a perfume on the left wrist and putting another on the right is a way of layering,” Kyung said.
When the tailor-made perfume is all measured and mixed, it is bottled and labeled with the name given by the customer, or the perfumer of the day.
The perfumer advised to think of what is one’s favorite fragrance and what type of scent one’s perfume lacked before sitting in front of the perfume organ. “Thinking of what I am looking for in this bespoke perfume will be the key to the composition,” Kyung said.
Scentlier’s bespoke perfume is 50,000 won per 50 milliliters. For more information, visit www.scentlier.com or call 02-322-1178.