How To Make Your Own Bespoke Perfume on Zoom, With Experimental Perfume Club

Have you heard about Experimental Perfume Club yet?

If not, get your toosh over to the Career section to read our interview with their founder Emmanuelle Moeglin to find out more about this incredible brand. In short, EPC offer virtual courses and workshops teaching us non-fragrance savvy folk the art of perfumery. Whether it’s how to use our nose, or how to blend the perfect scent, they’re all about bespoke fragrances tailored to you.

I was fortunate enough to be able to try their workshop first hand via Zoom with Emmanuelle herself, and let’s just say that I know what my family will be getting for Christmas this year, because this is the kind of gift they’ll remember.

The first thing I noted once I received my Layers Collection scents to work with, is how great their packaging is. Even better, they are a brand who have sustainability in mind when it comes to recyclable packaging but also refillable bottles - score 1 for the planet!

Upon opening the two boxes, I gauged that the 6 scents I was working with (from Layers Collection 01 and 02) were Bergamot Incense, Jasmine Osmanthus, Sandalwood Musk (Layers 01) and Fig Neroli, Rose Rhubarb, Amber Iris (Layers 02). Other than the smell of rose and rhubarb, I really hadn’t a clue what I was about to make.

I fired up my laptop, which kind of sounded (and still sounds even as I type this article) like it’s about to burst into flames at any given moment, and joined my Zoom workshop.

After a brief chat with Emmanuelle, we got down to business. Or perhaps more accurately, perfumery.

She went through each scent and told me to spray into each lid to get a sense for what each fragrance smelled like and I then chose my top three. After I had rather indecisively finally come to my chosen three, we did a quick quiz through the EPC website called the Formula Finder. You answer a few questions and it recommends some potential formulas for you. Even though my chosen three weren’t included in the recommended combos, I decided to stick with them. Ride or die.

We then picked my favourite of the six (Bergamot Incense) and started to work out how to fill up my empty bottle to start creating my own signature sent. I decided I wanted a lot of this one, a bit of Sandalwood and a dash of Rose Rhubarb. After using the pipette to measure out my quantities (the empty bottle has number so you can work this out mathematically), I gave the bottle a gentle shake and as if by some kind of fragrance magic, I had my bespoke perfume. Easy peasy.

I’m not going to lie here either, it smells GREAT. Although, I’m technically biased.