Creating Your Bespoke Perfume: Workshops, Haute Parfumerie, and Consultation

Why Choose a Bespoke Perfume?

Some dream of a perfume allowing them to feel the emotions of their childhood, to rediscover the smells of a family home, of a country they knew and which marked them, while others wish to be able to distinguish themselves by possessing a bespoke, unique perfume, or to live an exceptional experience in collaboration with a perfumer-creator.

To create a personalized perfume, there are different bespoke perfume proposals, from the simplest to the most sophisticated and personal.

Personalized Perfume Workshops, Composing Your Perfume Yourself

The most accessible bespoke perfume proposal is found in perfume workshops; the approach is intended to be both educational and fun.
Indeed, different accords are made available to the client, and the client has the possibility to play with essences or with a few raw materials.

This creation workshop will be interesting but will not totally allow them to put themselves in the role of a perfumer; this professional alone can be capable of creating a totally personalized perfume.

This approach will, however, allow understanding how complex the composition of a perfume is to achieve (cf. Testing a perfume, Top notes); the result will be a perfume sketch and not a real perfume.

These workshops, generally consisting of a group of minimum 3 people, last from 1.5 to 3 hours.
The cost is quite modest, from about 30 to 150 euros.
An individual workshop is more expensive; the cost can go up to 300 euros.

The Workshop Process

The apprentice perfumer begins their perfume creation by selecting an accord among all those proposed by the workshop, often because it provoked emotions in them.
An accord is a formula comprising 5 to 10 components; it is in a way already a mini perfume.

There are classic accords, that is to say formulas frequently used, for example:

• Floral rose, white flowers, or solar flowers (cf. The solar facet)
• Hesperidic, green, aromatic (cf. The green facet, The aromatic facet)
• Light woody, dark woody, leather (cf. The woody facet, The leather facet)
• Oriental, chypre, fougère (cf. The chypre facet, The leather facet, The oriental or amber facet)
• Gourmand, musky (cf. The gourmand facet, The musky facet)

Then, the apprentice perfumer is invited to dress the accord with a few raw materials.
Very often, it is a mixture of accords that is proposed, which allows building a perfume in complex blocks rather than building a perfume by orchestrating raw material by raw material, as a perfumer would do, and this to avoid dissonances.

Of course, the workshop is supervised by a professional responsible for advising the client regarding the orchestration of the perfume.
They help them find the right proportions, to seek the ideal aesthetic, and to respect the olfactory pyramid of their perfume.

At the end of the workshop, the apprentice perfumers can leave either with all their trials or with the most successful trial, but in a larger format.

Perfumes and Dermatological Tests

For a perfume to be launched on the market, it must have undergone a dermatological test which costs around 2000 euros.
Indeed, because of mixtures, even if the bases are tested individually, interactions can cause allergic reactions.

Thus, the client at the end of their workshop leaves with their perfume which is in reality a “perfume sketch” since it has not been tested in a laboratory, and cannot, in theory, be applied to the skin.
This is why perfume workshops should have the client sign a waiver.

Where to Create Your Perfume Yourself?

You can create your bespoke perfume yourself in the following perfume workshops, often with perfumery accords, but rarely with raw materials:

• Fragonard
• The Alchemist Atelier
• Studio des Parfums
• Cinquième Sens
• Stéphanie de Bruijn
• L’Atelier des Parfums, Molinard boutique
• Atelier Sillages
• Maison 21G
• Le Studio des Parfums and many others….

The Bespoke Perfume Workshop Directed by Perfumers, a High-End Service

A personalized approach is an individual meeting with the perfumer.
Creating your own personalized perfume in this context is the ultimate experience and true luxury perfumery.

The bespoke perfume workshop directed by perfumers can be conducted by the perfumer themself.
It is an approach that is rare but possible. The perfumer then receives the client in their laboratory or in a private salon.

Then, depending on the perfumer’s personality, they will ask questions about the most intimate tastes, the perfumes they have worn for example, in order to clearly identify their expectations.
Each House or each perfumer having their own method, kept secret, no precise description can be made of it.

Price and Details of the Service

The prices of a bespoke perfume match the quality of the service; they can range from 15,000 to 120,000 euros, dermatological tests being included in the price.
Perfume trials, and not perfume sketches as seen previously, are given to the client either in simple laboratory bottles or more luxurious bottles.

It takes between 6 months and a year and a half for the development of a bespoke perfume by a perfumer; the quantity varies according to the service.
The quantities created can depend on the cost of essential oils or the quantity of perfume produced; this can go up to two liters, either in the form of Eau de Toilette, Eau de Parfum, or Extract.

The bottles given at the end of the service can be made of glass or crystal, depending on the houses.
When the client has used all their bottles, prices are provided for refills.

Perfumers and Houses Offering the Bespoke Perfume Service

• Francis Kurkdjian: Maison Francis Kurkdjian offers a bespoke perfume in laboratory bottles for about 15,000 euros.
• Flair: For 50 ml of Eau de Toilette and Eau de Parfum, but also 15 ml of extract, at Flair, count about 2,200 euros.
• Guerlain: The House of Guerlain offers 2 liters of perfume in the iconic Imperial Eau de Cologne bottles for 120,000 euros (Malle Moynat).
• Cartier: At Cartier, count 60,000 euros for 2 gold and crystal bottles.
• Vuitton: Around 60,000 euros.

NB: prices are updated every year, please inquire directly with these brands.

Bespoke Perfume by Sylvaine Delacourte

In parallel with her Collections around the most beautiful raw materials of perfumery, Sylvaine Delacourte has been creating bespoke perfumes for over 15 years for a private clientele from different cultures and countries.

Sylvaine Delacourte, with her unique know-how, proceeds to a true work of craftsmanship which can take her between 3 to 12 months for the creation of a bespoke perfume.
Everything starts with a first consultation during which she allows you to go back in time to understand your olfactory memory and determine what makes the very essence of your individuality.

This exceptional experience includes consultations with Sylvaine Delacourte, the different trials, toxicological tests, and finally, the delivery in a Parisian palace of a few liters of your perfume in a bespoke and personalized bottle.
The quote is on request and starts from 25,000 euros for a unique personalized bottle containing 2 liters of perfume.

Sylvaine Delacourte has acquired rich experience and know-how at Guerlain. She masters numerous tools that allow her to respond perfectly to clients wishing to wear a bespoke and exceptional perfume.

Sylvaine Delacourte trained in different fields, notably in:

• The art of orchestration in various perfumery schools
• Psychology with a professional to have knowledge of analysis tools
• Colorimetry and morpho-psychology

Moreover, she created personal tools to develop her know-how, such as:

• Perfume consultation for Guerlain intended for perfume experts.
• Perfume consultation for Guerlain VIP clientele as well as its application, with the experience of about 30 bespoke fragrances that she developed herself, with as many creations for men as for women.

The Personalized and Specific Consultation with Sylvaine Delacourte

First Step: A Journey into Memory of About One Hour

The goal of this first step is to bring back positive or happy scents and flavors buried in memory.
Sylvaine Delacourte receives you in a private salon and guides you in an interview to take you on a journey through your olfactory memory, from the oldest time to the most recent time, with empathy, generosity, and benevolent listening.
In short, it is a sort of olfactory couch.

It is important to recall forgotten scents and help the person find the clues that will allow creating, from a blank page, a perfume truly associated with their own story.
The fragrance must be carefully orchestrated to provoke this emotion, the very one that has the effect of taking you back in time, like the effect of a Proust madeleine.
You have found your personal nirvana, a unique perfume, for you.

Second Step: Visualization

During this second step, it is about allowing clients who are more visual to confirm their deep tastes through images. It is also the opportunity to validate the evocations and memories awakened during the first hour, during the journey into memory, with the presentation of mood boards based on images, colors, and fabrics.

Third Step: Lifestyle Questions

At this stage, Sylvaine Delacourte, in a respectful approach, proposes to get to know her client better in their way of living.
She and her client converse, without intrusion, about their personal life, habits, favorite flavors and drinks, perfumes worn, style of vacation or weekend, for example.

Fourth Step: Decoding

Here is the moment when we proceed to the choice of accords and raw materials.
Sylvaine Delacourte determines her choice according to the time spent in the company of the client.
This is the decoding stage. She translates into scents what was exchanged, so her choice is perfectly aligned with the olfactory heritage of the client who can only validate it.
Her goal is to find their deep personality.

The Plus of Sylvaine Delacourte: A Singular and Sensory Experience

Depending on the client’s personality, a surprise is proposed, a singular and sensory bespoke experience which can be half a day, in addition to the consultation.
Enough to prolong the dream and wonder before dressing yourself in your bespoke perfume, your unique and exceptional fragrance.