USA – a.k.a. across the pond
Mandy Aftel
Mandy Aftel really needs no introduction. She is a multi-award winner for both her perfumes and books and has been creating custom made perfumes for years. Every perfume I’ve tried from her line has a unique way to speak to your soul.
Mandy doesn’t use a questionnaire but will make you smell many different fragrant essences, and respond with your deeply personal preference to each aroma. She will note your responses, both verbal and nonverbal, looking for the alchemy that will transform these raw, sensual materials into the right formula for you. Working from your responses, she will create a scent that reflects your unique self.
Your custom perfume will be a unique aromatic portrait, different from any perfumes you have tried in the past.
She will create your unique custom perfume formula based on all of your preferences and send you a small sample to try on your skin and in your life, and then adjust the formula if necessary. The final custom perfume includes the 1/4 oz. solid, the 1/4 oz. liquid, the 2 ml mini liquid, and the 1 oz. eau de parfum spray. Your custom formula will be kept on file, so that you can order refills of the solid or liquid perfumes.
Ayala Moriel
Ayala Moriel Parfums is an independent artisan perfume house dedicated to the art of natural perfumery. Master perfumer Ayala Moriel designs and handcrafts natural perfumes from pure, precious botanical essences that are carefully selected from around the world.
To perfectly match your fragrance needs and personality and express it through perfume, you will initially fill in a fun Fragrance Questionnaire and depending on the results you’ll get to try the scents that best suit your profile. A more detailed interview follows next at the studio where you will select with the perfumer the essences for your Custom Perfume. Once the procedure is completed, Ayala Moriel will create your custom perfume, which will be ready within 4 weeks, and you will receive a sample to try at home. If you like it as is, your perfume will be presented to you in a 15mL EDP splash or spray. However, if you wish to "tweak" it, you can request up to two more adjustments at no additional cost. The full process usually takes between 6-10 weeks.
Your formula is kept on file for seven years and will be only produced on your request exclusively. However, if you haven't made any re-orders in seven years, you will lose the exclusivity to the formula.
If you find this procedure lengthy you can also choose to create your custom fragrance remotely, by simply answering the questionnaire and receiving samples in the mail until you find the right one!
DSH perfumes
Dawn Spencer Hurwitz is a true underground force in niche perfumery. DSH, as she is called by her devoted following, has been working with aromatics for the past 26 years and is a pioneer of the American indie perfumery movement. She has developed many innovative concept perfumes and worked with top designers to consult and create exclusive perfumes.
She offers many options at her studio; the first one is working directly with her to create your own signature perfume. With a special talent for intuiting each client’s unique desire through scent profiling, personal fragrance history and skin analysis, your Designer Original perfume is sure to please. There are 2 ways to get his done, either in person for a more in depth profiling or long distance via skype interview. In both cases this service allows you to use any of DSH’s 1100 materials in your formulation; no material is off limits and you will receive a 1 ounce (30 ml) Eau de Parfum spray.
She also offers the ESSENSE STUDIO LOUNGE, a custom, aromatic “cocktail bar” where you can play, experiment and really get creative finding fabulous new elixirs, perfumes, essence oils, sprays and organic body care products.
By booking an hour at her studio you are allowed to experiment with your ideas and compose a scent, body product or aromatherapy oil you want!
All Essense Studio Lounge and Designer Original formulas are kept on file forever for easy refills and gift giving.
Neil Morris
Neil Morris holds his consultations at his fragrance studio in Boston’s Back Bay area where while relaxing and enjoying a cup of tea in the living room your individual fragrance is being created.
When creating a custom fragrance, Neil’s goal is to link the brain’s centres that relate scent and emotion.
A consultation takes an hour to an hour and a half, beginning with a questionnaire that will help lead Neil in the perfect “scent” direction for you. He then chooses a selection of appropriate aromas from a collection of over 700 fragrances for you to sample. After you’ve chosen the aromas you find most appealing, he will build the fragrance directly on your skin—drop-by-drop—until it becomes the right scent for you!
An amazing procedure that I’m really tempted to book as Neil has a portable fragrance studio available if you would prefer him come to your space but I think London might be a bit too far!
The formula that you have inspired and worked to create will be recorded and kept on file. In the future when you need more of your custom fragrance, simply order more. You also may order body lotion and bath gel in your signature fragrance.
Jessica Hannah
Jessica Hannah offers Beginners and Advanced Workshops at the Handcraft Studio School where you'll learn about the art of natural perfumes while creating a formula with oils from around the world.
Guided by a trained natural perfumer and using a range of natural essential oils and absolutes you will create your own scent to take home into a .25 oz spray-bottle while being educated about botanical essences, distillation, and history of fragrance. Your formula will be saved as well for future refills.
NOTE fragrances
A fun, unique and interactive experience awaits when you visit the Custom Perfume Studio at NOTE Fragrances.
Your journey to create your unique scent story begins with the use of your very own Perfumer's Organ. Similar to the organs used by Master Perfumers around the globe, you will have 50 notes to work with as well as additional notes for each season. Scent families and perfumery note classifications are explained and an expertly trained Scent Designers will guide you through the proper techniques of sniffing and blending with fragrance blotters. As you work your way through your Perfumer's Organ, the notes will become alive and fragrant with your own creation.
Once you have compiled your desired composition, the Scent Designers will create your final formula at the Fragrance Bar. Proportional adjustments are made to your notes based on NOTE’s proprietary, patent-pending system to ensure a well-balanced final fragrance that you will love.
Once completed, your perfume is bottled and your formula is given a unique NOTE ID#. That number identifies your exact formula which gets registered in NOTE’s secure database. This allows the precise formula to be recreated when you need to reorder.
GOEST perfumes
Goest Perfumes is based in LA and offers a wide range of custom perfume services like wedding perfumes, designer fragrances for brands and retailers, bespoke colognes, fragrances for events and many others. As they have their own fragrance library, composition laboratory, and in-house “nose” they have the capability to create something that is truly custom made. The process to create a bespoke perfume takes between 1 and 4 months, and involves an interview and several rounds of formulation and testing while using a library of raw fragrance materials that includes many ingredients that are considered too expensive for commercial use.
I have been looking forward to trying their own brand fragrances as they have a unique aesthetic I find very appealing and I stumbled upon their interesting approach to bespoke scents.
Once the formula is final you will receive your custom fragrance that can also come in various other formats including: soap, candle, fragrance, fragranced oil, room spray, and body oil formats that will create a bespoke fragrance heaven!
Shelley Waddington
Shelley Waddington is the founder of EnVoyage Perfumes and recipient of multiple international awards for her perfumes. Zelda, Frida, Go Ask Alice are true masterpieces!
All of her award-winning collections are created in her studio and they are Shelley’s own signature scents, each inspired by her knowledge of perfume chemistry and composition, indigenous raw materials, art, artists, literature and the gorgeous world around her.
She offers consultation, instruction, and design of bespoke fragrances for individuals, groups, and events in her studio in Portland where you will get a chance to create your own masterpiece with her guidance.
CB I hate perfume (Christopher Brosius)
A custom blended perfume is the height of luxury & the ultimate expression of individuality.
Christopher Brosius will meet with you at his studio in Brooklyn and by choosing exactly what ingredients you want in your perfume he will make a scent that smells like you & it is truly an invisible portrait of who you are.
Before the appointment he suggests you visit his gallery and sniff around to make sure you like his work. 300 to 400 accords from the collection are always on display as well as collections of ready-to-wear perfumes. He wants to make sure you’re going to be absolutely delighted with the scent he will create for you & he wants to be happy to have made it for you.
Inspiration for a scent can take many forms. It can capture a special memory for you & a favourite place or time perhaps. It could be a blend of accords each of which has a special meaning to you.
Christopher Brosius only does custom blending by appointment. At the appointment, you’ll discuss & refine your idea for your perfume and when all the questions are answered and he has a clear idea of what your perfume will be, he’ll begin to pull accords from his collection that fit that idea. Or if you want to spend some time sniffing through the collection that’s fine as well. Eventually though, you’ll narrow down the ingredients for your scent to those you love best. Once all the accords for your scent have been chosen, he will begin blending in the most traditional fashion, drop by drop which is a very interactive process. All additions and changes are tried and tested until you get to a point he’s fairly sure you’re done. Then, when all the ingredients are blended to your satisfaction & his, you’ll need to make sure the perfume “fits”. You’ll leave with a small vial to try and wear for a week or two to make sure that everything in your perfume is just the way you want it.
Additional adjustments may be needed & a second appointment may be necessary. However, once the scent smells just the way you want, voilà!
As he says: We have perfume!
Stay tuned as we will continue with Part 3 and travel to the land of kangaroos and fluffy koalas!