Ahhhh, I remember my first experience creating “perfume” as a kid with a toy set. The fragrance I created had a cotton candy top note, a heart of plastic Barbie head and a drydown of playdough. I may be able to write about perfumery, talk shop with perfumer friends, but I never really learned how to created a fine fragrance from top down.
Many companies are offering perfume classes, but they are not always taught by perfumers. That is why as a NYer I am excited about Le Labo’s First Mondays at the Lab, where perfumer wannabes learn how to create their own scent. Students will learn about the fundamentals of perfumery, through the lens of three of Le Labo’s signature fragrances. The workshops will cover how the inspiration for a fragrance is developed, how to create a harmonious blends, and learn Le Labo’s ‘secrets’ to creating some of the most interesting and topical fragrances in the niche market.
Throughout the course, natural and synthetic ingredients will be sampled, and their origins, properties, and uses will be discussed. Le Labo uses only materials from Grasse (because their belief is a rose is not a rose is not a rose unless it’s from Grasse)
Edouard (Eddie) Roschi and Fabrice Penot, the co founders of Le Labo don’t mess around when it comes to fine fragrance. Les Nez behind their scents include the world renowned perfumers Daphne Bugey, Marc Buxton, Francoise Caron, Annick Menardo the “Queen of Incense”, Maurice Roucel, Franck Voelkl and Michel Almayrac.
Le Labo’s tongue-in-chic attitude as ” rebels with a cause ” enrages and engages. Your favorite Le Labo fragrance is blended in front of your eyes, apothecary style. In no nonsense bottles with labels that read like a Rx engages. (The enrage is the “city exclusives”, where one must enlist scent mules through Facebook to send us Tokyo, Los Angeles, Dallas, London, and Paris. ( I have peeps in Paris just for Vanille 44).
At “First Mondays in the Lab” students will learn about the fundamentals of perfumery, through the lens of three of Le Labo’s signature fragrances. The workshops will cover how the inspiration for a fragrance is developed, how harmonious blends are made, and Le Labo’s ‘secrets’ to creating some of the most interesting and topical fragrances in the niche market.
Throughout the course, natural and synthetic ingredients will be sampled, and their origins, properties, and uses will be discussed. All materials used in the session are from Grasse (because their belief is a rose is not a rose is not a rose unless it’s from Grasse).
Classes are led by Anne McClain, a graduate of France’s Grasse Institute of Perfumery, who creates her own fragrance, called Humanity, in small batches in a Brooklyn laboratory. The scent is light but rich in vanilla with notes of maté tea and sandalwood, and it is encased in a stunning conceptual glass bottle. (All of the perfume’s proceeds go toward building the Humanity Perfume Fountain, a public art project that will be installed this summer in Greenpoint’s McGolrick Park for six months).
Since this perfumista was born in Greenpoint, Brooklyn back in the day when you dodged bullets instead of emerging artists, I definitely will add gunpowder, Cafe Bustelo, and the smell of our laundry turning brown to my composition. Since I lived in Paris, there will be an accord that evokes the powdery scent that seems to pervade Paris, a Hermes leather note, a gourmand accord of almonds, raspberry and ganache from Laduree, and the scent of Gauloises.
That’s if I can manage to stay focussed after 2 hours of free champagne.
First Mondays at Le Labo, 233 Elizabeth Street, between Houston and Prince Streets ( 212-219-2330 212-219-2330 or lelabofragrances.com). R.S.V.P. for classes ($75) to workshops@lelabofragrances.com.
Humanity Fragrance ($125) is available at Sigerson Morrison, 28 Prince Street, between Mott and Elizabeth Streets ( 212-219-3893 212-219-3893 ); online at mcmcfragrances.com
– Michelyn Camen, Editor-In-Chief