By Natalie Kliewer
Lately I've been getting into creative workshops. Workshops with an early start are the best! Coffee, then a few hours of creativeness, the perfect Saturday or Sunday. So, when I heard that Natalia Bertolo was holding a Perfume Workshop on a Saturday morning, I couldn't wait to attend. A quick recap; Natalia volunteers as Assistant Country Coordinator for Fashion Revolution New Zealand, and works as Operations Manager for contemporary womenswear brand Paris Georgia. The workshop was held in a new space called Jace Space on Symonds Street. This place is beautiful! It features exposed brick, high ceilings, and polished concrete & hardwood floors throughout, but lets talk about perfume.
There were about 8 of us and we started of by introducing ourself and giving a brief speech about why we are here and wanting to make our own Eau-De-Perfume. This was followed by a brief history of perfume. We learned about the types of perfumes, the major fragrance families, perfume ingredients and the blending techniques, followed by a few tips. hen we got in to it. Natalia had a table of all kinds of smells set up for us. We smelled, we made notes, we smelled some more, deciding how we would blend our own scent. I think the best is to not overthink it and pick a few smalls you love.
Back at the table, we got straight to it. Starting with the base notes (for example a musk or wood smell), followed by the mid/heart notes (the lines of flowers or fruits), followed by the top notes (citrus or herb smells). Blending and smelling and adding a few drops at a time, whilst writing it all down. The aim is to have 120 drops, which are divided out by the 3 notes. Some more than others and pretty much however many smalls you would like to add.
I decided on only 5 smells; Vanilla and Amber Noir as the base notes, Peony and Sage as the mid notes and Pink Pepper (yes!) as my top note. I won't give away the amount of drops I used from each one, my smell will be a secret. I started off carefully, smelling my potion every time I added some drops. The finished potion is topped up with a 96% ABV Alcohol, and voila, you have your own perfume!
It was not only a super fun morning, but also very informative. There is talk about another Perfume Workshop next year in March, so keep your eyes on the Sans Pareil Instagram page, because we will definitely keep you posted!
If you enjoyed this article, why not check out more from Natalie K here.
Disclaimer: While these products were gifted to the Sans Pareil Online team to review, our opinions are our own and we have not been paid or coaxed to say something either way. If you would like to have your product reviewed please contact us here.
