Where to study perfume making?

"Where can I study (more) about perfume making?" - This is another popular question that is asked by the guests.

This is quite a broad and evolving topic. Learning about perfumes and perfume making is never-ending and fascinating journey, the same as life :)

But let's break it down into a few wants and wishes, depending on what you want to achieve.

I started my perfume journey in 2022 to learn how to make perfumes, so here I'll share the ways that I found the most practical.

"I want to make my own perfumes for fun."

That's how I started. I went to a perfume-making workshop and made my first roll-on oil-based perfume that smelled amazing. It had pink peppercorn, green tea accord, and leather. How can I make more of it? Can I make other perfumes too?

So the most practical and fun way is to go to a perfume-making workshop, it'll give you the starting point.

Helsinki Perfume Club has such workshop where we go through basic theory, do blind smelling of some of the most industry-important raw materials, create a perfume formula, and mix your first perfume. This is an end-to-end perfume journey designed for absolute beginners with no prior knowledge. Each part is a science and art by itself, and you can spend years learning more about it and discovering new ways e.g., formulating or working with new raw materials.

In other big cities, there are similar workshops, e.g

• in London, I definitely recommend EPC blending workshop.
• Google "perfume making workshop in CITY_X"

This is not sponsored. I share these links, because I truly admire and experience the work those brands do and how professional they are.

Caveat: Blending sessions or workshops that last 60-90 minutes are usually too surface-level and don't give you enough understanding of the actual art of perfumery, e.g., they usually use pre-blended perfume bases without an option to explore individual raw materials. This makes it fun but too easy and also less educational and specific.

Other resources

• Foundation training from Perfumersworld videos, the best video material I've come across. Will be most useful for practitioners and intermediate level, but very helpful for beginners as well.

They also have offline few week courses in Thailand. If you're going to visit the country, this might be a great reason to do so

"I already have some perfume knowledge, went to a workshop, and now I'm ready for the next level, but I'm too busy (or it's too expensive) to attend a perfume school."

You don't need to go to a perfume school to create your own fragrances. What you need is your curiosity about the topic, the right knowledge at the right time, and practice-practice-practice.

Enroll in a comprehensive online course where you can do blind smelling of raw materials, formulation, and blending.

I recommend EPC academy. I took all 3 courses and never regretted it. At the moment, it costs €2,200.00 for everything, including raw materials, study materials, and video lectures in English. I spent ~4-6 weeks per course, but I took it one by one, which is more expensive; it also helped me to digest it and allowed me to understand what knowledge I needed and when. All the knowledge I got has been applied while building the Helsinki Perfume Club.

Another great course I've heard good feedback about is Sam Macer's online course - https://www.perfumerystudent.com/. It only includes video content without raw materials, so you'd need to buy all the supplies yourself (see the links below), but also the price of the course is much lower - 399$.

Get more raw materials and apply the knowledge from the courses. Start formulating accords. Experiment a lot.

My 3 main sources at the moment:

• Hekserij - a Dutch online shop with plenty of raw materials for a moderate price
• Direct PCW - PCW is a perfume house based in Grasse. They sell directly to consumers and have high-quality raw materials. The price is on the higher end, but the quality too.
• Scentfriends - a german-based online store with raw materials. Moderate prices and a great selection of aroma chemicals.

Travel for perfumes

This sounds obvious, but it works better than you can expect.

Travel to perfume fairs, e.g. Esxence in Milan, Pitti in Florence, Paris Perfume Week, Polaris perfume expo in Stockholm.

Visit Grasse to absorb that perfume culture and inspiration, write emails to perfume houses and ask for 1-1 daily workshops/lectures with their perfumers, and make connections.

You learn one part, then you practice, maybe order more raw materials, then it's vacation time, and you can pass by some of the perfume events and meet interesting industry people there.

"I want to study perfumery, and I can afford to enroll in the school."

1. Grasse Institute of Perfumery (GIP) offers a variety of courses for beginners, intermediate, and advanced students. Short and long-term. They also have online courses.
2. ISIPCA has a summer school. And here (link) you can find all of their programs and the costs.
3. Online perfumery course at the University of Florence. It's a comprehensive program that consists of 80 hours of lecture-based classes and 50 hours of laboratory and smelling sessions. They send you all the materials and kits so you can do it fully remotely.

My personal take on studies is that it's best when the course program is tightly aligned and connected to your goals and to the industry. The more specific your goal is, the more accurately you can plan to achieve it.

Examples

• "I want to create a perfume brand" --> Get knowledge from someone who has done that and has a background or deep knowledge in perfume making, and who launched their own brand.
• "I want to work in the perfume industry" (more broad) --> Get general knowledge about perfume making in one of the schools, build a network in the industry, attend fairs and conferences.

There are no shortcuts, and it takes years to see the results, but if you're truly excited about it. It's worth it. Enjoy the journey and have fun.