The creation of a bespoke perfume

Many people are tempted by the idea of wearing a personalised, tailor-made fragrance, allowing them to have a unique olfactory imprint.

Creating your own fragrance is a very interesting experience, as it allows you to get to know yourself better and to better define your olfactory desires.

 

Why choose a bespoke perfume?

Some people dream of a perfume that allows them to feel the emotions of their childhood, to rediscover the smells of a family home, of a country they have known that marked them. Others wish to be able to distinguish themselves by owning a tailor-made, unique perfume, or to have an exceptional experience in collaboration with a perfumer-creator. 

To create a personalised perfume, there are different proposals of tailor-made perfumes, from the simplest to the most sophisticated and personal.

Personalized perfume workshops, create your own perfume

The easiest way to find a custom-made perfume is the perfume workshops, the approach is both educational and fun. 

Indeed, different accords are available and the customer has the possibility to play with essences or with some raw materials. 

A creative workshop will be interesting, but will not totally allow you to put yourself in the role of a perfumer, only a professional is able to create a totally personalised perfume. On the other hand, this approach will allow you to understand how complex the composition of a perfume is, the result will be a sketch of a perfume and not a real perfume.

These workshops, generally made up of a group of at least 3 people, last from 1.5 to 3 hours. The cost is fairly modest, from 30 to 150 euros. An individual workshop is more expensive, it costs up to 300 euros. 

A perfumer apprentice begins his perfume creation by selecting one accord among all those proposed by the workshop, often because it has provoked emotions in him. An accord is a formula consisting of 5 to 10 components, it is in a way already a mini perfume.

There are classical accords, frequently used formulas, for example : 

 

 

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 that allows to build a perfume in complex blocks rather than building a perfume by orchestrating raw material by another raw material, as a perfumer would do to avoid dissonance. 

Of course, the workshop is supervised by a professional responsible for advising the client on the orchestration of the perfume. They help to find the right proportions, to look for the ideal aesthetic and to respect the olfactory pyramid of the perfume. At the end of the workshop, the apprentice perfumer can leave either with all their trials or with the most accomplished ones in a larger format.

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

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

You can create your own tailor-made perfume in the following perfume workshops, often with perfume accords, but rarely with raw materials.

  • Fragonard
  • The Alchemist Atelier
  • Studio des Parfums
  • Cinquième Sens
  • Stéphanie de Bruijn
  • L’Atelier des Parfums, boutique Molinard
  • Atelier Sillages
  • Maison 21G



The tailor-made perfume workshop run by perfumers, a top-of-the-range service

A personalised approach is an individual meeting with the perfumer. Creating your own personalised perfume in this case is the ultimate experience and true luxury perfumery. The tailor-made perfume workshop led by perfumers can be conducted by the perfumer himself. 

This is a rare but possible approach. The perfumer then receives the client in the laboratory or in a private room. Then, depending on the personality, perfumer will ask questions about the most intimate tastes, the fragrances in order to understand the expectations of a customer. 

Since every Perfume House and each perfumer has their own method, which is kept secret, an exact description cannot be drawn up.

The prices of a custom-made perfume are commensurate with the quality of the service, they can range from 15,000 to 60,000 euros, dermatological tests are included in the price. 

Perfume tests, and not perfume sketches as previously seen, are given to the customer either in simple laboratory bottles or more luxurious bottles. 

It takes between 6 months and a 1,5 year for a tailor-made perfume to be created by a perfumer, the quantity varies according to the service. The quantities created can depend on the cost of the essential oils or the quantity of perfume produced, it can be up to two litres, either in the form of eau de toilette, eau de parfum or perfume extract.

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

Perfumers and houses offering bespoke perfume services:

  • Francis Kurkdjian: Maison Francis Kurkdjian offers you a tailor-made perfume in laboratory bottles for around 15 000 euros. 
  • Flair: For 50 ml of eau de toilette and eau de parfum, but also 15 ml of extract, at Flair, you need to count about 2,200 euros.
  • Guerlain: The House of Guerlain offers 2 litres of perfume in a 500 ml crystal bottle and 20 glass bottles for 55,000 euros.
  • Cartier: At Cartier, it costs 60,000 euros for 2 gold and crystal bottles. 



Tailor-made perfume by Sylvaine Delacourte

Alongside her collections based on the most beautiful raw materials in perfumery (cf. Musks Collection, Vanilla Collection, Orange Blossom Collection) Sylvaine Delacourte has been creating for more than 15 years tailor-made perfumes for private clients from different cultures and countries.

 

 

Sylvaine Delacourte, with her unique know-how, carries out the work of a true goldsmith who may require from 3 to 12 months to create a tailor-made perfume. It all starts with an initial consultation during which she allows you to go back in time to understand your olfactory memory and to determine the very essence of your individuality.

This exceptional experience includes the consultations with Sylvaine Delacourte, the various tests, toxicological tests, and finally, the delivery of a few litres of your perfume in a custom-made and personalized bottle.

The price is available on request, you can expect to pay from 25,000 euros for one personalised bottle of 2 litres of perfume.

The perfumer-creator Sylvaine Delacourte has acquired a rich experience and know-how. She masters many tools that enable her to respond perfectly to customers desire to wear a tailor-made and exceptional perfume.

Sylvaine Delacourte has trained in various fields, notably in : 

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

In addition, she has created personal tools to develop her know-how, such as : 

  • The perfume consultation for Guerlain for perfume experts.
  • The perfume consultation for Guerlain VIP customers as well as its application, with the experience of about 30 custom-made fragrances she created herself, as many for men as for women.



The personalised and specific consultation with Sylvaine Delacourte 

  • First step: a journey through memory (lasting about an hour)

The aim of this first step is to bring back the positive or happy scents and flavours buried in the memory. 

Sylvaine Delacourte welcomes you in a private room and guides you through an interview to take you on a journey through your olfactory memory, from the earliest to the most recent times, with empathy, generosity and benevolent listening. In short, it is a kind of olfactory couch.

It is important to bring back forgotten scents and to help the person to find the clues that will allow to create from a blank page, a perfume really associated with its own history. 

The fragrance must be carefully orchestrated to provoke the emotion, the same one that takes you back in time, like the effect of a Proust madeleine. 

You have found your personal nirvana, a unique fragrance, for you. 

  • Second step: visualization with presentation of mood boards based on images, colours and fabrics

During this second stage, the aim is to allow customers who are more visual to confirm their deepest tastes with images. It is also an opportunity to validate the evocations and memories awakened during the first hour, during the journey into memory.

  • Third step: lifestyle issues

At this stage, Sylvaine Delacourte, in a respectful approach, proposes to get to know the client better the lifestyle.

She and the client talk, without intrusion, about the personal client’s life, habits, favourite flavours and drinks, the fragrances the client wears, the style of holiday or weekend, for example. 

  • Fourth step: decoding

This is the moment when the choice of perfume accords and raw materials is made. Sylvaine Delacourte determines her choice based on the time spent with the client. This is the decoding stage. She translates what has been exchanged into scents, so her choice is perfectly aligned with the client's olfactory heritage. Her goal is to find the deep personality of the client.

  • Sylvaine Delacourte's plus: a singular and sensorial experience

Depending on the client's personality, a surprise is proposed, a singular and sensory experience, that can last up to half a day, in addition to the consultation. This will prolong the dream and the wonder before you put on your tailor-made perfume, your unique and exceptional fragrance.

Sylvaine Delacourte fragrances

Discover Sylvaine Delacourte's brand with her Orange Blossom, Musk and Vanilla Collections. You can try them thanks to the Discovery Boxes (5 Eaux de Parfum x 2 ml) and rediscover these raw materials as you have never smelled them before.