Were we really going to make our own perfume?

August 8, 2024

I’ve thought and researched a lot about the whole wide idea of creativity this year. It’s been my first year of hosting an on-line community of wonderful women who would like to incorporate even more creativity into their already full lives (GEMs= Gathering Experiences that are Meaningful).

As a result, I think that as part of my definition of creativity there is an element of bringing yourself into it. If you are making, then it is for you first. Do YOU like the thing? There is no room for comparison or competition. In fact, to be trying to please others would really be to interrupt the process, it would be the definition of getting in your own way. Which, by the way, includes any little doubting, sceptical voice inside you. You are after all creating something that has never been done before and since our systems like things to be static, they try to keep us from changing which means they control us with fear or judgement or perhaps fear of judgement.

I wasn’t sure how we were really going to MAKE perfume. I mean, I signed up on Molinard’s website for a private session where we would be in “ a cocoon of creativity”. I dreamed about this 2 hour workshop as I snipped branches, pulled all the bottom leaves off, prepped for some huge-for-me events at the end of June.

As I was standing in my garden making bouquets – I was present to be there, but when it got tough and I got tired, I let my thoughts wander to this shared time with my daughter— making perfume in Grasse ( the capital of perfume in France and some would say: the world).

Have you ever built something up in your mind that you wonder if it can even meet your expectations or are your future plans so defined that you are not even open when the actual time arrives that you can take it in and really be present.

Well I am happy to report that the experience of our days in Grasse walking along the cobblestone streets, going to the Perfume Museum, visiting Fragonard, a large perfume company with all their generous sharing of their history and that of the region, it was an even more wonderful experience than I had imagined.

On the appointed day we went to our workshop at 2 o’clock, the showroom closes from 1-2 pm so that everyone can eat lunch.

There are group workshops that you can do and there are workshops for children as well -all with the goal of making your own perfume.

A private workshop is a different experience.

We were welcomed by our facilitator who was a lovely young intern from the Champagne region of France- doing an engineering masters in wine and perfume. Like many talented students, she has a decision to make—will she dedicate her career to wine OR perfume.

She invited us out of the busy showroom through a private garden, introducing us to some of the flowers that are used in perfume and grown locally. Around the bend and under the giant magnolia we arrived to the private villa of the family who owns the company.

Here are some things that I learned about perfume:

The physiology of our sense of smell. My one fact I knew was confirmed by the science: our sense of smell is closely related to our memory in the brain. This will be confirmed later by an experience I didn’t see coming.

We only have 25 minutes to smell and then our brain won’t be able to recognize any smell at all.
If you are overwhelmed by a smell and you need to “erase”, or perhaps neutralize the most recent one in order to distinguish the next, sniff into the inside of your elbow
There are three groups of perfume in front of us on round turntables. They represent the three layers in a perfume: the head note, the heart note and the base note.
These notes are what we initially smell when you first put on your perfume, the head or top notes: they only last about 20 minutes. Then comes the heart notes which last 30 minutes to 4 hours followed by the base notes lasting for 24 hours.

Here’s where the creative part comes in—the part that makes it us, as individuals, who are creating our own perfume—for real!

Moving the Earl Grey tea to another table, so that nothing would interfere with this first task, we are given a third of 25 minutes to figure out what we like by sniffing the inside of the lid, so as not to overwhelm your sense of smell and therefore “use up” your 25 minutes faster.

If there was something that you like -and this is where the creativity is clear—you are not thinking, pleasing someone else, or thinking ahead about how this will go. It is time to let go of your pre-conceptions about what you are smelling and IN THAT MOMENT- what is it making you feel- happy? Do you like it? It’s like those old personality tests, don’t think, just answer. All the while being very aware that time is ticking by – managed closely by the facilitator who took care of time keeping and moving us along.

When you find something that you like, you plunge a little white paper into the liquid, bring it out, wave it a little to dry, then write the name you see on the bottle of what the scent is.

Each group is done this way- you will not be able to sniff each of the 100 bottles in front of you- so guessing what you might like is a good idea- and being open to something you never thought of in any pre-conceived notion of a perfume is a good idea. For example, I have cardamom in mine—why? I started liking cardamom after I had the buns in Sweden with Ilse and the family, and since then, making cardamom buns is a family favourite ( albeit bittersweet since we don’t have Ilse to share them with).

Remember when I told you that the one fact I knew was that our sense of smell is closely wired in our brain to memory?

My mom always wore Chanel no. 5. I sniffed one of the bottles that I learned later is part of a mix of the famous recipe for Chanel no. 5— without seeing this coming, tears welled up in my eyes- I started to cry…I never cry when I think of my Mom ( whom I lost 13 years ago) — but there it was…ambushed by my own emotion. Was it because I was on a Daughter/Mother trip having the time of my life – no – those are just the thoughts that one feels one ‘should’ come up with to excuse the surprise of the unexpected emotion. I was invited to go outside for a breath of fresh air….I did. I let go of the tears ( I don’t know about you, but when I try to hold it in, like laughter at an inappropriate time in a theatre, it makes you want to cry or laugh even more). I acknowledged it, let it go, took some grounding deep breaths and went back in. I didn’t want it to “interfere” with my time or get in the way of the making of this perfume in its tight schedule.

After we had sniffed the little papers we decided if they were either all going to remain or if now was the time to take some out.

Then came the demonstration of the skill of the expert who led this stage with diplomacy and kindness relying on her knowledge of the chemistry. She placed each of the little paper strips out holding onto the ends of each one. She fanned them in front of us to see what we thought. Through moving the little papers behind each other or moving individual papers down so that she only was letting half of them be in the fan, it reduced the scent so that one wouldn’t over power another.

This was really challenging for me- I think that I was trying to get her approval of liking it or not because I wasn’t confident that I liked it. That was my sign…just like in all creativity. You have to LOVE it. Have a feeling that THIS IS IT. She helped me get to – THIS IS IT! She wanted me to love what I was making, just like I want my guests in my workshops to have a good time making and also leave loving something that they have made…

That was a lot! Time for a little champagne and macarons while she made up the recipe.

Then onto using a separate dropper for each of the 10 scents. I haven’t used a dropper since high school science class and each dropper only held 3 mL – the first one I needed to measure out was 17 mL! This kind teacher offered help to speed things up, I think I did it on my own, but maybe I did have help- I don’t remember.

And then just like that (another sign of creativity— when you lose track of time so immersed are you in the experience and the learning) – we were given a beautiful purple bag to hold the box with our newly made scent, a travel sized bottle and a small funnel to transfer it. Our individual recipe is kept on file so that we can order it again and have it sent anywhere we are in the world.

I would recommend this experience to anyone who has the chance to go. I’m all for a well-run workshop and they have been leading workshops for 30 years (not sure if that is only group ones or for individuals as well).

When you travel there are always choices to be made for both financial and time reasons— for me this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. We live nowhere near France. I offered to take a picture of a couple who were trying to get a selfie in front of the Molinard building—they asked where we were from: the west coast of Canada. They were from India. Oh, we’re both from far away I joked.

I wasn’t sure that this was really going to be a creative experience. I mean in the way that I am defining it—where you make something that has never been made by you, with WHO YOU ARE leading the process, loosing track of time in the experience of it, not really knowing if you can make it or how it can be done. Being curious to try and confident enough to let someone be your guide.

Given that definition- it was very much a creative experience in this elegant room, certainly of-this-place. After all that’s what this is about too- experiencing something that is of the place you have travelled to and being open and curious about something that is so different from anything you could do at home. It was a wonderful afternoon as we gathered an experience that was meaningful and most certainly memorable.