Creating Custom Perfume at Aroma Workshop

The first real perfume I ever owned was Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel. I remembering feeling incredibly grown up the first time I donned it, and would smile proudly when people complimented me on how good I smelled. For a long time, it was the only perfume I would wear, until I broadened by range into other designer scents like Miss Dior Cherie and Burberry Brit. When I saw a coupon for a session for two at the Aroma Workshop, I felt that it was high time my boyfriend and I become our own designers, and expand our scent repertoires to add a unique custom scent to each of our collections.

The Shop

Aroma Workshop is located in the Depaul area of Chicago on Halsted street. Its plain white exterior and stark black lettering help it to stand out from the neighboring stores on the strip where it is located. As I was walking up, a previous session was ending and I waited as happy customers emerged into the crisp Chicago air, proudly carrying their bags containing custom scents.

The shop is not huge, and is largely take up by a counter covered with four racks of essential oils – the Scent Bar. Behind the counter, perfumers stand with large vials of scents that they expertly combine into your own perfect scent. Shelves filled with lotions, perfumes, and other novelty gifts line the back wall.

As soon as I entered, I hung my coat up on a rack provided and settled down at the end of the bar with my boyfriend, eager to being the perfume-creating process.

The Process

In order to begin the process of creating my own personal perfume, I first had to discover which scents appealed to me the most. At each seat, there is a rack with over 90 different essential oils divided into four categories: Citrus/Fresh, Fruit/Flavor, Floral, and Woody/Spicy. Customers carefully smell the oils one by one, noting down the scents that attract them the most on a provided card. The perfumer suggested finding the top ten scents that I liked, and circle the ones that interested me the most. I came up with the following top ten after browsing:

Once I had picked out my ten favorite scents, I gave my card to the perfumer, who mixed a couple of them together at a time into unique scents on tester strips. He would share each combination on the tester strips with me and invite me to smell it. After making around 4 different scent combinations based on my picks, I narrowed it down to my top two creations. He then tweaked these together into what would become my own signature perfume.

The Result

After smelling, re-smelling, and then smelling once again until I sneezed, I finally decided on what I think is my perfect scent combination: tea rose, french vanilla, sea mist, peony, and baby. My perfume turned out to be sweet and floral, while my boyfriend's process ended with a much more woody scent based on his preferences. The coupon deal allowed us each one bottle of perfume. Once we each had our scent combinations picked pout, we selected the bottle we wanted our unique creation to be housed in.

And Bonus!

One of the best parts of the whole experience (besides being able to design our own scent of course) was the ability to name our unique creation! My boyfriend opted for ‘Yusef Ciel' while I went with ‘Stella Soleil.' Has a nice ring to it, right? Aroma Workshop will save our cards with our final combination and for just $20, we can get refills of our custom perfume whenever we run out!

My boyfriend and I had such a fun time designing our own perfumes and would highly recommend you check out Aroma Workshop for yourself! The perfume would be great for a gift idea for a loved one, or just for you to keep!

The Deal:

I Spent: ~~$120~~ $59

I Got: To create my own signature scent!

Click here to design your own perfume