Workshops

"The perfumer’s only tool is his nose. (…) Anyone may acquire a highly developed sense of smell, as this is merely a matter of practice. A good nose, that is, an excellent olfactory memory, is not sufficient for producing a good perfumer. (…) Olfactory training is of prime importance and should never be neglected or interrupted.” 

With these words, Jean Carles opened a reflection on the method he developed for perfumery and which is still the reference today. This renowned perfumer, creator of Miss Dior and L’Air du Temps. It was from his empirical method, developed from the shortcomings he found in his own apprenticeship, that he founded the Roure perfumery school which later became Givaudan and which trained generations of iconic perfumers. If the perfumer retains from him a method to approach, apprehend and perfect his art, the layperson also retains something from him because it is to Jean Carles that we owe the distinction between top, heart and base notes.

This distinction, based on the evaporation of the essences concerned, made it possible to better master and conceptualise a perfume, to be able to write its formula without having to smell its materials, taking perfumery out of the crafts and anchoring it, almost mechanically, in an intellectual and artistic approach so that it may be easier, as it was for Jean Carles at the end of his life, to create perfumes after having lost the sense of smell.

It is around this postulate, that one must train one's sense of smell always and continuously, that we conceived our Raw Materials Workshops a few years ago: two hours of olfaction, discovery and analysis of the most emblematic, recognisable and used essences of perfumery, both natural and artificial, in order to open our noses to the most crucial exercise of the perfumer's profession and to be able to "olfactively detect the geographical area where a given oil of neroli or oil of lavender came from".

Starting in Provence and passing by the shores of Australia, India and the Black Sea, this journey organised along the history of perfumery, mixing spiritual, cultural anecdotes and technical slang, forms a condensed study in a playful form allowing, in the space of two suspended hours, to create solid and sure foundations in order to apprehend both the basics of the creation of a perfume as well as its critical understanding.

Accompanied by our expert, you will explore the history of the ingredients to understand their hidden and poetic meaning; you will decipher their fragrance to open your nose and your mind to a finer understanding of your environment. More than a Workshop, we have conceived this moment as a way to enrich our clients and friends and to provide them with the tools needed to approach this unknown universe with awareness and confidence - in the setting of our Parisian House or in the privacy of your own home by opting for an Online Workshop.

Because our primary concern, the one that presided over the creation of Histoires de Parfums, has always been sharing: sharing fabulous stories, moving operas, personal emotions that become all the more powerful when worn on your skin. Our Raw Materials Workshop follows this path: to share with you the knowledge and the keys to the all too secret mysteries of a world which, in the words of Jean Carles himself, is potentially open to "everyone".

An ideal gift for yourself or for your loved ones, whether you are visiting Paris or staying at home, this workshop is designed to captivate both the amateur and the connoisseur, each of whom will find therein intellectual and olfactory nourishment. Our little extra? In order to prolong the Workshop, we’ve also crafted a Set Box containing all our materials and explanatory cards so that you can continue to practice or simply return to the frank beauty of a Damascus Rose Absolute or the more brutal beauty of Cambodian Oud.

True to the wishes of the father of contemporary perfumery, this Workshop also serves as the perfect introduction to our Perfume Creation Workshop, during which, again guided by an expert, you will be invited to create your own fragrance from a selection of bases we have composed for this purpose, and to penetrate more deeply into the world of perfumery in a relaxed atmosphere, between champagne and macaroons, in English or French.

Don't hesitate any longer and dare the studious summer. After all, who says that adults shouldn’t have their own holiday workbook?