Kraftstories Original

Perfume Making Classes

In studio, at your office, or privately for your group

A perfume making class is a guided workshop where you learn how a fragrance is built from top, heart and base notes, smell your way through a bar of oils, and blend and bottle a perfume that is yours, with the recipe to make it again. Most people have never blended a scent before, and that is exactly who it is for.

from $79.00 All materials included
Booking for a team of 10+? Host a private workshop →

Find your workshop

Group size Just you 1

93 Pearl St, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10004

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360 Ritch St, Suite 205, San Francisco, CA 94107

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255 N Market Street, Suite 270, San Jose, CA 95110

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We come to you — Los Angeles area

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Free reschedule up to 48 hours before · No experience needed

1
Smell the notes

Smell the notesTop, heart and base, one strip at a time

2
Build your accord

Build your accordThree or four notes that work together

3
Blend & adjust

Blend & adjustDrop by drop, with your host

4
Bottle & label

Bottle & labelYours to wear the same day

The Foundation

What Is Perfume Making?

Perfume making is the craft of layering scents so they open, settle and last on skin in the order you intend. It looks like mixing pretty bottles. In practice, proportion, evaporation and your own nose decide whether a blend smells finished or muddy. In this workshop you learn how notes behave, then build a perfume that is yours.

Built in Layers

Top notes greet you, heart notes carry the scent, base notes hold it. A good perfume needs all three in proportion.

Guided by Your Nose

There is no correct perfume, only one you love. You learn to smell carefully, rest your nose, and trust what you notice.

Made to Be Worn

This is not a sample. It is a bottle you wear the next morning, and a recipe you can make again.

Three ways in

Choose Your Perfume Making Class Format

In one of our studios, at your office or venue, or privately for your group. Same craft, taught to the same depth; the difference is where you sit and who you sit with.

In-Studio

In-Studio

Guided, note by noteYour host walks you through each family of notes, how they evaporate, and how to build a blend, so every choice is informed, not random.
Time to smell properlyNoses tire fast. We build in pauses and resets so the last note you smell is judged as fairly as the first.
Entirely your choiceYou choose every note and every drop. Two people at the same table never leave with the same perfume.
Select Location
At Your Office

At Your Office

We bring the scent barOur host sets up the full bar of perfume notes, bottles and labels at your office, home or venue, and clears it all away after.
Any room worksAll we need is tables and chairs. No heat, no mess and no sinks, which makes perfume one of the easiest classes to run in an office.
Los Angeles and beyondWe run it across Los Angeles and in the cities near our studios. Tell us where you are and we will tell you what is possible.
Request a Quote
Private & Group

Private & Group

CelebrationsBirthdays, bachelorettes, bridal showers and date nights. Everyone smells, compares and swaps notes, so the conversation never stops.
Teams & corporateOffsites, client events, onboarding and holiday parties, from 6 to 100+. In our studios or at your office, with custom labels on request.
What we need from youCity, date, headcount, and whether you want us to come to you. A person replies with formats, pricing and dates.
Private Event Inquiry

The Technical Layer

What You'll Actually Learn in a Perfume Making Class

The part that separates a perfume class from mixing nice smells: how notes evaporate, how to build an accord, how strong to make it, and how to fix a blend that is not working.

aroma perfume making workshop

Top notes

Citrus, herbs and light fruit. The first thing you smell and the first to fade, usually within the first half hour.

Woman holding a dropper over a glass bottle during a perfume-making workshop.

Heart notes

Florals, spices and green notes. They appear as the top notes lift and carry the character of the perfume for hours.

An older man and younger woman create custom fragrances together at a wooden workbench surrounded by essential oil bottles.

Base notes

Woods, resins, musks and vanilla. Slow to evaporate, they anchor the blend and are what you still smell at the end of the day.

Aromatherapy perfume making in NYC

Start small

An accord is three or four notes that smell like one idea. We start with a few drops each and build from there, never the other way round.

Fragrance perfume making workshop in SF Financial District.

Families that pair

Citrus brightens woods, florals soften spice, vanilla rounds resin. You learn which families support each other and which fight.

Fragrance perfume making workshop in San Jose studio

Smell on strips first

Every combination is tested on paper strips before it goes in the bottle, so you commit only to a blend you already like.

Woman creating floral perfume at wooden table with fresh flowers and essential oil bottle.

How strong to make it

The ratio of scent to carrier decides whether you have a light body mist or a perfume. We explain the difference and help you choose.

Woman holding a dropper over a glass bottle during a perfume-making workshop.

Why some scents vanish

Light notes evaporate fast. A blend built only from top notes is gone by lunch; a little base note is what makes it last.

aroma perfume making workshop

Skin changes everything

The same perfume smells different on different people. We show you how to test on skin before you decide it is finished.

An older man and younger woman create custom fragrances together at a wooden workbench surrounded by essential oil bottles.

Too sharp

Usually too many top notes. A drop of a heart or base note rounds it off without changing the idea.

Aromatherapy perfume making in NYC

Muddy or flat

Too many notes competing. Take one away rather than adding more; most good perfumes are simpler than people expect.

perfume making workshop in NYC specifically for corporate teams.

Nose fatigue

After a while everything smells the same. Step away, smell something neutral, and come back. We build that reset into the class.

What You Leave With

What You Take Home

Most people describe the session as calm and surprisingly absorbing, and every guest leaves with a finished bottle. Private and corporate dates start with a request through the enquiry form, and gift cards are available if you would rather give the class than the perfume.

Your Own Perfume

A bottled perfume you blended yourself, labelled with the name you gave it, ready to wear the same day. It settles and deepens over the first few days.

Your Recipe

The exact notes and drops you used, written down, so you can recreate it or adjust it later.

Why an Instructor Beats a Kit

Someone beside you who knows how notes behave tells you why a blend is not working and what one drop would fix. That is the difference between learning it now and guessing at home.

What the Class Actually Feels Like

Less about the finished bottle, more about the hour you spend smelling, comparing and choosing.

aroma perfume making workshop

Slow and Absorbing

Smelling carefully pulls your attention into the moment. People describe it as quietly absorbing rather than busy.

Woman holding a dropper over a glass bottle during a perfume-making workshop.

Sensory, Not Overwhelming

Scents are introduced one at a time on paper strips, with coffee beans or a neutral reset between, so it never becomes a fog.

Fragrance perfume making workshop in SF Financial District.

Social at the Table

Everyone smells each other’s blends and offers opinions. It is one of the most talkative classes we run.

An older man and younger woman create custom fragrances together at a wooden workbench surrounded by essential oil bottles.

A Bottled Perfume

You choose the notes, measure every drop and bottle the result yourself, with guidance at each step.

Woman creating floral perfume at wooden table with fresh flowers and essential oil bottle.

What You Leave With

A finished perfume, its recipe, and an understanding of why it smells the way it does. Something to wear, not to keep on a shelf.

Book Your Experience
Aromatherapy perfume making in NYC

Evaporation Is the Story

A perfume changes on your skin because its notes evaporate at different speeds. Understanding that is what lets you design how it opens, settles and lasts.

Reserve Your Spot

Especially Meaningful For

Who This Is For

Woman holding a dropper over a glass bottle during a perfume-making workshop.

What Makes This Different

Most perfume bars hand you a menu of finished scents to mix. We teach how notes behave first, then let you build from scratch, so the result is yours and you understand it.

aroma perfume making workshop

For the Scent-Curious

Anyone who has wondered why a perfume smells different an hour later, or why they love one and not another.

An older man and younger woman create custom fragrances together at a wooden workbench surrounded by essential oil bottles.

For the Calm-Seekers

No heat, no tools, no deadlines. Just smelling, choosing and adjusting at your own pace.

Fragrance perfume making workshop in SF Financial District.

For Couples & Friends

Make a scent for each other, or compare blends side by side. Conversation comes naturally.

Woman creating floral perfume at wooden table with fresh flowers and essential oil bottle.

For Gift-Givers

A perfume someone made for you, with its own name on the label, is a gift that is hard to beat.

Aromatherapy perfume making in NYC

It Rewards Attention

Perfume making does not demand skill. It rewards noticing. The more carefully you smell, the better your bottle.

History & Meaning

The Story ofPerfume Making

aroma perfume making workshop

Ancient Origins

The word perfume comes from the Latin per fumum, through smoke. The earliest scents were resins and woods burned in temples across Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Woman holding a dropper over a glass bottle during a perfume-making workshop.

Oils of Egypt

Egyptians steeped flowers, spices and resins in oils and fats to anoint the body, and scented oils travelled with them into tombs.

An older man and younger woman create custom fragrances together at a wooden workbench surrounded by essential oil bottles.

Distillation

Medieval Persian scholars, Avicenna among them, refined steam distillation, making it possible to capture the scent of roses as a pure oil.

Fragrance perfume making workshop in SF Financial District.

Alcohol Perfumes

In 14th-century Europe, scent dissolved in alcohol created the first perfumes recognisable today: lighter, brighter and worn on the skin.

Fragrance perfume making workshop in San Jose studio

Grasse and the Perfumers

From the 17th century the town of Grasse in southern France grew flowers for perfume, and perfumery became a trade with its own masters.

Aromatherapy perfume making in NYC

Synthetics Arrive

Late 19th-century chemistry introduced synthetic notes, making new scents possible and perfume affordable well beyond the wealthy.

Woman creating floral perfume at wooden table with fresh flowers and essential oil bottle.

A Return to Making

Today people want to know what they wear. Blending your own perfume is a way back to understanding scent rather than just buying it.

Part of a Larger Practice

Part of a Larger Practice

Like candle making, perfume is about balance

Like terrariums, less is usually more

Like mosaic lamps, small pieces build the whole

Different materials. Same philosophy.

Loved by teams at

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figma logo svg
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Cisco logo in blue with stylized sound wave bars above text.
Booking.com logo in dark blue and light blue text on white background.
Wayfair logo in purple text with colorful geometric diamond icon.
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Companies that trust us

117 companies trust us with their team experiences

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Adobe Airbnb Allina Health Allstate Alphabet Amazon American Express Apple Asana Atlassian
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Bank of America Best Buy Block Bloomberg Booking Holdings
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Canva Capital One Chime Cigna CircleCI Cisco Citigroup Cloudflare Coinbase Comcast CVS Health
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Dell Technologies Deloitte Discover Disney DocuSign DoorDash Dropbox
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eBay Elevance Health Expedia Group Exxon Mobil
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Fidelity Figma Flexport
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Goldman Sachs Google
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HP HubSpot Humana
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IBM Instagram Intel Intuit
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John Deere Johnson & Johnson JPMorgan Chase
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Kaiser Permanente Klarna
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LG Liberty Mutual LinkedIn Lululemon Lyft
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Marriott Mastercard Meta Microsoft Miro Moderna Morgan Stanley
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NBCUniversal Netflix New York Times Nike Novartis NVIDIA
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Okta Oracle
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Palo Alto Networks Paramount Patagonia PayPal Petco Pfizer Pinterest Progressive PwC
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Qualcomm
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Reddit Robinhood
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Salesforce Samsung SAP Sephora ServiceNow Shopify Slack Snap Sony Spotify State Farm Stripe
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Target TikTok Tinder Twilio
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Uber Universal Music Group
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VF Corporation Venmo Visa
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Walmart Warner Bros. Discovery Wayfair Wells Fargo WhatsApp
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X Xerox
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YouTube
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Zendesk Zoom
Your Turn

Make a Scent That's Yours

You do not need experience or a trained nose. You just need to slow down and notice. You leave with a perfume you made, and the reason it smells the way it does.

Find a Perfume Making Class
Book a Private Experience
perfume making workshop in NYC specifically for corporate teams.
FAQs

Common Questions

Have a practical question about formats, groups or what you take home? Send it below.

Ask Us a Question
No. We start from how a perfume is built and guide every step. Most guests have never blended a scent before.
One hour in our New York, San Francisco and San Jose studios. The NYC aromatherapy blending class runs 1.5 hours.
$79 per person in New York, San Francisco and San Jose, with all materials included. The NYC aromatherapy class is $59. Private and office events are quoted on headcount and location.
Yes. You bottle and label it yourself and wear it out of the studio. It settles and rounds out over the next few days.
Yes, every one. We guide you through the families of notes and how they pair, but the blend is entirely yours.
Yes. You leave with the notes and amounts you used so you can recreate or adjust it.
It depends on how much base note you use and how strong you make it. We explain both, so you can choose a lighter scent or one that lasts all day.
Tell us before the class. We can steer you away from notes you react to, and you can test on a strip rather than skin.
Yes. We bring the full scent bar to offices, homes and venues, including across Los Angeles where we have no studio. No heat or sinks needed.
Yes. Birthdays, bachelorettes, showers and team events book the whole studio or have us come to them. Send your city, date and headcount through the enquiry form.
One of our most-booked: an hour, easy conversation at the scent bar, and you can make a perfume for each other.
New York at 93 Pearl St in the Financial District, San Francisco at 360 Ritch St in SoMa, and San Jose at 255 N Market St. In Los Angeles we come to you.
Its notes evaporate at different speeds: the bright top notes go first, then the heart, leaving the base. Designing for that is what the class teaches.

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Book a Private Experience

For teams, couples or a special occasion: team building, a birthday, a bachelorette or a private perfume making class in an intimate setting. We will build it around your group.
Private Event Inquiry
Book a Private Experience