Perfume Making Workshop in Hammersmith: £200 Saturday Class

4160Tuesdays holds its one-day perfume making workshop in a small upstairs room at 42A Raynham Road, Hammersmith, London W6 0HY, and a place costs £200. The class runs on Saturdays from 1 pm to 5 pm, or to 6 pm if the group needs longer. It is led by the studio's owner and artisan perfumer, Sarah McCartney, and every material and piece of equipment is included in the price.

This is a working artisan perfumery, not a retail class space. The About page says 4160Tuesdays makes its perfumes in small batches of 50 to 200 bottles at the Hammersmith studio, where it also runs the workshops. Its scents are stocked in the online shop, in the studio itself, and in a small collection of stockists around the world. If you want to browse bottles in person, tell the team you are coming.

The odd name is explained on the site. If you live to 80, you get 4,160 Tuesdays, so on a Tuesday you should do something different, and at the moment the team is using theirs to make perfume. The brand says its perfumes are each inspired by a place or a person at a certain moment, which is why bottles carry names like London 1969 and Rhubarb and Custard 1:29.

Workshop dates are posted as products on the shop, with each Saturday listed separately. Choose a date, add the place to your basket and you are done, but the studio also sells a voucher for an afternoon of perfume making if you are buying a gift for someone else.

The studio opens at 12:30 so that nobody has to rush after travelling. At 1 pm there is an introductory chat, and then the whole group smells a carefully chosen range of perfumery materials. Around 4 pm there is a nose break, which is exactly as sensible as it sounds, followed by finalising your blend. The session ends at 5 pm, or runs towards 6 pm when people are still tinkering.

You choose from professional materials used in classic and modern perfumery. The studio says it specialises in sustainably produced and biodegradable materials, both natural and synthetic. Sarah guides the group through techniques to sharpen your smelling and to blend a fragrance you would happily wear. You get as much help as you ask for, so a beginner and a seasoned hobbyist can sit at the same table.

The finished formula is yours. The site puts it nicely: when someone says you smell fabulous, you can answer that you made it yourself. If you want more, you simply photograph your formula and the studio makes it up for you. That reorder promise matters, because most people who blend alone at home never write their proportions down, and then cannot reproduce the scent.

The one-day workshop is listed at £200 and the dates are all Saturdays: 9 January, 6 February, 6 March and 3 April 2027. The shop page still shows 3 October 2026 in its drop-down list, which has already passed, so ignore it. Pick the first date that suits you, because the studio is small and a short group means each person gets a long conversation with the perfumer.

An honest pick: this class is excellent value if you want to understand perfumery, and weaker if you want a quick decorative gift. There is no velvet-rope retail glamour here. It is a workshop in a working building. If you only want a ready-made personalised bottle in under an hour, the Marylebone lab-boutique of Experimental Perfume Club suits you better, and The Perfume Studio in Hoxton is cheaper per head.

For anyone who gets hooked, the studio also runs five-day courses: the January School runs from 25 to 29 January 2027 and the Spring School from 22 to 26 March 2027, each with daily fragrance making. One previous attendee wrote that they caught the perfume making bug and would have to attend a five-day workshop. There is also an online Scenthusiasm Scent School for people outside London.

This is a class for adults. The studio is a workspace and, the site says, not insured for children to be present, though it can accept bookings from age 15 and up. Do not bring a younger sibling along for company. If you want a friend there, book them their own place, because the room is small and seats are allocated to people who have paid.

Access is the one thing worth reading twice. The workshop room is upstairs in an old building, reached by a narrow staircase that has no handrail. If you need special arrangements, the studio asks you to let it know before you book, so write or ring first rather than finding out at the door.

Dress for a day of sniffing, not for a party. Skip your own perfume, wear something you do not mind a drop of fragrance oil on, and bring a notebook. You will be given a lot of verbal guidance, and the exact materials you reach for are the useful thing to write down, even though the studio keeps the final formula for you.

If a full class feels like too much, the studio's events page lists an Open Studio Day on Saturday 5 December 2026. It starts at 12 noon, and is billed as a chance to visit, sniff, chat and explore rare special edition fragrances. It is a lighter way to meet the team and decide whether the one-day class is for you.

The Guardian's David Shariatmadari wrote of a day here that it was a splendid one, a melding of art, science and fun with something concrete to show for it at the end. That summary matches what the class is built to deliver. It is not mystical. You smell things, you make choices, and at the end there is a small bottle that did not exist at lunchtime.

Raynham Road is a residential street in W6, so the visit is best treated as a destination in itself rather than a stop on a shopping route. Give yourself time to get here, arrive for the 12:30 opening, and plan to have lunch before you come, since the session starts at 1 pm and there is no mention of food being served on the day.

Afterwards, walk towards the river and let your nose recover with fresh air. A walk along the Thames path is a fine way to find out how your blend smells on skin in the open. Wait until the next morning to judge it properly, because the opening notes of any blend change as they warm up, and the base is what you actually keep.

Address: 42A Raynham Road, Hammersmith, London W6 0HY. One-day workshop: £200, Saturdays, 1 pm to 5 pm (or 6 pm). Studio doors open at 12:30. Open Studio Day: Saturday 5 December 2026, from 12 noon. Official site: 4160tuesdays.com, with workshop dates on its shop and events pages.

Who is it for? Curious beginners who want a real craft afternoon with an actual perfumer, gift-givers who prefer an experience to a bottle, and anyone considering a career or side business in scent. If that last group sounds like you, the studio's Brick Walls and Flaming Hoops sessions cover perfume safety and regulation, and the one-day class is the cheapest way to meet the team before committing.