Perfume Making Workshop in Stratford: 90 Minutes from £49

FirePetal Studio runs its perfume making workshop on the third floor of Stratford Workshops, Unit 341, Burford Road, London E15 2SP, and a 90-minute session costs from £49. For that price you design a scent from more than 150 fragrance oils and fill a 10ml leather-wrapped atomiser. Larger bottles cost more, and the whole class is for complete beginners. There are no walk-in hours, because every session is booked by date.

The class itself is identical whichever bottle you choose, and only the size and price change. The studio lists a 10ml atomiser at £49, a 30ml atomiser at £59, a 50ml atomiser at £69 and a 100ml flacon at £99. A reed diffuser, in which you design a fragrance for your home rather than your wrist, is also £99. Everything below the bottle is shared.

Each option includes a premium refillable bottle, a personalised name and formula card, and a Perfume Making Completion Certificate. The atomisers come wrapped in leather in five finishes: orange, cream, pink, black and brown, and you choose on the day. Your creation is handed over in the studio's gold-foil printed, silk-lined gift packaging, so you can give it away without wrapping anything.

An honest pick: the 10ml is the original FirePetal experience and the most popular size, and it is enough to carry in a handbag for a few weeks of daily wear. Choose the 30ml if you already know you like what you are making. Skip the 100ml flacon on a first visit, since that is a large amount of a blend you have invented in ninety minutes.

The session starts with a short grounding in perfumery. The studio says you learn about top, heart and base notes, how scent families fit together and what the language of professional perfumers means. Then you smell, test and reflect before creating anything. Each workstation is set with the full fragrance library, so nobody queues for the good bottles or shares a single sample rack.

The library is organised into ten scent families plus the studio's own Signature Blends: floral, fruity, citrus, woody, oriental, gourmand, tea, aquatic and chypre among them. The Signature Blend shelf alone lists around thirty scents with names such as Velvet Duchess, Smoked Amber and Alpine Air. Floral is the biggest family, at 33 scents, from camellia and chamomile to jasmine.

You then build a bespoke scent on a precision scale and fill your atomiser or diffuser bottle. The final step is naming it. Because the scale measures every drop, your proportions end up on the formula card and can be repeated. A card that says exactly how much of each oil went in is worth more than the bottle itself if you want to make the scent again.

The studio's own directions are unusually detailed, because the entrance is easy to miss. From Stratford Station you walk to the Stratford High Street DLR sign, turn into the side road and look for the white Stratford Workshops sign. The entrance is the orange door next to it. Inside, you take the stairs or the lift to the third floor and follow the unit signs to Unit 341.

The site gives the walk as about six minutes from Stratford Station and about two minutes from Stratford High Street DLR. Underground, DLR, Overground, Elizabeth line and buses all serve the area, and street parking is available nearby on a first-come basis. The studio also publishes a short walkthrough video of the entrance, which is worth watching on the way.

If you need step-free access, contact the studio before you book so it can confirm arrival arrangements. The building has a lift, which the studio explains how to use on its directions page, but it asks you to use the stairs in a fire. Because the website lists no phone number, the studio's contact route is email, at info@firepetallampwork.com.

Plan to arrive five to ten minutes early. The studio gives a 15-minute grace period after the scheduled start, and after that the class begins for the other guests, with one free reschedule offered by email, subject to availability. That is a short window for a building that takes some finding, so allow time on the way. Do not rely on the grace period as an arrival time.

Standard bookings cancelled less than 48 hours before the start are non-refundable, though the studio can offer one free reschedule. Private bookings cancelled less than seven days before the start are non-refundable. Notice is measured by when your email reaches the studio, in London time, so send your request early in the day rather than leaving it to the evening.

Public classes take between one and 20 people, while private classes take 10 to 30 for birthdays, hen dos and team events. A friend or partner should therefore buy their own place at the same time, because bespoke blending is not a spectator sport. There is a gift voucher option on the site for people you cannot persuade to book a particular date.

FirePetal is a general craft studio, not a perfumery. It also runs candle making, lampwork glass, soap making, botanical bag charm and fuse bead workshops from the same unit. If you want to make a habit of it, the studio itself suggests its candle workshop as another scent-led activity, and a candle on a later date makes a good match for the perfume you bottled.

Compared with the other perfume classes in London, this one is the quickest and the cheapest to try. The Perfume Studio in Hoxton runs a two-hour group class from £49, 4160Tuesdays in Hammersmith teaches a £200 Saturday afternoon with a professional perfumer, and Experimental Perfume Club in Marylebone offers a private hour. FirePetal sits at the easy end, with a free choice of bottle.

After the session, walk back towards Stratford High Street and let your nose settle outside. A first hour of daily wear is the real test. Spray once on the inside of your wrist, wait ten minutes for the top notes to drop away and judge the heart of the blend then. The formula card in your bag is your record if you want to adjust anything for a second batch.

Address: FirePetal Studio, Unit 341, Stratford Workshops, Burford Road, London E15 2SP, third floor. Contact: info@firepetallampwork.com. No public phone number or walk-in opening hours are listed, because workshops run by booked date. Perfume making: 90 minutes, 10ml £49, 30ml £59, 50ml £69, 100ml £99, reed diffuser £99. Official page: firepetalstudio.com/perfume-making-workshop.

Who is it for? First-timers, birthday groups, couples after something other than dinner, and gift-givers who want the person to make something rather than receive it. Nobody needs any perfumery experience. The instructor guides every step, and the hardest decision of the afternoon is likely to be picking between two oils you both liked when you smelled them on the strip.