Perfume Making Workshop in Hoxton: Blend a £49 Scent

The Perfume Studio's London perfume making workshop takes place at Studio 1, 10-12 Bache's Street, London N1 6DL, and it starts at £49 for the Gold experience. There is no shop front to wander into, because every session is a booked, ticketed event that lasts about two hours. You pick a start time online, join a small group, smell the base, middle and top notes in turn, then blend a fragrance of your own and name it.

The Perfume Studio publishes a sample running order for its Gold, Platinum, Diamond and Moissanite tiers. A 2 pm start begins with a short introduction to the studio at 14:10, then moves to the base notes at 14:45, the middle notes at 15:15 and the top notes at 15:45. Blending your signature fragrance runs to 16:00. The company says start times vary through the day and you choose yours when you book.

A Perfume Stylist leads the room. Their job is to explain what fragrance does in everyday life, then reveal the studio's own blends so that everyone can sniff each one before choosing. You are guided through combining your favourites, whether you lean towards a floral classic, a fruity zing or something more contemporary. The only thing left for you to decide on your own is the name.

Because you join a group unless you have booked a private consultation, the studio warns there may be a little waiting while your blend is made up after you choose. That is the quiet stretch of the afternoon. Use it to re-smell your shortlist on a fresh blotter, because the first thing you pick on the table is not always the thing you still like forty minutes later.

The four standard tiers all run the same class and differ only in what you carry out of the door. Gold costs £49 and includes 5ml of your fragrance in a 5ml mini atomiser. Platinum costs £65 and gives you 20ml. Diamond costs £79 and gives you a 30ml glass atomiser. Moissanite costs £99 and gives you 100ml in a customisable glass atomiser, and the studio says that tier is held only at its London, Nottingham, Sheffield, Manchester and Liverpool venues.

An honest pick: most first-timers should book Platinum. Five millilitres is enough to prove you like what you made, but it is gone within a few weeks of daily wear, whereas 20ml lasts through a season. Skip Moissanite unless you already know you will wear the scent every day, since 100ml is a lot of a blend you have only just invented in one afternoon.

Your formula is not lost when the session ends. The studio keeps it in an online fragrance library tied to your account, so you can reorder in several refill sizes without remembering what you did. You also get access to its rewards scheme. If you buy a gift for someone else, the studio also sells Experience Vouchers, which are valid for 12 months from purchase and can be swapped for another experience.

The company says replies to written enquiries can take up to 48 hours because it is a small team. Directly booking a date is quicker than waiting for a reply. Tickets can be bought for a friend at the same checkout, and for more than five people you are asked to contact customer service rather than adding places yourself.

The VIP upgrade is the private consultation for two people. It costs £675 and runs for about three hours with a Senior Perfume Stylist, in complete privacy. You leave with three 5ml fragrances to take away on the day, a 100ml fragrance bottle, a 20ml travel twist-top atomiser and an atomiser pen, presented as the Moissanite gift set. It suits an anniversary far better than a Saturday with a crowd.

There is also an afternoon tea add-on at £37.50 per person on the voucher pages, and the studio notes that the welcome glass of bubbly is offered only at its published venues. Treat both as extras you ask about when you book, not as part of the standard £49 ticket. If a bubbly welcome matters to you, say so in your enquiry before choosing a date.

The class is for ages 16 and over. Children under 16 must be accompanied by a full-paying adult, and a voucher intended for anyone under 18 also needs a full-paying adult beside them. Spectators are not allowed, because seating is limited at every event, so a friend who only wants to watch cannot sit in for free. If you want company, buy them a ticket and let them blend too.

Changing your mind costs money. The studio asks for at least seven days' notice if you cannot attend and want to avoid a re-booking fee, which is £25 per person for the masterclass and £37.50 per person for afternoon tea. Refunds are not offered if you are simply no longer able to attend. Illness and injury, including COVID, fall under the same policy, so book a date you can really keep.

Bring your voucher or booking confirmation with its QR code. Electronic copies are accepted, so a screenshot on your phone is fine. Even if you entered the voucher code while booking online, the studio still wants to see the confirmation on the day. Vouchers last 12 months from purchase, and an extension of six months costs £25 per person if life gets in the way.

Bache's Street sits in the N1 corner between Hoxton and Old Street, and the easiest way to arrive is on foot from Old Street station. After a two-hour sniffing session your nose is tired, so plan something plain next. Walk to Hoxton Square, find a bench in the open air and let the blotters air out. Fresh air is the traditional reset, and it also tells you how your blend smells once the first hit fades.

Go for a coffee rather than a cocktail, because strong food smells will confuse your first impression of the scent you made. Give it a night, then wear it on skin the following morning. Perfume changes over hours as the top notes lift away, which is exactly why the studio teaches in that order, from base to top. If the dry-down is not what you expected, the stylist's advice on the day is your guide for what to change on a reorder.

If the Hoxton dates sell out, a sensible alternative is Experimental Perfume Club in Marylebone, which runs a one-to-one Luxe session, or 4160Tuesdays in Hammersmith, which holds one-day Saturday workshops. Both are different in style, so use The Perfume Studio when you want a lively group class with a clear set of ready blends, and use the other two for a more hands-on, formula-driven approach.

Address: Studio 1, 10-12 Bache's Street, London N1 6DL. The studio has no walk-in opening hours, because sessions run at times set for each event and chosen at booking. Prices: Gold £49, Platinum £65, Diamond £79, Moissanite £99, private consultation for two £675. Official page: theperfumestudio.com/pages/fragrance-design-locations.

Allow about two hours from start to finish and arrive a little early, since a late start eats into the blending time. Wear nothing heavily scented yourself, because you will be smelling dozens of strips. Leave your own favourite perfume at home for the day and your nose will give you a much cleaner reading of what you are creating. Bring a charged phone for the booking confirmation.

Who is it for? Anyone who wants a structured, friendly introduction to blending without committing to a multi-day course. It works for first dates, birthdays and friends reuniting, and it is priced low enough that the Gold tier is a cheap way to find out whether you enjoy the craft. If you do, the online formula library means your first experiment is never wasted.