Perfume Making Workshop at Marble Arch: Two Bottles for £59

Yougi's perfume making workshop costs £59 and lasts one hour and 30 minutes, and you take home two 15ml perfumes that you blended yourself. The flagship studio is at 31 Connaught Street, London W2, a short walk from Marble Arch, and the same class also runs at 53 Fashion Street, Whitechapel, London E1 6PX. Each date in the booking picker shows which of the two studios hosts it.

The Connaught Street address is a shop first. Yougi describes it as the flagship, with a shop at the front and the studio behind it, opened in 2025. The shop is open six days a week, with the full range on the shelves and every blend out to smell. Behind the counter, the studio pours every batch sold and runs workshops most evenings and weekends.

The Whitechapel studio is the older of the two. The workshops began there in 2023, and it takes workshop bookings only, with no shop. The site says it runs the same classes as Connaught Street with more dates each week. If the date you want is full in west London, check east London before giving up, because a second studio doubles the choice of slots.

The brand itself is a natural perfumery and botanicals house, founded by Emily in 2019 and hand-blended from essential oils at Connaught Street. Every workshop is designed by Emily. Most are taught by the Yougi team, all of whom trained at the studio, and Emily still teaches a handful of sessions each month. When she is hosting a date, the booking page flags it.

You sit at the studio table with the oil library open in front of you, and tea and an apron are provided. The session starts with the nose, then explains top, heart and base notes and what each does to you. Citrus lifts, flowers open the chest, and woods and resins settle the shoulders, according to the brand's own description of the class.

Then you blend. More than thirty essential oils and absolutes sit on the table, and you smell your way through them and build a perfume for the way you want to feel, drop by drop, with help when you want it and quiet when you do not. No experience is needed, and a Yougi host teaches throughout, so the session is more relaxed than a technical course.

By the end you have two 15ml bottles, blended and labelled by you. The site suggests making one for the feeling you came in for and one for the feeling you found on the way. Refreshments on arrival, all the oils and the bottles are included in the £59 ticket, so there is nothing else to buy on the day.

This is a small-group class. The Connaught Street studio holds up to 12 guests, and the Fashion Street studio holds up to 20, so the Whitechapel dates feel livelier and the Marble Arch dates feel closer to a dinner table. Choose Connaught Street if you want more of the tutor's attention, and Fashion Street if you are coming as a bigger group of friends.

The workshops are not designed for children, but the studio welcomes children aged 12 and over who are accompanied by an adult. If you are held up, the host will accommodate latecomers up to 10 minutes past the class start time. After that, you risk missing the introduction that explains how the notes work, which you need in order to make good choices at the table.

Full directions go out with the booking confirmation, and the website lists no phone number. The contact route is email, at info@yougilondon.com. Mention the date and studio in your message so the team can answer quickly, and keep your booking confirmation handy.

An honest warning: workshop bookings are non-refundable. If you cannot attend, the team will do its best to move you to another date, but you must email at least seven days before your slot. Ill at the last minute? Email anyway, and the team says it will talk through your options. Do not buy for a date you only half expect to make.

That makes the gift card a better choice for someone whose diary you do not control. The workshop gift card is valid for three years and is delivered by email, and it covers any workshop. A voucher also avoids the problem of a recipient who can only do weekdays when the evening classes have sold out.

Connaught Street is a quiet residential street north of the Marble Arch junction, and the shop is easy to combine with a stroll. After the class, you will want fresh air rather than another strong smell. Walk to Hyde Park, which is close by, and let the blend settle on your skin while the first sharp top notes lift away.

If you came for the shop as much as the class, take your time at the front. The site invites you to come in when you are passing, and notes that there is a chair by the window. Smell the candles and essential oils before you go into the studio, because it helps to know which scents you already like before you reach the oil table.

For a different style of perfume class, The Perfume Studio in Hoxton runs a group session from £49, 4160Tuesdays in Hammersmith teaches a £200 Saturday workshop with a professional perfumer, and FirePetal in Stratford offers a 90-minute class from £49. Yougi sits in the middle, since you leave with two natural-oil perfumes and not one.

Addresses: 31 Connaught Street, London W2 (flagship shop and studio, open six days a week), and 53 Fashion Street, London E1 6PX (workshops only, by booking). Contact: info@yougilondon.com. No public phone number is listed. Perfume making workshop: £59, 1 hour 30, two 15ml perfumes. Official page: yougibotanicals.com, under Workshops.

Who is it for? Friends celebrating a birthday, a parent and grown child, a first date with something to do with your hands, and anyone who prefers natural oils to synthetic accords. It suits beginners above all, because the format is a guided table rather than a lecture, and the ticket price includes everything you need to leave with two finished bottles.