The Perfumes of Grasse How to create your own fragrance in the world’s capital of perfume

You can easily find exactly the same fragrances that Katy Perry and Rihanna and even rare and niche perfumes in any city. But if you are looking for something more exclusive, spend a day in Grasse, the capital of the perfume, and create your own fragrance.

Blessed with lots of sunny days and a warm Provencal micro-climate, eight of the eleven flowers used in the fragrant business grow in Grasse, including jasmine – the king of perfumery. Its aroma opens most at dawn. This is the time that is ideal for gathering these delicate and fragrant flowers. This is just one of the little secrets of perfumery. And there are much more of them! The main perfume houses of Grasse, including the famous triad of Fragonard, Molinard and Galimard, offer excursions behind the scenes of their fragrant business. Most importantly, they promise to proceed to practice after theory and make your personal perfume formula. So why not have a day trip from your French Riviera villa to the world’s “perfume” capital?

City of Fragrances

There are about 60 different perfumery companies and hectares of fragrant flower fields per 48 thousand inhabitants of Grasse. When getting closer to the perfume capital of all France, you feel the air is changing and can recognize the painfully familiar odours. You smell a rose, a violet, and the warm wind suddenly brings breathing of jasmine. After a day in the midst of fragrances, some completely lose the ability to distinguish smells: they are all mixed into an indefinite though a pleasant cocktail. But someone’s sense of smell becomes more sensitive and can recognize each note like a professional taster distinguishes the most delicate flavors of expensive wines. Follow your intuition when choosing the place to visit. Just go for the smell and you will definitely find a small perfume factory where the descendants of medieval alchemists still fiddle with their fragrant spells. Don’t trust us? Be sure we are true. Smells affect the subconscious. And the most famous perfume alchemical triumvirate sounds like a spell. Galimard, Molinard, Fragonard. All of them are equally good, each has a museum with antique elixirs in embossed bottles and the holy of the holies – workshops.  And factory boutiques are just concentrated magic. Magical creams with essential oils, shampoos with dizzily pleasant aromas, and of course perfume. You can find well-known aroma, participate in testing experimental, incredibly long-lasting and sweet-scented odours, or visit a master class where you will learn not only to “read” notes but also to create personal compositions.

Try to Create Perfume

This is exactly what our colleagues did. One fine day, spending holidays in Nice, they decided to hit the road to the Molinard factory to break the monotony of resort everyday life and find a bit of magic in this world known inside out. After meeting with a friendly perfumery expert, they were taken to the workshop. To begin with, the expert explained the difference between the top, heart, and base notes. These are the simple truths the training here start with for both amateurs and professional “noses”. There are only 400 of such experts in the world and 200 of them live in Grasse. Surely, a couple of hours were not enough for our colleagues to grasp all the mysteries of perfume science, but they learned to do something. Fortunately, a charming lady in a white coat, one of the few “noses” on the Earth, saved the girls from the painful choice: which of several ingredients from 90 essential oils to stop at. She helped them quickly enter the home stretch and create their own fragrances that reflected their personality and tastes. One colleague had perfumed water with a citrus dominant, the other one got the one with the dominating fresh sea air scent. These perfumes strengthened their appeal and charm so much that our girls were suspected of undergoing some mysterious cosmetic ritual.

When creating your own perfumes, the same as when buying perfumes at a store, it is important to understand how the fragrance changes over time. Here is an approximate guide:

Top notes. Creating the first impression of the perfume, they should be light, fresh, and fleeting, i.e. to smell on your skin only five to thirty minutes. Typical Provencal top notes include lemon and verbena.

Heart notes. Warm and soft heart notes start to sound at the moment when the top ones start to fade. That is, in about half an hour. Lavender, geranium, cypress, and rosemary are the most popular ingredients of heart notes traditionally used in Provence.

Base notes. These are rose, jasmine and exotic spices such as patchouli, sandalwood, and vanilla. Warm or spicy, they make perfume long-lasting.

Having grasped only the basics of fragrant magic, you will understand the simple truth: your individual perfume preserves memories of your vacations long after your tan disappears.

Aromatherapy Walks

Not only fragrance factories are worthy of your attention. Grasse has retained its medieval charm:  narrow streets, endless flower fields, and perfumery stores at every corner. Everything is as described by Patrick Süskind. After all, the scene of his novel Perfume is laid right here in Grasse. Walk along the Rose de Mai Street, stroll around the Herbs Square, and breathe deep the air full of floral aromas. A sense of euphoria or tipsiness is natural and completely normal. If you are imbued with the perfume topic, don’t just walk past the International Museum of Perfumery (Musée International de la Parfumerie).

Is your nose still able to feel the shades of odours? Smell the fragrances that were fashionable in different eras and pass the test for the knowledge of smells. Feel the aroma of familiar ylang-ylang, sandalwood and scandalous substances like opium and heroin. If your nose can no longer perceive anything, just listen to the guide and enjoy the exhibits. Although synthetics replaced natural flower extracts, some well-known brands still use natural ingredients. Chanel and Dior prefer jasmine from Grasse for their Chanel No 5 and J’Adore. However, the leading factories deal not so much with production but with the creation of perfume compositions and formulas. Fragrances of Estée Lauder and Lancôme are born in Grasse… Here you can feel the fashionable fragrance long before it is on sale. Just in the air.