Looking for a unique date idea, or a fun family-friendly activity?
Scentopia Singapore is a bespoke perfume shop at Siloso Beach, Sentosa, which offers a perfume making workshop.
I’ll be sharing my experience at Scentopia, and what sets it apart from another perfume workshop I’ve been to.
Our honest review of Scentopia Singapore
Scentopia is great for two reasons — the sheer number of scents (over 100) to choose from, as well as their orchid-inspired fragrances, which is exclusive to them.
With all the additional scents, you have the freedom to craft a more personalised and unique scent for yourself. However, unlike some other workshops, they lack a professional perfumer to give advice on how well your choice of scents work together. Even with a template to follow, there’s still a chance you might end up with something you won’t like afterwards.
The process
We started off the with a personality test to determine what kind of scents suited us. Scentopia houses over a hundred scents, categorised into citrus, fresh, floral, woody and oriental.
Comprising ten questions, the personality test is simple and quick to complete. If you’re wondering how accurate it is, I’ve done a more complicated test at a different perfume workshop, and the results of both tests are similar.
Each question comes with five answers, A to E, which represents the five groups of scents. After totaling up the scores, it suggested that my perfume should include one type of citrus, four types of fresh, four types of floral, and one type of woody.
This test is a good starting point, especially if you have never bought any type of perfume.
From here, we have to browse through over a hundred scents. Strangely, the five group of scents are also categorised into men and women. But participants are free to roam around the space regardless of their gender.
There is no time limit to this activity, so take your time to sample every scent. We took roughly 45 minutes to pick our scents.
It is also important to note that there is no need to follow the results of the personality test that strictly. When I was picking my scent, I went for a sweeter and woodier profile for a night scent, and ended up choosing more woody and oriental notes. I also picked eight scents instead of ten.
Some perfume workshops might be conducted by a professional perfumer who would filter out appropriate scents for you. While this speeds up the process, Scentopia provides a 100% hands-down experience that some may prefer. However, we found it troubling that some of the sample sticks were inviolate of any smells.
Top, middle and base notes of perfumes
The hardest part of the session was deciding on the ratio. Without a professional to advise, it is easy to get a one-dimensional aroma.
Top, middle and base notes refers to how quickly an aroma dissipates. Top notes, or headnotes, are the first impression of a perfume. Lasting between five to fifteen minutes, it generally comprises of citrus and fresh aromas.
Followed by the middle notes, which last between twenty to sixty minutes. Compared to the sharper top notes, the middle notes tend to be more well-rounded, including floral and herbal notes.
Lastly, base notes can last up to eight hours. Their scent profile can be described as deep and rich, and consists of woody and oriental notes, such as oak, vanilla, and sandalwood.
If you’re confused, here’s how you can create a balanced perfume. You should have the most middle notes, followed by top notes, and the least base notes. The ratio can be roughly 3:5:2 for ten scents.
However, if the scents you have picked have a very different ratio, you can just stick to one pump per scent in your first sample. From there, you can decide on whether you want it fresher or woodier, and adjust your second sample from there.
Each participant is only entitled to two samples. Any additional tries will immure a full charge of the workshop, which is $95 for a 50ml bottle, and $125 for a 100ml bottle.
Location: 36 Siloso Beach Walk, Singapore 099007
Opening hours: 11am-7pm
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*This article is written in collaboration with Scentopia, but all opinions are of my own
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