THE FRAGONARD PERFUME WORKSHOP
A perfume workshop at the Fragonard perfume factory located 9km from our gites www.locations-06.fr, this is undoubtedly the experience not to be missed during a visit to the Côte d’Azur.
For this workshop, we were welcomed by Mr. Bigi, a friendly man, always caring for everyone.
These workshops take place in Grasse, at the route de Cannes flower factory.
During 25 minutes for only €29 or 1h30 and €59 for experienced amateurs, we learn a multitude of things about this magical world of perfume.
😍 Don’t forget that by staying in one of the LOCATIONS-06 gîtes you will benefit from a 10% discount on this workshop, not forgetting the free tour of the factory!
We learn lots of things and during these workshops we make and leave with our own perfume, it’s magical!
Sitting comfortably at a desk, we discover the compositions and hierarchy of essences that will make up our perfume.
We learn in particular that the perfume is structured into 3 main notes: the top note which is the one which grabs us and which is the most volatile, then the heart note then the base note which comes last.
For this workshop we studied the decomposition of this year’s creation, which is lilac.
In the form of riddles we had to, with the help of our instructor, guess what the essences of each of the 3 notes were, really, well… it’s not easy, but funny…
In this example we had:
Top note = lemon, blackcurrant & lime blossom
Heart note = heliotrope, hawthorn & clove.
Base note = vanilla, violet & white musk
We learned some crazy stuff: that it took 3000 lemons to make 1 kg of essence, that the heart note was made synthetically, that this synthesis actually allows us to have smells like civet, amber gray, musk which are very rare, very expensive or prohibited in nature or so-called mute plant odors such as violet, mimosa, lily of the valley or lilac… And that there are in fact 3 types of extraction:
# cold expression citrus example
#distillation example lavender, for plants that tolerate high temperatures
#extraction with volatile solvents (eg: hexane, butane, etc.) to make juice from a fragile wood or flower…. In short, the workshop… was very informative.
A VISIT TO THE FRAGONARD FACTORY IN GRASSE
Then the visit to the factory. Although there are 400 employees across 30 locations, Fragonard is truly like a small family where all employees are kind and welcoming.
We discovered a very large copper still made by an industrialist well known to Grassois: Tournaire! Then a Florentine vase, an emblematic piece of perfumery and an international map which showed us the main places of production of raw materials.
Our guide showed us the places where we weigh, study and create then the places where we bottle, still very artisanally, and where we make the soaps… All this complemented our workshop very well.
In short, don’t miss this workshop-visit which will open your perfumer’s mind!
