First Person: Group fragrance fun at Blend

By Megan Volpert

A Christian, a Jew, an atheist and two lesbians walk into a perfumery. That’s not the opening volley of a joke; it’s the beginning of my Saturday afternoon at Blend Custom Parfum Studio, at an engagement party for my soon-to-be sister-in-law. For just $75 per person, this adorable little Buckhead house offered the five of us its formidable specialized knowledge of scent for a productive and entertaining two hours.

When our motley crew walked in, we were greeted by junior perfumer Theo Tyson. She ushered us to the back of the house, where the sitting room was laid out with a terrific wine and cheese spread designed by Chef Courtney Renn, whose clients include Usher and Katherine Heigl. We ate our fill of hummus, fresh figs and other small bite delights while Theo charmed us with broad conversation that slowly drew out our individual and deeply diverse opinions about all things perfume. She gladly snapped photos to help us document the party, gave everyone emotional permission to refill their glasses as often as necessary, and was generally such good company that we hardly wanted to stop chatting and actually go make our perfumes.

We had the house all to ourselves, my wife and me at one table, with the bride-to-be at another table alongside her future mother-in-law and a friend. At each table, there was a vast collection of bottles, some clearly labeled and some more mysteriously covered with stickers. Theo gave us a brief history of Galimard, the oldest perfumerie in France from which Blend acquires the essences for all its scents, and then we got down to business.

Theo flew back and forth between the five of us as we began sniffing each of the fourteen fragrance families, making little groups of bottles according to what scents our nose was inclined toward, from Fruity Floral to Oriental Sandalwood. These families form the base note, the part of a fragrance that lasts the longest and anchors the scent for six to eight hours. I got my base note narrowed down to Green Moss or Bavarian Moss, and after hemming and hawing for ten minutes, plus repeated return sniffs of a sachet of coffee beans to cleanse my palate, I went with Green Moss. So I measured that into my beaker, and then we began thinking about heart notes.

Heart notes complicate the personality of the fragrance, and this is where the scent rests for two to four hours. While Theo was assisting me with dark, spicy options, she was handing half a dozen different kinds of roses to my mother-in-law and some berries to the bride-to-be. Not only was Theo able to keep the architecture of each of these distinctive scent profiles in mind, we all marveled at how seldom she had to cleanse her nose with the coffee beans as she moved between our beakers. Theo had mentioned carnation based on my scent thoughts during our conversation before the workshop even began, and sure enough, when she waved a bottle labeled Leather Carnation under my nose, it was exactly the thing I didn’t even know I had in mind.

As we considered the top notes to stabilize the perfume and blow away after about thirty minutes, Theo sometimes asked us to take our scent outside, or sniff it on paper instead of from the beaker in order to get the smell in proper context. Galimard only make a very few essences that are completely synthetic and not at all part of nature. My top note ended up as one of these, Concretal. The end result was a scent that I was very drawn to, and that my wife said smelled like an extension of my personality. We wrote down all the components and quantities on a worksheet, so that I can call up Theo and order another bottle of my customized scent any time.

We went back to the wine while Theo bottled our fragrances and took a few more photos. Overall, it was an extremely good time, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I already have a list of people that should be expecting a Blend gift card for their next birthday. All five of us, each crazy in our own beautiful way, learned so much about each other and how scent is an expression of our unique selves. Blend could make for a great date night, or engagement party, or even just a special treat for yourself if you’re in need of a pick-me-up. It was as educational as it was engaging, has an easy appeal for both men and women, and lives up to its sparkling reputation entirely.

For more about Blend, visit www.blendcustomperfume.com.