Atelier Cologne Masterclass in Toronto

[jenndujour]

      This week I had the opportunity to attend a Sephora Masterclass by Atelier Cologne at Laduree in Yorkdale. It was such a lovely experience, I learned to much about the process of perfume and how differentiating smells is more personal than anything. The class was held by AC creator and designer, Sylvie Ganter. She was so cute and French and was clearly very knowledgeable about perfumes. She explained how a perfumer knows around 1,500 smells by heart and that they learn 150 in the first week of school – yeah there’s a school for this.

We sat around at a tea set up, plenty with mocktails, macaroons and finger sandwiches while we went through different citrus fragrances trying to identify what they meant to us and writing code words on the testers. It was really fun to see how different people came up with different reminders of places and things associated with that scent. At the end we found out what we had smelled were lemon, lime, orange, clementine and grapefruit. I think my favorite was the lime, even though I named it incorrectly. We also sniffed out more typical perfumier scents like rose, bergamot and anise (EW!!!). What was strange though is when we combined a couple of the testers together with the anise it was actually quite nice.

Sylvie taught us all about how her new collection is based off of fruity fragrances and enhanced by using floral or stronger scents that last more with skin. The unfortunate thing about citrus is that the scent doesn’t last that long. Think of when you eat a tangerine, sure your hands smell but it goes away quite quickly. She went on to explain how her fragrances are like 85-90 percent natural, the only thing that sometimes isn’t is when she has to dilute a rose to create the ‘essence’ rather than creating a ‘cologne absolue’ that uses chemicals to extract the rose smell, in this case. The essence smells much nicer to me, more like a rosewater.

Her new collection contained some really nice combinations. Pacific Lime is definitely inspired by the Californian coast, another favorite of mine because of the lime, this is such a surprise to me as you’d think lime would remind you of tequila or something but it actually has quite a muted scent. Honey Erable – a special for Canada - is a combination of honey and maple syrup... so good and so accurate, that’s exactly what it smells like!

Another cool thing about Atelier Cologne is that their fragrances are unisex. Because they are so natural anyway and fragrances react differently to other peoples’ skins a scent always smells different on the next person. She also talked about the scent ‘oud wood’ which Sylvie said reminded her of the perfect man... but she wasn’t wrong. This also happens to be the latest Tom Ford scent so, she knows what she’s talking about. She also said that one of her perfumes one the equivalent of an Oscar which is really impressive. She also talked about how she’s about the get exclusive rights to one of the best flower farms in Italy to start exploring more with that family, she also said she is really scared to work with flowers because when they die, they become ‘mean’. I thought that was really funny, and also true!

The entire experience was so great. Unfortunately, I was unable to bring a plus one but that didn’t matter because I met a really nice girl. The snacks were so good too! French treats are my favourite. It totally helped the entire experience that the staff was French too. The special mocktail was delicious and the madeleines with cream fraiche was AMAZING!! I wanted to take it home! Big thanks to Ladurée French Patisserie for hosting the event and being in the background of a million photos, you played it really cool.

All in all, this was my first Sephora #BeautyInsider Event and I cannot wait for the next one! The Sephora staff did a wonderful job organizing everything and keeping everyone informed with what was going on the whole time. The set up was beautiful and everything went seamlessly. 

                                                  Thank you, Sylvie!

ATELIER COLOGNE - Pacific Lime Cologne Absolue Pure Perfume

ATELIER COLOGNE - Clémentine California Cologne Absolue Pure Perfume

ATELIER COLOGNE - Orange Sanguine Cologne Absolue Pure Perfume

ATELIER COLOGNE - Pomélo Paradis Cologne Absolue Pure Perfume

[pocketvenus]

@jenndujour, thank you for posting this report and all the details about smelling the individual notes ❤️ Perfume blending is not as easy as blending paints. When you mix ingredients together, even if it's just in different ratios, the results can be really unexpected! Interesting to read she's a fan of Oud Wood! 🙂

[curlychiquita]

So beautiful,  @jenndujour! Congratulations on getting to go!

[MlleCC]

@jenndujour , everything looks picture-perfect, from the venue, food, decorations and the perfume displays! I didn't know Atelier Cologne had a Canada--exclusive perfume based on honey and maple syrup! I'm so intrigued -- does it lean more towards gourmand, or did Atelier put a twist on it -- perhaps add their signature citrusy accompaniment? 

[faeriegirl]

Thank you for sharing @jenndujour! It looks like it was an amazing experience❤️