Atelier Cologne Toronto Workshop

[Mochapj]

Yesterday I had the chance to attend an afternoon tea and perfume masterclass put on by Atelier Cologne and Sephora Canada at the Laduree boutique at Yorkdale.

The founder Sylvie led the masterclass and during the tea she talked us through a few  classic Atelier fragrances, as well as the newest launch Pacific Lime.

Pacific Lime!

First, she started off by having us smell blotters of 5 different citrus essential oils. They handed these out to us blind and asked us what each one reminded us of. At the end, she asked us all to identify each of the 5 citrus oils.

tea party place settingspetit fours

Next, she took the 3 main notes of Clementine California on blotters and had us smell them individually. Then we compared them to the finished scent. It was fascinating to see how different each note smelled alone vs how they were combined into a fragrance.

We then moved on to do the same with Citron d'Erable, Rose Anonymee and Pacific Lime. During the event Sylvie mentioned that a perfumer is trained to recognize and identify between 1000-1500 scents sight unseen. Given that our group went through (at most) 30 smelling exercises, that is quite an impressive number and gives me an even greater appreciation of the craft of perfumery.

The event was a really intimate and interesting look at perfumery, and I'd like to thank Sephora @TeamBIC and Atelier for allowing me to attend. I had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed it!

[greeneyedgirl107]

Great pics and great reporting.  Glad you got to attend @Mochapj !

[lachaton]

Thank you for sharing your experience and pictures @Mochapj ! It looks like a lovely time, and I'm so glad you were able to go with your great appreciation of fragrance. What a treat!

[Mochapj]

Thanks @lachaton ! It was a real treat; definitely one of the more interesting Sephora events I've ever attended 😉

[sister13]

So wish I had one of these in my location! Looks awesome! @Mochapj 

[Mochapj]

Thanks @sister13 ! Hopefully they'll do something similar closer to you next time!

[missjeanie]

  @Mochapj What a fantastic event to be a part of!  Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us!

[Mochapj]

Thanks @missjeanie ! It was a lot of fun. Hopefully Sephora will continue to throw more events like this 😉

[missjeanie]

@Mochapjabsolutely!  I love all these experiences that have been popping up lately!  Such fun and unique events -- And in Canada too!!

[MlleCC]

Afternoon tea at Laduree -- what a luxurious experience!  The fact about parfumeurs being able to identify 1000-1500 scents is interesting.  Your photos are lovely; glad to hear you had a great time at the workshop!  

[Mochapj]

Thanks @MlleCC !

I can't even begin to imagine how long it must take to be able to recognize and identify that many scents off the bat - after smelling the first 6 or 7 items I was already going anosmic from the sensory overload 😄

[pocketvenus]

@Mochapj, thank you for sharing your report and pics!! Smelling all those individual notes sounded like it was really fun!

[Mochapj]

Thanks @pocketvenus !

It definitely was. I did a perfume building workshop once in London that had similar elements but the extracts Sylvie had with her were much more potent than anything I'd worked with there; it was a little eye twinging to smell concentrated vetiver and oud 😄

[pocketvenus]

@Mochapj, amazing! Natural extracts are the best materials to learn from!

[SportyGirly125]

@Mochapj looks like you had a great time. Thank you for sharing pictures and your experience with us. 

[Mochapj]

Thanks @SportyGirly125 

[melissapurple22]

Looks like it was a great event @Mochapj thanks for doing a great job sharing the event with us. So interesting to see how they create scents. ☺️💜

[Mochapj]

Thanks @melissapurple22 ! So happy I could share it with BIC 🙂

[MissPuff]

Thanks for the recap @Mochapj ! What an interesting event, and so visually stunning too! I love Laduree and it looks even more beautiful with all those fruits and scents displayed everywhere. I am always in awe of people that can identify all those distinctive notes, how would you describe Pacific Lime? I'm curious now, I think my last Atelier Cologne scent was Cafe Tuberosa...

[Mochapj]

Thanks @MissPuff ! I'll preface by saying that citrusy/beachy scents aren't really my jam, but I did enjoy Pacific Lime. I sampled some at the party and still liked what I could smell of it on my arm a few hours later.

The 3 main notes we smelled individually before smelling PL were lime, coconut and eucalyptus. In the finished perfume you definitely pick up all of those elements but the eucalyptus is much more subdued and less screechy.

A lot of the people around the table said they felt it reminded them of having cocktails on the beach; and for me personally it made me think of margaritas. The lime is fresh and bright, but has a slight bitterness to it. The coconut is creamy but not cloying in that often seen sun-tan lotion sort of way. The eucalyptus is what took it from being a pretty standard 'beachy' perfume to something a little more special, IMO. There was a slight woodiness to it that made it seem more modern and took down the overall sweetness of the combo.

I enjoy Cafe Tuberosa as well and would recommend giving PL a sniff if you get a chance!

[MissPuff]

Thanks @Mochapj  ! The eucalyptus is an interesting note, I might have to check it out now. I'm normally not a fan of coconut or beachy scents either, but bringing it down a notch might be interesting!