This is my review of the Floris Bespoke fragrance experience that I recently experiences.
I and a good friend had purchased the Floris Bespoke fragrance experience prior to a trip to the UK in late August for a milestone birthday. We decided to combine our session into a doubly long session with Penny Ellis the firm's bespoke perfumer.
We arrived promptly for our 11am appointment at the Jermyn street location, and were ushered by the staff into an office at the back of the shop. What an utterly spectacular room this is, containing many historical artifacts dating back several centuries. I will add that the history of the shop dates to the 1700s, and it is truly a unique and delightful place.
The Floris bespoke experience includes both historical and practical aspects. We began by learning about the history of Floris. This included learning about the numerous artifacts in the office and their relevance to the firm's history, the building, as well as looking through the ledgers that included many entries for such luminaries as Winston Churchill. Subsequent to this we proceeded to learn about the fundamentals of perfumery and the steps and ingredients that work together to produce an outstanding perfume. Specifically we learned about the different types of base fragrances (such as orientals, florals, woody, etc ) as well as the additional note fragrances that are combined to construct a final product.
Our journey towards building each of our individual fragrances began by sampling a number of base fragrances and selecting those that we most liked - I personally had about five, and my friend six. We each then narrowed our choices down to our two or three favorites. Following this, Penny applied each of these to our skin. After a few minutes to allow the fragrances to settle, we selected our respective favourite. This would become the base of our respective fragrances.
The next step was sampling the various additional notes that could be added to the our base fragrance. The combination of notes and the amount added to the formula gives each cologne its distinct fragrance. We worked through about a dozen different notes smelling them, combining them, and narrowing them down to the our favorites.
At this point it was lunchtime and Penny suggested that my friend and I take an hour lunch break while she concocted each of our initial colognes. On that note, my friend and I went to the Caviar House on Piccadilly for a lovely lunch of caviar, salmon, and of course champagne. You only live once!
Upon returning, we were each greeted with a beaker of cologne that Penny had mixed from our selected base and note fragrances. It was now time to tune" each of our perfumes to our exact preference. To this end, Penny took turns focusing on each of us individually in order to nuance the cologne based on our feedback. She did so by adding more of a particular note (or new note) until we were each happy with the final product.
I would like to take a moment state that Penny was not only an artist, but that her knowledge and understanding of perfumery astounding. It should have come as no surprise as she has a technical background in chemistry backed by decades of experience in both the consumer and commercial fragrance industries.
Now that we had our colognes finalised, the penultimate step was to think of a unique name. The rule is that no other cologne in Floris ledgers may have the same name. We both managed to come up with our respective names which Penny entered into the Floris system.
The final step of our experience was to have our personally engraved bottles filled with our bespoke fragrance. A label with the colognes name, the name of the perfumer (Penny in our case), and the date it was filled was affixed to the front of the bottle. Additionally a small card containing the recipe for the perfume was included in a beautiful Floris box. I should add that Floris also keeps each individual recipe on file so that clients may order their particular colognes at any time.
All in all I can say without question that this was an amazing experience and well worth the cost. I cannot recommend it highly enough!
I and a good friend had purchased the Floris Bespoke fragrance experience prior to a trip to the UK in late August for a milestone birthday. We decided to combine our session into a doubly long session with Penny Ellis the firm's bespoke perfumer.
We arrived promptly for our 11am appointment at the Jermyn street location, and were ushered by the staff into an office at the back of the shop. What an utterly spectacular room this is, containing many historical artifacts dating back several centuries. I will add that the history of the shop dates to the 1700s, and it is truly a unique and delightful place.
The Floris bespoke experience includes both historical and practical aspects. We began by learning about the history of Floris. This included learning about the numerous artifacts in the office and their relevance to the firm's history, the building, as well as looking through the ledgers that included many entries for such luminaries as Winston Churchill. Subsequent to this we proceeded to learn about the fundamentals of perfumery and the steps and ingredients that work together to produce an outstanding perfume. Specifically we learned about the different types of base fragrances (such as orientals, florals, woody, etc ) as well as the additional note fragrances that are combined to construct a final product.
Our journey towards building each of our individual fragrances began by sampling a number of base fragrances and selecting those that we most liked - I personally had about five, and my friend six. We each then narrowed our choices down to our two or three favorites. Following this, Penny applied each of these to our skin. After a few minutes to allow the fragrances to settle, we selected our respective favourite. This would become the base of our respective fragrances.
The next step was sampling the various additional notes that could be added to the our base fragrance. The combination of notes and the amount added to the formula gives each cologne its distinct fragrance. We worked through about a dozen different notes smelling them, combining them, and narrowing them down to the our favorites.
At this point it was lunchtime and Penny suggested that my friend and I take an hour lunch break while she concocted each of our initial colognes. On that note, my friend and I went to the Caviar House on Piccadilly for a lovely lunch of caviar, salmon, and of course champagne. You only live once!
Upon returning, we were each greeted with a beaker of cologne that Penny had mixed from our selected base and note fragrances. It was now time to tune" each of our perfumes to our exact preference. To this end, Penny took turns focusing on each of us individually in order to nuance the cologne based on our feedback. She did so by adding more of a particular note (or new note) until we were each happy with the final product.
I would like to take a moment state that Penny was not only an artist, but that her knowledge and understanding of perfumery astounding. It should have come as no surprise as she has a technical background in chemistry backed by decades of experience in both the consumer and commercial fragrance industries.
Now that we had our colognes finalised, the penultimate step was to think of a unique name. The rule is that no other cologne in Floris ledgers may have the same name. We both managed to come up with our respective names which Penny entered into the Floris system.
The final step of our experience was to have our personally engraved bottles filled with our bespoke fragrance. A label with the colognes name, the name of the perfumer (Penny in our case), and the date it was filled was affixed to the front of the bottle. Additionally a small card containing the recipe for the perfume was included in a beautiful Floris box. I should add that Floris also keeps each individual recipe on file so that clients may order their particular colognes at any time.
All in all I can say without question that this was an amazing experience and well worth the cost. I cannot recommend it highly enough!
