Hello, everyone, and welcome to another of my reviews. In this article, I’ll review my experience attending a Home Perfume Atelier with the local perfume house Maison 21G.
Over the years, I’ve attended multiple perfume workshops with Maison 21G, most recently the Advanced Perfume Workshop with Pocholo at MBS. As I recently moved into my apartment, I was looking for a bespoke home scent. Thus, I decided to try Maison 21G’s Home Perfume Atelier, this time in the Ngee Ann City outlet. Let’s see how my experience went.
Maison 21G Home Perfume Atelier – Video
For hands-on footage of my Home Perfume Atelier experience with Maison 21G, do watch the YouTube video below:
Maison 21G Home Perfume Atelier – the Experience
I’ve attended numerous workshops with Maison 21G, but this was my first time visiting the Ngee Ann City showroom.
The showroom is in Basement 1, flanked by other notable (i.e. international) perfume houses.
Upon entering the showroom, Banu, the scent designer on duty, greeted me during my visit.
The Ngee Ann City showroom is more intimate and cosy than MBS’s. While the MBS boutique is grander, the workshop area is visible to onlookers via a transparent glass panel, and plenty of curious tourists often peek through, which can ruin the experience (especially if it’s meant as a romantic activity). If privacy is a concern, then I would say that Maison 21G’s Ngee Ann City boutique will be more appropriate.
Banu started the home perfume workshop with a short introductory presentation, like the regular one. As I’ve already covered Cholo’s presentation previously, I shan’t repeat myself here. After the introduction was done, Banu got me to do a “home-style quiz”.
The home scent quiz is similar to the perfume workshop quiz, though slightly truncated. Functioning as a personality quiz, it seeks to understand your preferences for home scents and recommends appropriate scents.
I got the “Artistic Refuge” profile, which describes my preferences as innovative and eclectic. The profile states that “[my] ideal living space is a place where creativity and freedom flourish”, which is pretty accurate given that I’m technically a content creator.
I showed Banu the quiz’s recommendations – tea and rose – and Banu quickly got to work by letting me try the scents.
While I did like the combination of tea and rose, it didn’t feel eclectic enough. As such, I relayed to Banu that I wanted something more unique—a scent combination I can’t get off the rack at one of the many other perfume stores in Ngee Ann City. After thinking about it, Banu recommended a combination of Tuberose and Vetiver. Right away, I fell in love with the scent combination – the velvety, fruity and creamy scent of the floral Tuberose blended nicely with Vetiver’s vibrant, fresh, woody and smoky fragrance. Together, the profile was stimulating and intriguing, ideally fitting what I was looking for.
With the scents selected, it was time to mix them. Participants take a hands-on approach, dripping their fragrance oil into the reed diffuser container. It’s similar to creating a regular perfume with a larger volume (since the reed diffuser container is much bigger than a standard perfume bottle).
If you’ve never attended a fragrance workshop, physically mixing in the perfume should be fun and engaging. It also gives participants a sense of ownership in the final creation, since you’re mixing in and creating the fragrance.
After the scents had been thoroughly mixed, Banu encouraged me to take a whiff to see if I liked them. I relayed to Banu that I found the Tuberose to be too overwhelming, so Banu directed me to increase the quantity of Vetiver to balance out the scent.
When I was satisfied with the final composition of the home scent, Banu wrapped the reed diffuser in sleek black packaging, including thoughtful info cards on the scents I’ve picked. I have to say that the packaging is quite attractive, making this a good gift option as well.
Overall, I enjoyed the Home Perfume Atelier from Maison 21G. I’ve been searching for a home scent for my new home (to no avail), so it was cool to tailor my home scent in this workshop. I also appreciate the cozy setting of the Ngee Ann City outlet, while the personality quiz kept things fun and lighthearted. However, I should point out that the home scent workshop features fewer fragrances than the regular perfume workshop (with no Black Collection ingredients available), so one does get the sense that the Home Perfume Atelier is a scaled back version of the Perfume Creation workshop.
Conclusion – so Maison 21G Home Atelier “shiok” or not?
If you’re moving into a new home (like me), or searching for a thoughtful housewarming gift, Maison 21G’s Home Atelier is a fun and engaging way to create your bespoke home scent. Although not as many as the standard Perfume Creation workshop, participants can still choose from 12 different scent ingredients in the Home Atelier, with hundreds of varying scent creations possible. The premise is unique too – I can’t think of another local fragrance house offering reed diffuser workshops.
The Home Perfume Atelier costs $180, though there is a 25% promo code that you can use for weekday bookings.
Book the Home Perfume Atelier from Maison 21G here.
Maison 21G’s store locations:
L1-32, The Shoppes, MBS
Takashimaya S.C., 391 Orchard Road, #B1-31A
P.S: Check out The Shiok Store here – it serves as a curation of my favourite products from my favourite brands.
P.P.S: Do check out the new “Discounts!” page for exclusive discounts for Wah so Shiok readers! More brands will be added very soon – stay tuned!
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P.P.P.P.S Shiok is a common word Singaporeans use to express admiration or approval. As of 2016, you can find the definition of the word in the Oxford English Dictionary.
