I paid $89 to make my signature scent. The experience was intimate and creative, and I'll never purchase store-bought perfume again.

Bouquet Parfums founder Nathan Dubois welcomed me and three other guests into his Brooklyn home for the perfume-making class in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a popular Brooklyn neighborhood. 

Dubois, who is self-taught, began teaching workshops in 2022 and turned his kitchen table into a laboratory, creating an intimate setting for us to enjoy the process together. 

He asked us about our relationships with perfume based on our favorite fragrances and helped steer us in the right direction.

Dubois thoroughly explained the makeup of perfume before we began. According to Dubois, perfume comprises three notes: top notes, heart notes, and base notes. According to Dubois, base notes last the longest, more than six hours, so we chose those scents first.

The four of us took turns smelling over 16 scents ranging from sandalwood to vanilla. I quickly realized I didn't like floral or earthy aromas and was drawn toward stronger scents, like musk.

He advised us to smell everything. "Even if you think you won't like it, there's actually very few people who have smelled the raw essence on its own, so I recommend always smelling everything to know what you like and what you don't," Dubois said.

I went with sandalwood, musk, and amber for my base scents. Dubois told me my choices best complement each other because of their deep, rich smell.

Dubois was thorough and attentive, ensuring we had the proper ratio of each scent in our mixture. After discussing our base notes' scent rankings, I added my picks to the test tube. 

Dubois provided coffee beans to "cleanse our palate" and prepare us for the next batch. For the heart notes, which last on the body for 20 minutes to an hour, according to Dubois, I went with jasmine, honeysuckle, and coffee. I loved the mixture of the sweet honeysuckle and the bitter coffee notes. 

I moved on to the top notes, which last anywhere from five to 15 minutes, according to Dubois. At this point, I felt more confident about selecting fragrances. Floral scents like lavender were too earthy for my taste, while carnations were too subtle for me to enjoy. I chose black tea, peach, and bergamot for my top notes. 

Dubois taught us how to properly mix the scents in our test tube with a wrist-swirling motion. Afterward, I took a strip of paper to smell what I made. He directed us to wave it in front of our noses rather than smell the strip directly. 

I loved certain aspects of my perfume, like the contrast between the bitter coffee and the sweet peach, but something was off. Dubois agreed and helped me "balance" the scent in the next round by removing the overpowering black tea top note.

After Dubois and I altered my perfume to highlight the scents I wanted, I added the base, heart, and top notes to the test tube again. Now that our fragrances were ready, we transferred our concoction into a larger beaker. 

The final step in the process required adding alcohol to our concoction. Dubois said the alcohol holds the scents together and keeps the oils fresh longer. 

Though the naming process was creatively tricky, my fellow perfume makers and I brainstormed and helped inspire each other as Dubois printed our official labels. I went with "Nirvana" since I felt a sense of calm and peace while smelling my perfume.

Dubois wrapped our perfumes and suggested letting them "rest" for four weeks before wearing them. Much like a fine wine, Dubois told us that perfumes must age for extended periods so that the scents can settle.

He also gave us fun, informative tips on where to spray perfume. According to Dubois, spraying perfume on the back of your knees will allow your scent to linger as you walk past someone. 

Overall, the two-hour class was an interactive, informative, and a creative way to express myself. As someone that has shied away from perfume my whole life, I feel much more confident wearing a scent that I made myself.