I went along to The Molinard perfumery in the hope that I could do the perfumery tour followed by their perfume making class. Unfortunately when I got there, and despite the fact that the guide spoke perfect English, I was told the tour would only be in French due to demand. That was a bit disappointing but I went ahead anyway as it was a free tour.
The Molinard building itself is lovely and they have some gorgeous vintage Habanita coffrets in the small museum entrance. I have to say I found the shop staff quite abrupt and snappy (one complained of being tired) and they didn’t seem to really want the customers there. Perhaps I just got them on a bad day! The shop is beautifully laid out and there is plenty to smell and buy.
The perfume making (Tarinology) class felt quite rushed, and at 59 euro for 1hr and 30ml perfume to take away it’s nowhere near as good value as Galimard.
We were seated at a round table with a materials carousel in the centre which meant that we had to share with other students on our table. There were only three of us so it was fine but with only 1hr it would have been difficult if there were more students.
The tutor was obviously very knowlegeable but seemed very harrassed with her mobile phone going off at regular intervals (a bugbear of mine that lost her brownie points) and seemed keen to get us through the class and out the door.
The system is very similar to Galimard in that we were asked to smell through materials and choose from each of the top, mid and base accords with the tutor choosing proportions. The main difference was the use of smelling strips and pipettes which made the process a bit more professional. I felt that the bases were much more sophisticated and better quality than those at Galimard but the process was still very much perfume by numbers. Of the two classes I would say Galimard was a more fun experience and much better value but Molinard is worth a visit anyway if you have some time to spare.
