Perfumery Intensives

Perfumery Intensives
Ongoing, with Spyros Drosopoulos
Locations Variable / Online

The Institute for Art and Olfaction is pleased to team up with independent perfumer Spyros Drosopoulos to offer an ongoing series of intensives; an introduction to perfumery, science, formulating, and – of course – all the materials and tips an independent perfumer could ask for.

This comprehensive overview of technical perfumery is geared to beginner and intermediate independent practitioners with scent, and will help you understand the art and science of perfumery, while enhancing your existing practice with technical knowledge.

Our intensives are designed to help independent perfumers kick their proficiency levels up a notch, and to help beginners take the dive into scent-making as a creative practice. This is accomplished through a facts-based curriculum that covers the most crucial elements of perfumery. The course will enhance your artisan, independent or experimental scent practice by showing you how to professionalize your work, while avoiding reliance on those omnipresent pre-fabricated bases. As a participant, you will learn (or re-learn) the basics and get a sense of some of the special tricks you can use to deploy your own compositional prowess, and – ultimately – rely on your own skills for a greater adeptness in formulating.

Join us!

COMING UP

5-Day Intensive: Online

with Spyros Drosopoulos, assisted by Saskia Wilson-Brown
on Zoom
Tuesday April 1, 15, 22, 29 and May 6, 2025
Cost: $895.00
Materials must be purchased separately, and will amount to about $367.50 with a student discount for the aromatic materials, and another $75.00 or so for the lab materials.

Our online intensive returns, over five sessions in April and May, 2025. Starting with a pre-recorded introduction to lab work video, the intensive covers the most important information and materials for a new perfumer hoping to start their practice – or for an experienced perfumer who needs to level up their technical skills.

Taught by veteran independent perfumer and frequent IAO collaborator Spyros Drosopoulos, (and assisted by IAO founder Saskia Wilson-Brown), this course will help newcomers to the practice get started on the right foot through fast-paced, factual, science-based education. Lectures will focus on materiality, accord-building, perfume creation, and other crucial information in independent perfumery. More experienced perfumers will gain technical tips and tricks to help expand their knowledge and control over aromatic materials.

+ Learn more/sign up

The Art and Craft of Perfumery:
History, Extraction, and Formulation Intensive

with Saskia Wilson-Brown, Spyros Drosopoulos, and Ernesto Collado
at Mas Flaquer, Spain
June 16 – 21, 2025
Cost: 2,500 eur.
Materials included.

+ Link to more information

Perfumery is a complex practice. For this reason, it is often presented and taught in the context of oppositions: natural versus synthetic, historic versus contemporary. These dualities present a divisive approach to perfumery, which serves only to fracture and limit the potential of the practice.

Mas Flaquer is a regenerative farm outside Barcelona which serves as the headquarters for Spanish perfume brand Bravanariz, It is here that Ernesto Collado, Spyros Drosopoulos and Saskia Wilson-Brown combine their areas of expertise to present a six day perfume intensive that approaches the practice with a holistic and inclusive lens.

Through a combination of field work, hands-on blending time, and lectures, this intensive will highlight the connections between diverse ways of working: It will focus on how to interrelate natural sourcing and extraction strategies, modern chemistry, technical perfumery, and experimentation. In this way, this intensive will provide participants with an expansive understanding of all the possibilities for their craft, and a fuller appreciation of what is possible with scent.

Arrivals / Sunday June 15, 2025
Arrivals and reception at Mas Flaquer
Welcome speech and introduction to the course
Welcome dinner

Day 1 / Monday June 16
Morning Movement (15 minutes)
Field work + Protocols (3 hours)
Lunch + Siesta (2.5 hours)
Lecture: Scent in the Ancient World (1 hour)
Technical (2 hours)

DAY 2 / Tuesday June 17
Morning Movement (15 minutes)
Distilling (2 hours)
Lunch (2.5 hours)
Lecture: Medieval and Early Modern Perfume Pratices (1 hour)
Technical (2 hours)

DAY 3 / Wednesday June 18
Morning Movement (15 minutes)
Introduction to tinctures and enfleurage (3.5 hours)
Lunch (2.5 hours)
Lecture: The Roots of Modernity (1 hour)
Technical (2 hours)

DAY 4 / Thursday June 19
Morning Movement (15 minutes)
Meet the bees (4 hours)
Lunch + Siesta (2.5 hours)
Lecture: Perfume in the Golden Age of Capitalism (1 hour)
Free blend (4 hours)

DAY 5 / Friday June 20
Morning Movement (15 minutes)
Lecture: Contemporary Creative Practices (1 hour)
Lunch + Siesta (2.5 hours)
Free blend (4 hours)

DAY 6 + Departures / Saturday June 21
Morning Movement (15 minutes)
Tutorials (3h)
Farewell lunch
Afternoon Departures

Email for more information: hello@artandolfaction.com