SEATTLE — Perfume is a personal experience — and at Molly Ray Parfums, you can make it even more personal with a custom fragrance of your own.
"I've always loved fragrance and the ability to sort of transform your experience, whether it's to inspire you or relax you," said Molly Ray, owner of Molly Ray Parfums.
Ray studied perfume at Grasse Institute of Perfumery in France. She launched her company in 2016 and more recently began to share her expertise with others by helping people blend their own custom perfumes.
"I was inspired to do this from a workshop that I took myself in France," Ray said. "Because I feel like a lot of times when we get a fragrance, it's a gift, or we smell it on someone else. And it's not really something that we ourselves curate and create. So I wanted to find a way to do that here in Seattle."
Without giving too much away about the process, Ray guides students through the process of smelling and identifying key components of perfume, helping them choose their favorites, and mixing it all up into their perfect perfume. There's a lot of sniffing, a lot of science, and a lot of fun.
Once you've narrowed down the scents you'd like in your perfume, Ray will pour it into a 15 ml bottle and you'll be able to name your perfume. When I (Ellen Meny, the author of this article) made my perfume, I named it ... Evening. Duh!
If you'd like to make your own perfume, you can book a private session or group session online.
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