Mother-daughter perfume-making class in Bukchon, Seoul: Muhwawon

What is Muhwawon Bukchon Perfume Workshop?

Muhwawon Bukchon Perfume Workshop is a perfume-making one-day class studio at 23 Yulgok-ro 6-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul, 3rd floor, open daily from 12:00 to 22:00. I wanted a slightly special date with my mother, so I went here — and over about 1 hour 30 minutes, we each made our own perfume.

• A perfume-making one-day class enjoyed near Anguk for about 1 hour 30 minutes
• A hands-on format where you test various scents and blend them to your taste
• Tablet guidance plus a perfumer's explanation made it easy even for beginners
• A place where I could enjoy a slightly different kind of date with my mom

How to walk to Muhwawon from Anguk Station, and where to park

If you're visiting by subway, Muhwawon Bukchon Perfume Workshop is conveniently located near Anguk Station on Line 3 — about a 6–8 minute walk. By bus, the stops near Anguk Station and Changdeokgung Palace are convenient too, so it's easy to reach by public transit.

If you're driving, there's no dedicated lot, but you can park at Kakao T Changdeokgung Lot 1 directly across from the workshop, which is less than a minute's walk away — very convenient.

It's a good spot for exploring Bukchon or Anguk together, so it's easy to pair the class with a meal or café stop before or after. Like my mom and I did, you can build a whole Bukchon date around it and enjoy walking the area slowly.

Inside Muhwawon: the studio mood and your seat set-up

The first thing I thought walking in was how clean it looked. It's decorated calmly, mostly in neutral tones, and the small fragrance bottles used for blending are neatly arranged — it felt more like a small perfume lab than a typical workshop.

The lighting wasn't overly bright and the space wasn't cluttered, so it was a good atmosphere for focusing on scent.

Each seat had beakers, a scale, and sniffing tools ready for blending, plus a separate tablet and headphones.

For someone making perfume for the first time, it could feel like 'what do I do first?' — but Muhwawon follows tablet guidance along with a perfumer's explanation, so it didn't feel difficult.

Sitting side by side with my mom, smelling and combining scents each in our own way, it was fun comparing our different tastes even though we were doing the same experience.

How the perfume-making one-day class works, step by step

Muhwawon's perfume-making one-day class takes about 1 hour 30 minutes, moving step by step from scent testing to fragrance selection, blending, measuring, and finally making the product.

At first I wondered how making one perfume could possibly take 90 minutes, but once I tried it — smelling, comparing, and combining scents one by one — time flew by. Let me walk through how it actually works.

Step 1: mapping out the scents you like

The first step was figuring out what kind of scents I actually like. Normally when I choose a perfume, I just smell it and decide whether I like it or not — but trying to make one myself made me think more carefully about what fragrance families I'm drawn to.

Doing this with my mom was fun because the difference in our tastes showed up right from this stage — just as we each notice different things we like even in the same perfume, it really hit me how personal a sense of scent preference is.

It didn't feel like picking a 'correct answer' from the start, more like finding the direction for the perfume I'd eventually make, so I could start without pressure.

Step 2: smelling all 48 fragrance oils

Once I had some sense of my preferences, it was time to really dive into smelling different scents. With 48 fragrance oils prepared, I tested each one to narrow things down to what suited my taste.

Smelling nearly 50 scents one by one required more focus than I expected. At first I was excitedly going 'oh I love this,' 'nah, not this one,' but after a while my nose started to feel tired.

Still, it's rare to compare this many scents in one sitting, so it was genuinely fun discovering preferences I didn't know I had.

Step 3: narrowing down to at least 6 favorite scents

After smelling plenty of scents, the next step was narrowing down to the ones I liked most. At first there were too many good scents and I kept picking more, but as I kept comparing, certain scents naturally stood out.

When you buy perfume, you're smelling the finished product — but in a blending class, you get to smell each individual scent before it becomes one perfume, which was really fun.

After choosing at least 6 of the tested fragrance oils, I checked the overall scent structure and desired mood with the perfumer as we built out a blend together.

Just gathering scents I personally like is different from actually making several scents work well together, so I appreciated having the perfumer's guidance here.

Step 4: mixing your chosen scents together

Once I'd picked my favorite scents, the real blending began. Mixing the chosen scents together in small amounts to create a new fragrance was, for me personally, the most fun part.

Scents that were clearly good on their own sometimes gave a totally unexpected result when mixed — and conversely, a scent that didn't stand out alone suddenly became much more appealing paired with another.

The overall mood also changed depending on the ratio, so I kept mixing a little, smelling again, and repeating the process to get closer to the recipe I wanted. Doing it myself, I realized how much more delicate the process of making a perfume is than I'd imagined.

Step 5: picking the one blend you love most

After making a few combinations, the next step was picking the one I liked most as the final scent — and this turned out to be surprisingly hard.

After smelling so much, I kept second-guessing myself: 'Was the earlier one better? No, wait, maybe this one is more me?'

Still, it was fun that my mom blended toward what she liked, and I blended toward my own taste — the same process, same space, but completely different results.

Rather than choosing a perfume that's already made, building one from start to finish myself made me feel attached to it even before it was finished. Getting to actually experience a scent I like becoming a real perfume was what made this so different from ordinary perfume shopping.

Step 6: measuring out the final blend

Once I'd finalized the blend I liked, it was time to measure and mix the fragrance oils according to the chosen ratio. Placing the beaker on the scale and adding each oil to the exact amount made me feel like a real perfumer for a moment.

Where the earlier steps were about smelling and choosing intuitively, this part required checking numbers and hitting exact measurements, so I focused harder — and it was fascinating watching the fragrance oils gather in the beaker, turning the scents I'd chosen into an actual perfume.

Having gone through dozens of scents and multiple rounds of blending to get here, I was even more excited to see the finished perfume.

Your finished perfume and its label

Once the blending was done, my own perfume was finally complete. The finished perfume was bottled and packaged to take home.

My mom finished a perfume with her own taste, and I finished one with mine — and having something we made together was nice, too.

It wasn't just about joining a one-day class and being done — I liked that I got to take home a perfume made of the scents I loved that day. Beyond the packaging, you can name your finished perfume and have it printed as a label, which made it feel just like a perfume you'd buy in a store.

Verdict: is Muhwawon a good mother-daughter date in Bukchon?

With Muhwawon Perfume Workshop, making my own perfume was fun in itself, but what stuck with me most was having a different kind of date with my mom than usual.

Normally, meeting my mom means eating something good and going to a café — but this time, sitting side by side smelling scents and learning each other's tastes was a lot of fun.

The studio was clean overall, and following the tablet guidance and the perfumer's explanations step by step made it not too difficult even for first-timers like us.

That said, smelling nearly 50 scents in a short time did leave me feeling a bit dizzy toward the end, so if you're sensitive to scents, I'd recommend giving your nose breaks and taking it slow.

Still, spending about 1 hour 30 minutes finding my preferences and blending my own perfume was more fun than I expected — and especially memorable because I did it with my mom, an unusual Bukchon date.

Who should book the Muhwawon perfume class?

• Anyone who wants to make a perfume that reflects their own taste
• Anyone looking for a unique one-day class in Anguk or Bukchon
• Anyone who wants a special mother-daughter date
• Couples or friends who want to make an unusual memory together