Perfume class near Gyeongbokgung: tangerine-fig & ink-oud, Muhwawon

What is the perfume-making class at Muhwawon in Bukchon?

At Muhwawon (무화원) you pick and blend your own fragrance materials to make a 50ml perfume. I love perfume and have used lots of brands, but I had never chosen and blended the ingredients myself. Being able to pick whatever scents I liked was great, and the perfumer also helped with the combinations and blending ratios along the way, which made it even more satisfying.

I think even people who know nothing about perfume can join without trouble, haha. You book through Naver.

Muhwawon perfume class price and opening hours

The class takes 1 hour 30 minutes, and making a 50ml perfume costs ₩49,000. English and Japanese are supported too, so it's perfect to come with foreign friends!

• Address: 23 Yulgok-ro 6-gil, 3rd floor, Jongno-gu, Seoul
• Opening hours: daily 12:00–20:00
• Class booking slots: 13:00–19:00
• Average class time: about 1 hour 30 minutes

Muhwawon is close to Bukchon, Gyeongbokgung and Insadong, so it pairs nicely with other date spots nearby. We visited in the evening, and the building already felt calm from the outside. You enter with a password, which they give you when you book!

Inside Muhwawon: the studio and blending tables

The first thing I noticed when I walked in was the neatly arranged blending space. Black tables and softly glowing walls made the whole place feel calm and upscale.

Each table had fragrance materials, smelling tools, a digital scale, beakers and a blending note. Every seat also had a tablet and headphones, set up so you can learn the basics of perfume blending before you start.

Before the theory lesson, you answer a short survey on the tablet: whether it's your first perfume workshop, how involved you'd like the perfumer to be, and so on!

The perfume theory you learn before blending

The class started with a guide video about blending on the tablet. It turns out a perfume isn't finished just by mixing a bunch of nice scents together.

You have to think about the ratio of materials, the order in which they release, and how they harmonize. First we learned about perfume concentration, which is the share of fragrance in the whole solution. It's divided into eau de cologne, eau de toilette, eau de parfum and so on. Perfume is also split by release stage into top, middle and base notes.

• Top note: the scent you smell right after spraying
• Middle note: the heart of the perfume
• Base note: the lingering scent that stays to the end

After the theory, I understood a bit better why a perfume smells different at first and later. Some of it was unfamiliar at first, but the video explanation made it easy.

Picking your scent mood with the blending note

After the theory, we filled in the Muhwawon blending note. The first step was choosing the mood of the perfume you want to make today.

You pick scent families like floral, fruity, soapy and woody, and tick the feelings you prefer, like sweet, zesty or clean. I like so many scents..haha. I chose fruity, soapy, sweet, zesty, cozy, refreshing and clean. I usually prefer a light, subtle scent over a heavy, strong one.

I only vaguely knew I wanted to make a good perfume, but sorting out my tastes one by one gave me a better sense of what I actually wanted.

What fragrance oils does Muhwawon have?

Muhwawon had a really wide range of materials for each of the top, middle and base notes. You can find familiar scents like grapefruit, bergamot and yuzu (a Korean citrus), as well as unique Korean ones like osmanthus and hanji (traditional Korean paper).

I was impressed that the Korean materials are set apart, and maybe that's why there were foreign guests in the class too! There were many materials whose names alone made me curious: wild grape, mountain mugwort, cedar, incense stick, ink (sumuk), schisandra, osmanthus, green tangerine and hanji.

For smelling, you sniff the small bottles one by one and mark the ones you like on your blending note.

The perfumer's help in this step was really good. When I picked a scent I liked, they recommended other materials that would go well with it, and they explained why some materials might not blend harmoniously with others.

When you smell materials one by one, they all seem lovely, right? But mixing everything you like doesn't make a good perfume. The perfumer pointed this out along the way, which helped a lot with choosing.

When my nose got dizzy from smelling too much, I reset it with coffee beans~~

Women's and men's perfume blends worth copying

After smelling lots of materials, I narrowed down my favorites and decided the actual blend. Here is what I chose.

The writer's fresh green tangerine and fig blend

• Top notes: green tangerine, bitter lemon, yuzu
• Middle notes: fig, osmanthus
• Base notes: white musk, sandalwood, hanji

The husband's youthful grapefruit, ink and oud blend

Next is my other half's! If you're looking for a men's scent that isn't too heavy but still feels youthful, take a look below!

• Top notes: grapefruit, wild grape
• Middle notes: linen, orchid
• Base notes: ink (sumuk), sandalwood, oud

How many times can you adjust the ratios with the perfumer?

At Muhwawon you decide the blending ratio together with the perfumer, and you can try up to 3 rounds. This is what I loved! My husband and I changed our ratios midway (the 2nd round in the blending note above).

We filled in the ratio ourselves and smelled it, then told the perfumer which scent we wanted to emphasize, and they suggested ratios while considering the overall balance. You can do up to 3 rounds!

Then you add the materials with a dropper and beaker, and they top it up with the base to finish a 50ml bottle. I think even first-timers can have a lot of fun with it.

If you give it a name, they stick a name label on it like above! They wrapped it up beautifully at the end. They recommended starting to use it after 2 weeks, since it smells of alcohol at first.

Muhwawon extra options and reorder price

Besides perfume, Muhwawon says you can also make car air fresheners and diffusers. They keep your blending note for 2 years, and if you want the exact same one again, you can buy it for ₩35,000 for 50ml. Really reasonable, right?

Why Muhwawon perfume making is a great Bukchon date

It's good for perfume lovers, of course, but also for couples looking for a Bukchon date or an unusual Gyeongbokgung-area date. If you like perfume, I recommend trying to make your own scent at least once!

A tidy space, kind care from the perfumer, and a reasonable ₩49,000! I recommend Muhwawon Bukchon Perfume Workshop :)