Bukchon perfume workshop date with staff photos: Paper Bloom, Muhwawon

Today I visited Muhwawon (무화원), a perfume workshop in Seoul near Anguk Station!! It's famous as a Seoul perfume workshop, and I'm going to introduce it to you right now, haha ✨️

Where is Muhwawon perfume workshop in Bukchon, and what is it?

Muhwawon is a Bukchon perfume workshop at 23 Yulgok-ro 6-gil, 3rd floor, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea, about a 9-minute walk from Anguk Station Exit 3. It's open daily 12:00–22:00, paid parking is available, and both reservations and group bookings are possible.

According to the shop's introduction, Muhwawon (霧花園) means 'a scent blooming like mist in a garden.' The brand was inspired by the mist rising in Changdeokgung's Secret Garden, and it's a perfume workshop where tradition and modernity meet. It reinterprets Korean scents in a modern way, so you can make perfume that captures the mood of Korean nature, with hanji, herbal medicine, temple incense and more.

• You can make perfume (EDP 12%), car fresheners and diffusers
• Located near Changdeokgung, Bukchon Hanok Village, Insadong, Ikseon-dong, Seosunra-gil and more
• A stylish space for dates, anniversaries and making gifts
• Custom classes from 1:1 to self-guided
• Premium packaging and a silver label sticker
• Average class time is 1 hour 30 minutes
• They say all fragrance materials are genuine, safety-certified ingredients

What is Muhwawon like for a Bukchon date?

Today I went with my boyfriend to Muhwawon, a perfume workshop in Seoul near Anguk Station~! It's a popular perfume workshop for Bukchon date courses!!

You choose and combine the scents you like, and make perfume easily and enjoyably together with a professional perfumer, which is why Muhwawon is so well known~

There was a wide range of fragrance materials~! It's a workshop where you can make perfume that reinterprets Korean scents in a modern way, capturing the mood of Korean nature with hanji, herbal medicine, temple incense and more!

The atmosphere was really good~ It's a moody, modern, upscale space, so I could focus even more on making perfume~! A great place to discover your own taste.

We booked through Naver before visiting~! Our seats were already set up for us~!

What does Muhwawon prepare before you start making perfume?

Before the actual perfume making, Muhwawon ran a short pre-survey~! They checked things like whether you want the perfumer's help and whether you'd like them to take photos, and then we got started! A scale, beakers, wet wipes and other tools for perfume making were all ready~!

Next to that were scent strips and coffee beans, which help soothe your nose when it gets tired.

A wide variety of fragrance materials were prepared. You smell them one by one, pick the scents that suit your taste, and combine them into your perfume! A perfumer is always on standby at the front, so whenever you get stuck you can get help, no need to worry at all :)

Do Muhwawon staff take photos of your perfume-making session?

If you say in the pre-survey that you'd like photos, a Muhwawon staff member beautifully captures you making your perfume! They took such lovely photos, I'm tearing up! First of all, the space itself is so pretty that photos turn out great!! And the staff member was good at taking photos too, so I was really satisfied. I loved being able to keep such a good memory in pictures.

How does the perfume-making class at Muhwawon work, step by step?

Muhwawon had two notebooks ready, a blending note and a theory note~! On the first page of the blending note, you choose the mood of the scent you want to make today~! You just check the feelings you want!! Then you smell the scents one by one and check the ones you like.

Then you go to the fragrance shelves at the back and bring the checked scents over on a tray~!! I loved that there were so many scents, and they totally hit my taste, haha

I got help from the perfumer. I built up my scent by adding and removing the ones they recommended.

Comparing with scent strips, I picked the best combination to turn into my perfume!~

You add the fragrance materials one by one in the weight shown, then mix, and that's it~! It was really fun. I was so focused on smelling and blending that the time flew by!! Haha. I'm glad I got to make a special memory with my boyfriend~

'Paper Bloom': our perfume made with hanji fragrance

At Muhwawon you also get to name your finished perfume~! Mine included the hanji (Korean mulberry paper) fragrance, so I used that feature and named it Paper Bloom!

Put the sticker on the perfume bottle and you're done~!

How long does the Muhwawon class take, and when can you wear the perfume?

The perfume made at Muhwawon has to age for 2 weeks before you can use it, and I'd plan on about 1 hour 30 minutes for the class~ It's a perfume my boyfriend and I made together, and I can't wait for the 2 weeks to pass, haha

Muhwawon is great for gifting a perfume you made yourself and for making good memories as you go~! I really recommend it to anyone searching for a Bukchon date course!! I also think it would be lovely to make perfume with your boyfriend on a special anniversary!