Now I sell perfume that I
make — 100 percent — myself!
Selling your own perfume can be profitable. I found that out with my first fragrance and you can read about that episode in Creating Your Own Perfume With A 1700 Percent Markup!
But when you read that book you'll discover that the scent for the fragrance I created and was selling was not made by me. In fact, it was sold to me — in bulk — by another company which has since been acquired by a global giant.
Perfume is a good business.
Creating a scent that is all your own is an art. But creating a scent that is all your own and sells because others want to buy it from you is a good start for a business.
My own interest in perfume started when I was looking for products to sell for my business and somebody suggested perfume. It was a good suggestion.
But even with that first (and a second) fragrance where I bought the scent itself in bulk, created a name, and bottled it right on top of my desk — even then I had be be aware of what scents might appeal to my customers.
A love affair was begun.
If you are the kind of person who likes to get 100 percent involved in your own business, you can probably appreciate why I began to wonder how the scents for my fragrances were created. I had learned about bottles, caps, pumps, labels, filling and packaging but the scents — the perfume oils themselves — were still a mystery to me.
I wondered if I might be able to learn how to make these fragrance oils — these scents which are the heart of all perfumes and colognes. You may have wondered about this too.
I was curious to learn how I might, on my own, create scents I wanted and, since the formula would then be my secret, nobody else would be able to offer that scent for their perfume. It would be 100 percent mine.
But how do you do it? How do you create the scent — the heart of any perfume or cologne? I didn't want to create simple novelties, I wanted to create scents I could sell. So they would have to be good. They would have to be professional. They would have to win the admiration of more than just a handful of polite friends and relatives.
I was at a loss.
I'm not sure of how I first heard of PerfumersWorld in Bangkok but the year was 2005. I must have come across something on the internet that led me to their website where they offered their home study Foundation Course in "the art of technology of creative perfumery." It was then, as now, quite affordable. I ordered it immediately. When the K26 materials kit arrived, with everything I needed to begin my studies, I mixed my first perfume the same day I received the kit and, within six months, I was making my own perfumes — to sell.
Looking back, I don't think my first perfumes were particularly good although some people still wear them today. Fragrances I've created since that first year are, in my opinion, far better. Some of them have found their way around the world. If you are interested in seeing what I am currently offering, go to PGLightyears.com, my online retail store.
The PerfumersWorld Foundation Course involves what you might call an open system of learning. While you first learn to create using a small number of basic aroma materials, you also learn to understand how infinite decorations and refinements can be made, thanks to the teaching method and tools are included with the course.
Little by little you learn materials that are new to you. Your knowledge and creative horizons expand.
Others who have studied with PerfumersWorld have gone much farther than I have. I have met some of these people and their creative powers are remarkable. The PerfumersWorld instruction helped give them the technical skills and knowledge of aroma materials they needed to actualize — in new perfumes — what they could visualize in their imagination. Perhaps this is just what you are looking for.
When I first began my studies with PerfumersWorld (and I still consider myself a student as I am still learning!) it never occurred to me that I might someday meet the founder, Stephen V. Dowthwaite, or that I might collaborate with him in distributing the Foundation Course. But in 2008 I was able to sponsor a 5-day PerfumersWorld workshop in New York City where I saw Steve, with the aid of his assistant, Jing Wilai, demonstrated much of what I had first learned through the Foundation Course.
For those with the time and funds to travel to Bangkok, 5-day workshops are available from PerfumersWorld on a regular schedule. Information can be found at their website, PerfumersWorld.com.
But if your real interest is in creating perfume now rather than waiting until you can afford exotic travel, enrolling in the home study Foundation Course is practical, sensible and quite affordable.
With the Foundation Course, your future is open. You can go as far in perfumery as you wish. And, just by following some of the simple formulas that come with the K26 materials kit, you'll find yourself making perfume right from the very first night.
The PerfumersWorld Foundation Course is available now.
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I create and sell my own fragrances and you can to. See a sampling of some fragrances I've created at my online display space — PGLightyears.com  Philip Goutell |
