Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Presented by Glitters and Grace Mobile Perfume Bar – Chicagoland’s Scent Experience Experts
At Glitters and Grace, every mobile perfume bar pop-up—from New Lenox to Winnetka to Oak Lawn, Tinley Park, Aurora, and beyond—is more than a party. It’s an educational workshop in disguise. Whether we’re serving 8 guests or 80, each event becomes a hands-on opportunity to educate, empower, and inspire future perfumists.
As a trained perfumer, I love helping guests explore new materials, try unfamiliar notes, and build confidence with every drop. I learned many of my foundational techniques from Karen Gilbert, a UK-based perfumer and educator whose book Perfume: The Art and Craft of Fragrance is one of the best beginner-friendly guides available. Her courses and workshops helped me understand the basics of blending, scaling, and olfactory structure, and I bring that same clarity and encouragement to every Glitters and Grace event.
Today I’m sharing a Perfuming 101 post, starting with creating a Chypre accord. The goal today is to get you to try new things with different perfume materials and start creating accords. A perfume accord is a blend of multiple fragrance notes that combine to create a unified, harmonious scent impression—something greater than the sum of its parts.
In perfumery, accords are the foundational building blocks of a fragrance.
What Is a Chypre?
The chypre (pronounced “sheep-ra”) is a classic perfume structure built on contrast: earthy, mossy depth paired with bright florals and citrus. It’s the backbone of iconic fragrances like:
- Miss Dior
- Paloma Picasso
- Chanel Cristalle
- Ma Griffe by Carven
At our perfume bar pop-ups in Chicago, Naperville, Northwest Indiana, North Shore and Schaumburg, we guide guests in building their own chypre. Today I want you to try the following natural materials:
- Rose – romantic and timeless
- Lily of the Valley – fresh and delicate
- Geranium – green and sparkling
To modernize your blend and give it that airy, commercial polish, we introduce Hedione – a jasmine molecule used in countless designer fragrances. It adds lift, diffusion, and that “expensive” feel guests recognize from luxury brands. For rose-heavy blends, Phenethyl Alcohol is a must. It softens the rose, extends its longevity, and helps it blend seamlessly with other florals. We will get into Hedione and Phenethyl Alcohol in a later lesson on synthetics, but if you haven’t used either of them, add a little bit, 1-2% each, into your blend.
We won’t dive deeply into materials today, but you can purchase perfumery materials and ingredients at Fraterworks or Perfumers’ Apprentice. These are both trusted sources for small-batch perfumers. If you’re not sure where to start, you can purchase naturals such as essential oils, absolutes, and/or resins and balsams,and synthetics such as Hedione.
Using Fragrance Oils
While not overtly popular with the perfumer crowd, I often suggest customers and future perfumists to start with fragrance oils. Fragrance oils have earned a bad reputation in certain perfumery circles, but they are easily available, inexpensive and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of different scents. Just be sure that they are safe for cosmetic (skin) use and have corresponding IFRA documentation. I recommend purchasing through Africa Imports or Midwest Fragrance Company. Both companies have a wide selection of quality fragrance oils and come with IFRA and safety documentation. You will not find perfume grade materials like essential oils, absolutes or synthetics at Africa Imports or Midwest Fragrance Company, but you will find a variety of skin-safe oils that can be blended in perfumery.
The Heart of the Perfume: Your Floral Accord
In perfumery, the heart note is where the soul of the fragrance lives. It’s the emotional center. The part that lingers after the top notes fade and before the base settles in. In a chypre accord, the heart is often floral, and it’s where your creativity shines.
At Glitters and Grace, we teach guests to build their heart accord using rose, lily of the valley, and geranium—a trio that balances romance, freshness, and green sparkle. Hedione adds radiance and lift, while Phenethyl Alcohol smooths and extends the floral blend. This is where your perfume becomes personal and where you stop rushing and start listening.
Getting Started at Home: Step-by-Step
If you’re ready to blend beyond the bar, here’s how to start small, without breaking the bank.
Step 1: Start with 3–5 Materials or Fragrance Oils
Don’t buy everything at once! Start very small. Perfume materials can be very expensive, and it’s easy to overspend. Instead, begin with a focused palette. For a beginner-friendly chypre, try:
- Rose Absolute or Rose Accord
- Lily of the Valley Accord (Muguet)
- Geranium Essential Oil or Geranium Bourbon
- Oakmoss Absolute or Base
- Hedione – for lift and diffusion
- Phenethyl Alcohol – for rose blending
As I mentioned, you can also blend less expensive fragrance oils along with synthetics such as Hedione and Phenethyl alcohol.
Step 2: Use the Jean Carles Method
This legendary method helps you build formulas systematically. Start with fixed ratios (i.e., 3:2:1) and adjust one material at a time. It reduces waste and teaches you how each note behaves. This is time consuming and will require patience. To learn more about the Jean Carles method, read these articles on the Perfumer’s Apprentice website.
Step 3: Blend in Drops, Not Grams
Use droppers or pipettes to keep your ratios consistent. At our Glitters and Grace perfume bar pop-ups, we use pre-measured droppers and formula worksheets to help guests track their formulas.
Step 4: Pause, Smell, Reset
Your nose is a muscle, don’t rush it. After each blend, pause. Smell. Wait. Then smell again. Give your olfactory system time to reset. Smelling coffee beans between trials can help neutralize your scent receptors and restore clarity. More patience here as well. Take the time to enjoy each creation, note how it smells, how it’s balanced and make sure you document each blend until you find your masterpiece.
Step 5: Let It Macerate
Once you’ve built a satisfactory blend, don’t judge it immediately. Perfume needs time to settle. Let your mixture sit for 24–48 hours. This process is called maceration. During this time, the materials bond, mellow, and reveal their true character. What smells sharp or disconnected at first may become smooth and harmonious after resting. Always revisit your blend after maceration before making final adjustments.
Step 6: Keep a Blending Journal
Record every mixture. Note the materials, ratios, impressions, and changes. This is how you learn—and how you recreate your favorites. We provide worksheets at every Glitters and Grace perfume bar pop-up to help guests track their journey.
Why I Teach
I’ve trained quite a bit in perfume formulation, ingredient and material scaling, and safety protocols and I love sharing that knowledge. My favorite part of every Glitters and Grace perfume bar pop-up is watching someone discover a new material, try a note they’ve never smelled, and suddenly realize: “I made this.”
Whether we’re hosting in Chicago, Crown Point, Bartlett or Tinley Park, I meet guests where they are—curious, creative, and ready to learn. Every event is a chance to turn curiosity into chemistry and celebration into education.
If you have questions about this lesson, materials or perfumery in general, don’t hesitate to reach out anytime. You can contact me here and I will gladly get back to you as soon as I can.
Ready to Blend with Glitters and Grace?
- Join our mailing list to get early access to our next Chicagoland perfume bar pop-up
- Book our mobile perfume bar for your holiday party, bridal shower, or corporate event
- Follow Glitters and Grace for scent tips, event updates, and behind-the-scenes blending magic
Let’s turn your next party or event into a perfumery—and your guests into perfumists.
Cheryl Gleason, Owner & Perfumer
https://www.glittersandgrace.com
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