Nestled in the heart of Matsumoto Town, Kyoto City, which is about 10 minutes-walk from Jingu Marutamachi Station, Kyoto Shabonya offers valuable experiences—one of them is making your own perfume that is made by adding natural essences such as mandarin, Ylang Ylang, and Japanese cypress. Though it is a perfume, the aroma isn’t overpowering; it drifts beautifully through the air and refreshes your mind.

This workshop offers several experiences, all of which are associated with handy fragrance items, such as Botanical Bath Salts, aroma candles, and perfumes.

This time, I went to this workshop to make my own perfume. One of the facts that surprised me was that this company not only collects hinoki cypress from Kyoto and aromatic yuzu citrus from Mizuo, Kyoto, but also makes them into essential oils through a distillation process, all in-house.

The workshop fee is 4,400 yen per person per hour, but the duration varies depending on the person.

Welcome to Kyoto Shabonya

This workshop is located on Gokomachi Street, which is so called because this street has a lot to do with emperors. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a warlord who succeeded in the unification of Japan, had his men construct this street, so that he could pay courtesy visits to the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. Indeed, Kyoto Imperial Palace is just around the corner, so before or after having a workshop experience here, visiting the Palace could be an option. That being said, the Palace is so huge that you won’t be able to walk to the beautiful gardens from this workshop, so I highly recommend you take a taxi to reach the place where the beautiful gardens are located.

Upon arriving at this workshop, you will find some beautiful objects, which may catch your fancy. There’s something cozy and relaxed about the atmosphere.

Purchase a souvenir of scent

Inside the workshop, there’s a corner where many items are sold. So, if you feel inclined to purchase a souvenir of scent before or after the experience, please check them out.

These are dried eucalyptus leaves, which are effective at eliminating odor as well as sanitizing the room.

All the items sold here are very easy to carry back home, so you don’t need to worry about overstuffing your luggage and making it troublesome and time-consuming when you try to close it due to lots of large items.

Let’s make our special perfume!

Now, let’s get started with making our one-of-a-kind perfume! The time needed to make one differs person to person, but in general, it takes about 1 hour or so.

Though the workshop seating is Japanese-style, if you feel worried about the Japanese way of sitting, Seiza, in which one sits in a kneeling position, there’s good news: a table and chairs are available!

The table is made of wood, so you can create your own perfume, sitting on a chair while feeling the warmth of the wooden table, and without having to worry about your knees getting numb.

Before diving into it, why not have a complimentary special coffee that gives off a relaxing aroma? I bet once you take a sip, you will be a big fan of it.

The workshop décor is Japanese-style, including Shoji sliding screens, the Japanese alcove called Tokonoma decorated with a hanging scroll and some objects, and tatami matted floors—something you should experience while you are in Japan.

Among other objects, a wooden speaker attracted my attention. Jazz or classical music played from this speaker is surely in a class by itself.

Now, a set for making perfume was prepared on the table. You may feel as if you were conducting a scientific experiment. There are lots of small bottles of Essential Oils, with which you add a little aroma into a glass cup until you are fond of the fragrance. At first, adding just one or two drops of the Essential Oils will do.

This time, I selected four small bottles of Essential oils: mandarin, ylang-ylang, Ho leaf, and Japanese cypress. Among them, I like the smell of cypress because it refreshes my mind. The shop clerk also recommended cypress.

You can open the bottle and check the fragrance. You just sponge the Essential Oil by picking up the tip between your fingers and add it to a glass cup little by little.

Put the glass cup on a scale, and add oil. This time, I wanted to accentuate the fragrance of cypress, so I added three drops of cypress oil. As I noticed, adding an optimal balance of essential oils holds the key to success. For instance, adding too much ylang-ylang that gives off a strong fragrance would work as a nuisance and cancel out the natural fragrance that other Essential Oils have.

To avoid such a case, I strongly recommend you ask for advice from the shop clerk if you don’t have confidence in your feeling, or you have a problem like a stuffy nose.

Put a finishing touch

Finally, you need to add a wooden stick on which a word is written. The words include love, safety, memories, and so on, and you choose one from them. Since I have a poor memory, I chose the word, memories, so that this experience is indelibly etched in my memory.

The wooden stick was put inside the perfume bottle, and it was finished!

Take photos with the bottles you used and your perfume! Since I was extremely concentrated on the creation of my own perfume, I lost track of time. Before I knew it, it was about 3 o’clock. So, I spent about an hour enjoying the experience.

Take the gift of scent home with you.

After the experience, the shop clerk will put your perfume in a paper bag.

It may be a good idea to look around the workshop again and feel the atmosphere of the Japanese-style room.

If you feel reluctant to leave the workshop, you can feel relaxed by watching the garden. The garden has some plants, such as lavender.

Though you can see a courtyard from the inside of the workshop, the shop clerk strongly recommended I take a picture of the courtyard, called Tsubo niwa. People in Kyoto are so ingenious that they make the most of small spaces. And such spaces are often utilized as a courtyard.

Summary

To be honest, this was my first time making my own perfume, and it was so exciting that I forgot about time! To make perfume, we need to turn to our senses. If you have a good sense of discerning the differences in fragrance, you may be able to make a good perfume that is customized to your taste, without help. But, if you think you are not cut out for it, a kind shop clerk is always at hand to give you lectures and help you tell fragrances apart.

The experience is reasonably priced, and Kyoto Shabonya could possibly be the only place where we can experience making our perfume derived from Essential Oils inside a cozy Japanese-style room. Why not get to the workshop and have a once-in-a-lifetime experience?

Shop Information

Shop name: Kyoto Shabonya

Location: 567-2 Matsumotocho, Nakagyo-ku,Kyoto-shi, Japan

Business hours: Mon-Fri 11:30-16:00, Sat-Sun 11:30-17:00, closed every Thursday