Hello everyone, and welcome to another of my reviews. In this article, I’ll review the revamped perfume workshop experience at Scentopia.
I previously reviewed Scentopia when it first opened in Sentosa back in 2022. Since then, Scentopia has thoroughly revamped its workshop experience, and invited me back to try it. Let’s see if the refreshed experience is better.
Scentopia – Perfume Workshop
As a refresher, Scentopia is a ticketed perfume workshop attraction that’s located in the heart of Sentosa, on Siloso Beach.
Scentopia currently offers a 50ml perfume workshop experience at $95, and a 100ml perfume workshop experience at $125. I recommend opting for the latter as it’s comparatively better value.
Like the previous iteration, Scentopia’s perfume workshop starts with a personality quiz of 10 questions.
Your responses to the questions translate into the corresponding amount of ingredient families. Scentopia’s staff tells me it’s more of a recommendation rather than a hard rule, so you’re free to opt for more fresh or floral notes if that is what you prefer. I think it’s a cute way of differentiating Scentopia from other perfume workshops, making the complex art of perfumery more approachable and enjoyable.
The biggest difference is that Scentopia’s perfume workshop is now like a guided exhibition, where participants traverse through five different scent rooms. It reminded me of a museum experience, with interactive exhibits and educational infographics adorning the walls.
The first stop of the perfume workshop is the Citrus Room, which houses citrusy scents such as Neroli, Yuzu, Lime, Grapefruit, Pomelo, Orange, and Bergamot. I wasn’t that familiar with some of the scents (such as Pomelo), and thus found the examples provided to be very useful as they provided me with points of reference. I appreciate the effort in the puns as well – it’s clear the team took pains for the revamped workshop experience to be as fun and family-friendly as possible.
Next is the Fresh room, which houses the “fresher” scents that awaken the senses.
Examples of fresh scents are aqua (think of ocean breeze), tea, fern, grass, basil, patchouli, dill, mints and even eucalyptus.
Scentopia doubles down on the personality quiz aspect of the workshop experience, with the walls showcasing the “ideal” food, love language and even issues and stresses of those who prefer fresher scents. It makes for a more unique workshop experience and further differentiates Scentopia from other local perfume workshops.
Next is the floral room, which contains scents such as marigold, freesia, lavender, clover, tuberose, gardenia and jasmine.
All the scents are stored in a bottle attached to the wall, which participants can remove to smell the scents.
Participants then “stamp” the scents that they like on the paper strips provided. Again, I can see the effort that Scentopia has made to keep the workshop as interactive and hands-on as possible – I felt like a student completing a worksheet on a museum tour.
The fourth room is the Woody room, which features mostly wood-based scents. According to my personality test, the bulk of my scents belong to the Wood family, so I spent the most time in the Woody room.
I opted for a variety of wood scents, such as agarwood, cedarwood, amyris, sandalwood and sage. I like how the different woody scents come together to form complex heart notes, providing an intoxicating base for my perfume creation.
Lastly, there’s the oriental room, which is filled with exotic ingredients for participants to spice up their scents. I linked a video from Scentopia above for you to see what the room (and by extension, the other rooms) is like. I picked up the cinnamon and coffee scents here to complete my perfume creation – a delicious finish.
With all my 10 scents selected, the staff rolls up the paper sample into a cone for you to inhale. If you’re happy with the scent combination, Scentopia will proceed to concoct the perfume based on the scents that you’ve selected. If not, you can fine-tune your selections, or even pick another 10 scents from scratch.
I relayed my satisfaction with my initial 10 scents to the staff, who promptly proceeded to fill the 100ml perfume bottle with my selected ingredients.
In my first review of Scentopia, I didn’t feature the bottle design as it was frankly underwhelming (tip: if bloggers/writers don’t feature something in their articles, it’s because it’s probably not worth mentioning). I’m pleased to report that the bottles have received a major glow-up – they now look classy and atas. As the icing on the cake, Scentopia also offers engraving services on the bottles.
Scentopia has taken its presentation up a notch by providing participants with the option of having a lovely Hermes-eques gift bag to store their perfume creations, finished with a silk tie. It’s an upscale finish to the experience, especially considering that the bag can also be engraved as well.
Given the bespoke nature of the workshop experience, the bottle and bag engraving serves as a nice finishing touch. There is a bit of a waiting time involved as there’s only one engraving machine, but it’s still reasonable.
After 15 minutes, I picked up my engraved bottle and bag. I opted for a gold cursive font, though other fonts and colours (and even images) are also available.
Conclusion – so Scentopia Perfume Workshop “shiok” or not?
Overall, the revamped Scentopia experience is a significant step up from the previous iteration. Firstly, the workshop is more interactive, providing participants with a fun and immersive experience. Secondly, the end product feels more upscale as well, especially with the atas engraved bottle and bag. Lastly, Scentopia’s 100ml perfume workshop is a great value proposition at $106 (after the promo code below), especially considering that prices have not changed since two years ago despite the enhanced experience and inflation.
Those interested in booking a perfume workshop at Scentopia can use the promo code “WAHSOSHIOK” to enjoy 15% off on Scentopia’s website for weekday bookings. After the discount, the 100ml perfume workshop would cost just $106, while the 50ml perfume workshop would set you back $81. That’s great bang-for-buck, especially considering that an average 100ml perfume from a departmental store would easily set you back $100+.
Singapore Memories’ perfumes are also available for sale at Scentopia – I previously reviewed them here. A selected curation is also available at The Shiok Shop at a discounted price.
Book Scentopia’s perfume workshop here.
Scentopia’s Location: 36 Siloso Beach Walk, Unit 01-04 Sentosa, 099007
P.S: Check out The Shiok Store here – it serves as a curation of my favourite products from my favourite brands.
P.P.S: Do check out the new “Discounts!” page for exclusive discounts for Wah so Shiok readers! More brands will be added very soon – stay tuned!
P.P.P.S: If you haven’t already, do follow my social media channels on Facebook here, on Instagram here, and on Youtube here.
P.P.P.P.S Shiok is a common word Singaporeans use to express admiration or approval. As of 2016, you can find the definition of the word in the Oxford English Dictionary.
