Brick Walls & Flaming Hoops: how to launch your fragrance

How to Make Your Fragrances Safe, Legal and Ready to Launch – for Perfume Businesses

It’s not always a bed of roses when it comes to perfumery. This one-day live workshop has been designed to help you go from making fragrances for fun to being ready to launch your very own perfume business.

• Date: Please get in touch about the next date.
• Time: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. UK time
• Where: 4160Tuesdays studio

 Can’t Make It to the Workshop? Take a look at these options:

If you can’t attend the in-person workshops, there are other ways to learn perfumery with Sarah McCartney.

• Scenthusiasm Scent School: Sarah’s complete online course for makers covering everything you need to start, from explainer films to 12 scent styles and a recommended materials list.

• Scenthusiasm Community: An online space for fragrance lovers with exclusive perfume formulas, past creations, live Zoom sessions, and a private Facebook group.

Why we created this workshop

As an independent artisan perfumery, we're asked all the time about how to launch a fragrance into an industry dominated by a handful of multinationals, so we decided to answer everyone's questions at once and share what we know.

We're also aware that if all you see is our Instagram page, we make running a perfumery look like all fun and no hard work. Running a perfume brand is 95% admin and 5% perfumery, with a lot of maths, so it's best to know the realities before you commit to it.

What the workshop will include

This workshop will guide you through the maze of regulations and practicalities involved in launching a perfume business.

We cover IFRA and cosmetics regulations, how they overlap, and where they differ. Mostly we concentrate on the pitfalls and obstacles (brick walls to climb over and flaming hoops to jump through) whether you intend to start making your own perfume or to commission someone else to do this for you.

We’ll tell you how difficult it is, so you know this before you spend your time and savings on launching a brand and go into this well informed, and with your eyes wide open.

“Sarah is incredibly knowledgeable and was a wonderful teacher/ support throughout the workshop." - Charlotte - workshop attendee

We’ll focus on:

• Regulations - how IFRA helps us deal with regulations: EU, UK, US and Asian varieties
• Using Perfumer's Little Helper for IFRA
• Shipping dangerous goods (this will not qualify you, but it will explain how to go about getting qualified)
• IP for perfumers
• Sourcing materials and their SDSs
• Legal labelling
• Pricing: what to consider
• Retail - large & small
• Manufacturing & distribution

There is a big jump to take when you go from blends-for-friends to selling legally. Perfume isn't like other creative arts. You can't just make it and take it to the local community market.

We cover what you need to do to sell fragrance legally: labelling, good manufacturing practices, the EU portal and the new UK and US ones, batch records, stability testing, your Product Information File, how to get a Cosmetics Safety Report, and more. You'll learn what you can do yourself and what you need to pay a qualified chemist to do for you.

Formulating and compliance

Whether you're making your own or working with a perfumer, you need to know that your own formula complies with safety regulations. We look at 21st-century formulating and complying with IFRA: what's legal and what's restricted. 

Shipping regulations

It is illegal to put perfume in the ordinary post without the right labelling, and there are restrictions. It's also illegal to ship it overseas without being properly qualified and knowing how to pack it to comply with shipping regulations. We can tell you how to go about getting qualified and how to ship once you've got your certificates. (This course will not qualify you to ship dangerous goods.)

Indie insights

You'll meet others who are in the same boat, in a friendly atmosphere where we can share what we've learned, the mistakes we've made, and the successes we've had. Indies and artisans are all facing the same issues. In the room, we expect a good discussion and exchange of experiences.

"The course is BRILLIANT. there is a lot to learn and Sarah has compiled this in depth information through years of experience and hard work and is generously sharing it with us so that we don't have to find out the hard way. " - Apryl - workshop attendee