PHOTO COURTESY OF LE LABO
You’ve chosen your favourite scent from one of the 19 fine fragrances Le Labo has to offer. What’s next? Besides getting a pre-blended bottle of cult-favourites like Another 13 or Santal 33 right off the shelf, you can opt to get a fresh formulation of your selected scent that’s hand-blended on the spot at its in-store lab.
PHOTO COURTESY OF LE LABO
Trained lab technicians, or ‘souls’ as Le Labo calls them, measure, mix and bottle each fragrance right before your eyes. The process that encapsulates the brand’s wabi-sabi spirit takes approximately 10 minutes. Best of all, you can watch from behind a glass as your perfume comes to life. You can also personalise your creation with up to 23 characters, which will be custom-printed on a label and affixed on the bottle. Next, all you have to do is wait.
A word of warning: not being able to immediately spritz on a fresh formulation might be the hardest part of the experience. Indeed, all good things take time. In this case, Le Labo recommends that you wait two weeks to two months for your perfume to macerate. This lets the essential oils and ingredients equilibrate with its host.
PHOTO COURTESY OF LE LABO
Furthermore, the longer you wait, the deeper the scent and the more full-bodied it will become. Time also allows for slight olfactive evolutions to occur. And due to the high quality of the raw ingredients, deposits and colouration may happen, especially with sweeter themes. But you’ll be glad to know that these do not alter the olfactive rendering and scents remain safe to use. Next comes perfume care.
After all, these fine fragrances don’t come cheap and there’s much more to it than just putting its cap back on. Store the clear glass bottle away from light and heat to ensure it remains authentic to its original intention.
A label on its box will reflect its best-before date, usually three years from creation. You can even opt to store your fragrance in the refrigerator to keep it fresher for longer.
After the very last spritz, you can refill the bottle, in all formats except the 15 ML, at a discount. Priced at SGD140 for 15 ML, SGD325 for 50 ML and SGD460 for 100 ML, the fine fragrances are available at Le Labo stores at L1-36 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands and B1-31 Takashimaya Shopping Centre.
Or if you prefer to shop from the comfort of your own home, simply WA 8940-1126 for home delivery. And if you can’t get enough of your favourite scent, you’ll be glad to know that a jumbo 500 ML (SGD1560) size is available in a stopper bottle, exclusively at the Marina Bay Sands store.
