Eleven Week Perfume Materials Course - Module 3

Perfumer Ashley Eden Kessler leads an online eleven week course exploring the crucial materials in the perfumers' organ—an indispensable first step in learning perfumery, and an opportunity to grow a technical familiarity with the materials.

- Learn the materials in a Perfumer’s Organ

- Registration includes a Materials Kit (55 materials, scent strips)

- Join us live on zoom or catch the class as a video replay

• All registrations provide access to the live zoom sessions (72 spots)
• All registrations provide 2 week replay access to the recorded sessions

ABOUT THIS MATERIALS COURSE

This is Module 3 of a total of three modules. These modules are not consecutive: any student can start at any module (though modules one and two cover more commonly used materials). This module is appropriate for beginners and intermediate perfumers alike.

In each 2-hour online session, Ashley will lead attendees in smelling and discussing five crucial perfume materials of natural and synthetic origin. Over the eleven total sessions offered in this course, the group will systematically go through the course material, category by category. We thoughtfully explore the function, aesthetics and technicalities of each material in the context of other aromatics from its fragrance family. 

Each session focuses on our unique experience with the materials. By sharing these experiences, we work towards developing a language, both personal and communal, for our experience of scent. Through this course, participants will gain fluency in the most important molecules of modern perfumery. Growing a familiarity with the materials is, after all, a crucial first step in practicing perfumery.

There is a lot to gain from this slow-paced work. For newcomers to fragrance, this intimate knowledge of the materials is indispensable, offering a grounding and deeply enriching practice that brings us into the present and connects us more deeply to our lived experience—and our creativity. For more experienced perfumers, the class presents an opportunity to enrich the process and technical knowledge necessary to mastery.

Course Takeaways

• Technical knowledge about the molecular components of the studied material
• Knowledge of aromatic materials' origins and use in fine perfumery
• A greater familiarity with aromatic materials and scent categories
• Proficiency with sensory evaluation

Join us!

SESSION BREAKDOWN: MODULE 3 (Mondays, 10 am - 12 pm)

Jan 26: Week 0 Meet and Greet, Course Review

Feb 2: Week 1 Powdery Synthetic

Feb 9: Week 2 Powdery, Balsamic, Misc. Natural

Feb 16: Week 3 Musk Synthetic

Feb 23: Week 4 Animalic Natural, Animalic Synthetic

Mar 2: Week 5 Anisic Synthetic

Mar 9: Week 6 Anisic Natural

Mar 16: Week 7 Vanilla Synthetic, Balsamic Synthetic

Mar 23: Week 8 Balsamic Natural

Mar 30: Week 9 Minty Synthetic, Minty Natural

Apr 6: Week 10 Aromatic Synthetic, Aromatic Natural

Apr 13: Week 11 Aromatic Natural

MATERIALS KIT AND SHIPPING INFORMATION

The IAO is committed to reducing the barrier to entry for the smell-curious. To that end, we are now providing this Materials Kit for each attendee, included in the price of the course. Each materials kit includes:

• 55 glass vials of materials covered in the 11 weeks, pre-diluted in perfumer’s alcohol
• 200 scent strips

We were inspired to produce and offer this kit after extensive feedback from previous attendees that the cost and labor in individually ordering the materials and labware was steep and difficult. 

To receive the Materials Kit, you must provide your shipping information in the Google Form at the link sent to you upon registration.

Important note for international attendees: International shipments will incur an additional shipping charge, for which we will invoice you separately. We prefer payments made via Paypal or Zelle, but can accommodate direct deposit if necessary.

DETAILS

• Dates: Mondays, January 26 - April 13, 2026
• Time: 10:00AM - 12:00PM PDT (use a time converter to find your local start time)
• Location: Online

Learn about our eleven week session modules here.

ATTENDANCE

This is an online class. All registrations provide access to the live zoom sessions as well as the video replay of the recorded sessions.

General Admission (All Eleven Sessions): This is an online class that will take place on Zoom.

The Zoom link will be sent by email to all 72 students approximately 24 hours before the class.

To prevent this email from ending up in your spam folder, please be sure to add hello@artandolfaction.com to your address book. Event times are listed in Pacific Time (PDT); please use a time converter for your local start time.

Live attendance is strongly encouraged but not required. A link to the class recording will be sent to registrants after each class. The video is available to replay for 14 days after class takes place. Please watch it in that time frame, as we cannot extend access: This video is view-only (no downloads), and expires at the end of the 14 day window.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR, ASHLEY EDEN KESSLER

Ashley Eden Kessler grew up in Hancock Park, Los Angeles. She learned from a young age there were two valuable things to do with a life’s work: help people, and make useful objects of beauty. She was drawn to fields that required the dual skills of creativity and practicality. Ashley went on to study fine art, science, and architecture at Sarah Lawrence College and UCLA and began her professional career in film. These were the initial steps in her search for a mode of expression that would support both a dreamer and a pragmatist, a creative mind fascinated equally by science and by art. An unexpected injury and the subsequent recovery propelled her towards a very different discipline that grounded her in her physical senses. Perfumery, the science of the ineffable, is where the road finally took her. She began as an apprentice to a respected niche perfumer. Then, in 2010, Ashley moved to Grasse, France to pursue a formal perfumer’s education.

In perfumery Ashley found massive liberation, a realm where trekking back from failure and bad ideas was routinely integral to success. At the prestigious Grasse Institute of Perfumery, she distinguished herself with her final brief, winning a coveted award. After concluding her studies, she relocated to New York City to work as a Perfumer’s Assistant at Drom Fragrances International and Mane et Fils.

She later returned to Los Angeles and opened Studio Sentir, a private label fragrance lab. Ashley’s compositions are marked by refinement, complexity, boldness, and the quality of completely inhabiting and furthering clients’ ideas.

In 2012 Ashley met Saskia Wilson Brown, the founding director of the Institute of Art and Olfaction in Los Angeles. As a non-profit, the IAO’s mission is to create access to perfumery for the public and to promote multi-disciplinary arts collaborations with an olfactive component. Ashley was offered the position of Perfumer in Residence and during that time she began teaching and building out an educational curriculum with the team. Since then, Ashley has become a core member of the IAO, where she creates rigorous programming on accord construction, materials evaluation, fragrance families, and the sensory intersection of mindfulness and a perfumery practice.

Her work has led her to develop a philosophy about perfumery as a dynamic art and reflective practice. In sharing this approach with students, she fulfills her childhood credo: offering tools for others to confront their fears, counter their tendencies, and learn to observe themselves in pursuit of the unknown.

Studio Sentir is located only a few blocks away from Ashley’s childhood home, a place which still invokes the play and magic of her earliest memories.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Refunds

There are no cancellations or transfers allowed for this class. We cannot offer credit for missed classes. Event tickets are non-transferable.