Coco Chanel once said: “No elegance is possible without perfume. It is the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory.” And wouldn’t it be more significant if you could make this essential and very personal accessory with your own hands? Located in the newly renovated Camões Commercial Centre (Centro Commercial Camões), Hanakudo is a perfume lab owned by Vanessa Wong, a pharmacy graduate, where you can create your very own unique fragrances. Standing in front of the store, you can already smell delightful sweet and fruity scents wafting out the entrance. Vanessa explains that it is actually the smell of benzyl acetate, a compound used to recreate the scent of banana flowers. And it is also her favorite smell as it reminds her of the smell of the banana cakes her grandma used to bake for her, and the precious memories of playing in the park when she was a child.
Vanessa developed her interest in fragrance making during her university years. After learning and gaining experience at different perfume labs in Mainland China, she decided to start one in Macau, given that there were none operating here. However, unlike the ones in the mainland where the process is done by professionals according to customers’ preferences, here Vanessa lets people be very hands-on every step the way, with her guidance and supervision of course.
“It is a whole different feeling when you make your own perfume entirely by yourself,” she says.
She has also brought professional instruments from her previous pharmacy profession into her store.
“I put microliter pipettes and vortex mixers into the process. These things are actually not far from our lives. People tend to think of perfume making as complicated, and can be overawed by how professional it all sounds, but it’s not true. I want people to get more in touch with this field and be able to try out this new experience,” she comments.
The name of the store, Hanakudo is Japanese for ‘enjoyment of flowers’. Vanessa notes that a lot of scents are inspired by flowers, and can fade just as flowers do. Other things in our lives can fade with time as well, but frangrances are a good memory point. When we smell a particular scent, it can make us think of a certain person, place or time in our lives.
“Fragrances are a good way to store memories,” she suggests. “They allow people to hold on to their memories for a long time.” Vanessa created more than 100 base scents before she opened her store and carefully selected 60 of them to make available for her customers. According to her, some compounds are unstable, but these 60 selected scents can be mixed to create whatever perfumes her customers want.
“Last week a customer recreated the scent of curry chicken noodles, but actually the smell was not absurd at all!” she laughs. As an amiable person, Vanessa enjoys chatting with visitors to her store. She prefers to think of them as friends rather than customers, and takes pride in helping them to relax and enjoy the experience.
“If I can sense they feel sad, I like to talk with them and share their sorrows,” she says. “One time, a very shy girl came in. She was not happy with her work and wanted to do something to bring her joy during her free time. Sometimes people don’t come with the purpose of making perfumes for themselves or others. They simply want to do something that makes them feel happy. Everyone’s lives and experiences are different, and I enjoy sharing with them,” Vanessa says with a smile.
Open everday
11:30 – 1:30 / 3:00 – 9:30
Level 2, Room K
162-166 Avenida Do Almirante Lacerda Centro Comercial Camões, Macau