Aroma Workshop

This is the perfect place to spend a creative afternoon with your friends! The shop itself is cute and cozy, and the girls working are friendly and great at what they do. We used a Living Social voucher and got an amazing deal for what you get. The staff sits you down in front of a set of 50 or so oils to smell. They encourage you to take breaks and stand outside in the fresh air if the smells become overwhelming. After selecting your favorite oils, your knowledgeable perfume creator starts mixing, and has you sample what they come up with. After a dozen or so different concoctions the 2 of you work together to narrow it down to your ideal scent! I actually loved both of the final scents created for me and the employee marked both down in my profile in case i choose to come back for a refill. I would come back in a heartbeat! My perfume smells so good I can stop sniffing my own wrists! Bravo aroma workshop on being so unique!

My entire family had such a great time here for mother’s day! My 11-​year-​old son got lotion and bath gel, my 13-​year-​old daughter got perfume, my husband made himself a new cologne, and I got perfume, lotion and bath gel. They all smell so different and so perfect for each of us. Plus we did it all together, which was wonderful! I highly recommend!

Found a Groupon for this place, decided to buy one for me and my bf. Ended up being an amazing afternoon! The actual location is intimate and adorable, perfect for any group (date, friends, family). The staff is super attentive and detail-​oriented — they take their time explaining each and every scent, and let you try out as many combinations of scents as you could possibly fathom. After you’re all done, you walk out with your own perfume/​cologne which they keep on file, so you can always go back in and get more!
The woman helping us was so sweet, she gave us a free scented massage lotion with our scents. Highly recommend this place!

LOVE LOVE LOVE this place! I have been a customer of the aroma workshop for over 10 years now and I will be forever. They have my signature scent that I ALWAYS get compliments for and their prices are SO affordable! Their scents are beautiful and last a long time, so you don’t have to use much daily. This makes one small container last a really long time. Unfortunately, I moved out of my beautiful city of Chicago 6 months ago to be with my boyfriend in Washington state so I can’t physically go the the workshop anymore. I am SO grateful that they can ship my scent to me here! I just got my shipment & am SO happy!!! I totally recommend this place to anyone who wants a unique signature scent of their own. I will be a customer for life!

What an amazing experience! My sister and I tried this on a whim and had so much fun. All of the staff were super friendly and professional, and Cortney created the perfect fragrance for both of us. As a bonus, your scent is kept on file so you can go back to purchase refills!

It’s wonderfully amazing! It’s great new experience for everyone I think. Everything is set in a nice and cute way. The ladies are lovely and caring. They really do want to bring out the you and put it in the scent. Price is acceptable. They have bottles for you to choose. And you can refill it later. They’ll ship it anywhere. Lovely and cute place. Highly recommended!

I went with family here and it was really wonderful. The staff was nice, the place was beautiful. They explained how everything worked and helped out as much as possible. It’s a really fun place where you can make really fun creations. My sister and I both took home our own specially made perfume in beautiful bottles, a perfume keychain, a pouch of herbs to renew our sense of smell and clear sinuses (really great to use during the process of mixing scents), and I think some scented spray for rooms? Overall it was fun and around a nice shopping area too!

I purchased the Living Social deal for friends and family that were in from a different country. I thought it would be a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon and I was completely right!
The shop is very cute and the atmosphere was very relaxing. The Living Social voucher was a steal in price, even with the tax and tip — which I STRONGLY encourage as the staff was very sweet and helpful! They did an amazing job of educating us on the different aroma’s but were also very laid back so we were able to talk and enjoy the experience.
I will definitely be bringing more people in the future! The owner was not in but the staff he had on Sunday October 11 were so gracious and well educated I had mistaken them as the shop owners.

Wish there were more stars to give this place of solace and creativity. Negative vibes and hang ups are immediately dissolved upon entering this cozy spot. Very well staffed, Rube and Audrey are beyond charming. Already planning a «Girls Nite» as another excuse to visit one of my newest favorite places in Chicago, The Aromaworkshop.

This is a great little shop. Its so fun to be able to pick different scents and have the perfumer create something for you. We worked with Rabia and she was excellent, she’s very knowledgeable and produced some great fragrances for us. They also do much more than perfumes, you can create your own lotions, infused oils, etc. Groupon brought us there and I certainly plan on returning.

Aroma Workshop was incredible! I would highly recommend the LivingSocial deal-​$ 59 for two people to each get a bottle of customized perfume. The coupon does not include gratuity or tax. The tax is around $ 10. The appointment takes around 45 minutes to an hour. Book ahead of time to ensure your appointment!
Leah was an excellent perfumer. We were guided by her but were still able to enjoy our own experience.
The perfume is excellent. The scent does not last 15 minutes (as some cheap perfumes do), but instead the scent lasts throughout the day.
Excellent experience with no complaints!

I took a friend here as a birthday present. My friend loves colognes, fragrances and/​or Eau de toilette. He even recognizes the differences between them all. So of course, I figured this place would be right up his alley!!!
Even though, he does not get excited much, I realized that this place perked his interests! The perfumistas start by telling you to smell the different aromas that are placed in bottled in front of your section. Then, they tell you to pick the ones you like. Lastly, they start mixing some of the scents that you like up, to form your own fragrance.
It was so much fun. Not to mention, how enlightening, it was for me to find out exactly what base scents I have been attracted to over the years. After an hour or so of sniffing, literally. I eventually came up with my very own fragrance, by Z. His scent was named jump my body and was a true manly smell. They gave us a choice of bottles and created a label for our fragrances.
All and all, this place is worth a visit. If you can get one of the Living Social deals, then it is most definitely worth it! Just don’t forget that the taxes and tip are not included in the special price. Unfortunately, I was reminded of this multiple times… Now that was a bit annoying. So I paid for both, as soon as I walked into the door. I just didn’t want to hear it anymore!
Want to know what I didn’t before walking into the Aroma Workshop? These are differences between aromas.
Let’s start with, I had no clue how to tell the difference between them all. Just in case you do not know whether, here’s a little explanation courtesy of Google!!! LOL.
The differences are simply a matter of the amount or concentration of oils in the fragrance. The highest concentration is in pure perfume (or parfum). Next would be Eau de Parfum, then the Eau de Toilette, and finally Eau de Cologne.

Immediate reaction after making my perfume: I literally love this place, cute little shop with the sweetest girls working there. We did a living social and when we arrived we were greeted with kindness and started our olfactory adventure. With each got a set of oils to smell and there were so many choices the name of the game is just pick what you like and worry about mixing later. So after picking out perfume creator Peyton started mixing based on the ones we picked. It was so much fun seeing the perfumes come together. After much indecision on my part we got out bottles mixed and named our perfumes ‘young buddha’ and ‘farm house’ … All in all a lovely time and a fun activity to do as a couple or with friends. Guys this would be a great date idea as there is a lot of aromas and arm and neck sniffing lol (sexy sexy ooooh Laaa Laaa)
As a note, make sure to tip if you are doing the perfume creation and you will want to after your experience. You can also come back and they save your perfume mix on file and you can take that mix and they can make a lotion too.

So much fun!
My gf setup an appointment here for us, and we had such a fun time. The perfume artist (? not sure if they have an official title) was very friendly and seemed to enjoy helping us. We spent somewhere between 30min and an hour developing our signature scents. It was fun picking out the oils we liked, and going «oh I think you’ll like this one!» and sharing some. A really unique bonding experience, and now we a perfume & cologne that pair well together that will always remind us of each other.
Would definitely go back, and I recommend it for a very memorable date.

This place is so cool! I discovered it on Groupon and bought it as a super cute date idea with my guy — turned out to be even better than I imagined. We made an appointment in advance (which I highly recommend doing due to the small size) and got the opportunity to pick out around 10 scents we enjoyed from a large collection. Once we had our favorites, the perfumer mixed and matched them in different combinations until we each had our own personal scent. One of the best parts was at the end when we got to name our scent and add it to their collection. Now if I ever run out of my presume «Stella Soleil» (ask about it, its so yummy) I can easily get a refill at the shop! Beyond cool, right?
If you go definitely grab the Groupon. It takes about an hour and some change to complete the whole process, but we never felt rushed in any way. Would be a great place to host a party with friends or date night if you’re in the mood for something new. I will definitely be badk.
For more pics and details check out:

I love this place! It has been one of the few staples that I would consider an important part of my Chicago experience. My best friend surprised me with a trip here for my 25^th birthday. Ever since, I’ve been coming. I love the ability to be able to customize my own scents based on my mood or current life occurrence.

Very fun for a bachelorette weekend. The counter is small, it’s very peaceful and intimate. Stocked with a friggin’ RAINBOW of scents ranging from floral, citrus, earthy, and fruity, you choose 10 or so, and out of those the fragrance professional creates perfumes for you. There was no time restriction and the staff was very friendly and fun to work with. Really interesting to see how different everyone’s perfumes turned out! Really liked one combo the aroma-​ologist made for my friend, but I never would have picked the individual scents myself. So much fun I may just have to start wearing more perfume.

Had a great time coming here with my girlfriend for our anniversary. We were attended by a really friendly expert to craft our own custom scents. It was a lot of fun, and a relaxed experience as we smelled many different things. Very fun date for the both of us, and it is great to be able to take home a custom scent. The really neat thing is that they save your concoction on file so that you can always come back for a refill! Great service and fun time.
One last thing, upon meeting the owner of the shop I was wonderfully surprised at his kindness and interest in the scents that we were making. He really knows what he is doing. He even ran after us after we had left because we left something there. I was very happy and would definitely return there.

I came as a group of two with the groupon and was pleasantly surprised. You put your stuff away, then sit down with rows of oils and start sniffing. You pick out the ones you like, then an employee will mix things into multiple different scents until you find one you like. We both ended up liking scents that we would not have thought to choose before. It’s cute that you get to pick the bottles and it’s nice that they keep the recipe on file so you can come back for refills. We had reservations and it’s a good thing we did because it’s a small store (5 stools?) and they definitely had to turn a few people away who just dropped in.
Of note, the girl helping us was named Sierra who was courteous and professional and did a great job.

It’s interesting how one bad experience can ruin a previously good one. I dropped in Aroma Workshop on Saturday, July 28 after stopping by the Green City Market with my buddy. It was our first time in the shop and we both decided to make simple room sprays that we’ve enjoyed in the two months since.
I had a decent experience, so I thought I’d take my girlfriend in to make her a room spray and maybe a lotion or massage oil. We popped in after brunch at Nookies Too up the street at around 11:40 yesterday. The shop is empty except for a single employee, but when I describe what I’d like to do I was told that Saturdays are appointment only, they take 45 minutes, and that they were booked all day.
Here’s my complaint:
* Nowhere on their website does it say Saturdays are appointment only, and that they take that amount of time (my first visit took maybe 10 – 15 minutes and the owner and other employee seemed capable of helping more than one person at a time).
* I didn’t see a notice on the door to the shop other than their hours.
* Under «By appointment only» on Unilocal,it says «No».
* There were no other customers in the shop.
Also, I explained I had walked in off the street on a random Saturday two months ago and the employee suggested it must have been a weekday. I understand she was doing her job, and maybe her next appointment was due to arrive in 5 minutes, but I was so excited to share my previous good experience with my girlfriend and in under two minutes we both walked out of the shop incredibly disappointed. I can’t understand why a business would basically tell someone «we don’t want your money».
Unfortunately this seems to be the only shop of its kind in Chicago, and as I said, I did enjoy what I made on my first visit. When I run out of my existing bottle I’ll probably give it another chance (and make an appointment online), but man, I’m not that psyched to go back. I’ll update the review if they can change my opinion.