The Founder's Journey

The Founder's Journey

Notes from our founder and perfumer, Emmanuelle Moeglin

Ten years ago, Experimental Perfume Club started around a kitchen table in London.

There was no boutique, no collection, no blending bar. I had a small selection of perfume materials, my perfumer's organ, and an idea I had been thinking about for some time:

What if people could experience perfume differently? Not simply choose a finished fragrance, but understand it, work with it and eventually make it their own?

I didn't know exactly what EPC would become. But I knew there was a part of perfumery that people were rarely given access to, and I wanted to open that door.

Emmanuelle Moeglin, Founder & Perfumer


Before EPC

I was a perfumer before I became a founder.

I trained at ISIPCA in Versailles, then spent years working in the fragrance industry as a perfumer and fragrance expert, developing fragrances for brands and learning the craft from the inside.

Perfumery is incredibly technical. You train your nose for years. You learn hundreds of raw materials, how they behave, how they interact, how a formula is structured and how the smallest adjustment can change the entire balance of a fragrance.

That knowledge fascinated me. But I was equally fascinated by how little of it ever reached the person actually wearing the perfume.

Traditionally, perfumery works in one direction. A perfumer creates. A brand presents. A customer chooses.

There is nothing wrong with that. I love a beautifully composed, finished perfume. I have spent my career making them.

But I became interested in what might happen if we made the relationship less passive.

What if I could teach someone enough about fragrance to make them more confident in their own taste? What if instead of telling people what they should like, I gave them the materials and knowledge to find out for themselves?

That was really the beginning of EPC.

2016: London

An idea without much of a category

When I started EPC in 2016, it was difficult to explain.

People understood perfume brands. They understood perfume workshops. EPC sat somewhere between the two, and I was trying to build something that didn't really have a name yet.

I started with small workshops around a table, teaching people the fundamentals of perfumery and letting them work with materials themselves.

At first, the idea was very simple: take some of the knowledge that normally stays inside a perfume laboratory and put it into people's hands.


2016–2019: The First Workshops

The moment it began to click.

It started at the table with a handful of raw materials, offering small workshops where people could discover how perfume works and try blending for themselves.

It became obvious to me very quickly: people really leaned into it. I think the industry consistently underestimates how curious the consumer truly is about scent. They actually wanted to understand why a fragrance resonated with them, or didn't.

I remember moments in the studio when someone would pause halfway through blending, then suddenly look up as if to say: "Wait, I made this?! This is actually me." That shift from consumer to creator meant everything to me. Those workshops grew into what EPC is today.

That moment, more than anything, became the foundation of EPC.


What I Believe About Perfume

Your nose is more intelligent than you think.

After ten years of teaching, formulating and watching people smell, there is one thing I believe very strongly:

Most people are much better at smelling than they think they are.

They have simply been taught to approach perfume in a strange way.

We talk about gender, trends, ingredients we're supposed to like, fragrance families, personalities. We ask What perfume are you?

I think a more interesting question is simply: what smells good to you?

Your relationship with fragrance can change from one day to another. What you want in July may not be what you want in December. You might want something clean in the morning and something completely different at night.

I don't believe one perfume needs to define you.

That is why EPC was built as a wardrobe rather than a prescription.

Wear one fragrance exactly as I created it. Add another. Change the proportions. Come into the studio and formulate something completely your own.

There is expertise behind the system, but there shouldn't be rules around how you enjoy it.

 


On Craft

The freedom comes after the formulation.

Blending does not mean DIY perfumery.

For people to have freedom with fragrance, the foundations need to be extremely well constructed.

Every EPC fragrance begins exactly where any fine fragrance should begin: with the quality of the materials and the formula.

I am still a perfumer first when I work on the collection. I can spend an absurd amount of time adjusting something that most people would never consciously identify, because I know when the balance isn't right.

And when fragrances are designed to combine, that precision matters even more.

The same thinking went into our bottle.

I didn't want a beautiful object that you were afraid to touch. The cap unscrews. You can access the fragrance with a pipette. You can blend from it. You can refill it.

It was designed as a perfumer would use a bottle: as something functional, beautiful and made to be opened.

 



A Decade of Moments

2016: Founded in London

EPC begins with small workshops at the kitchen table: the first Art of Blending sessions.

2019: Layer at Liberty London

The launch of the Layer collection with Liberty London. This was the first expression of The Art of Blending as a perfume collection and retail concept.

2021: Covent Garden Boutique

A permanent home opens in London's Covent Garden. The boutique becomes the heart of the EPC experience.

2026: Ten Years of Blending

A decade of exploration, formulation and thousands of personal fragrances, created alongside our community!


Begin your own journey

Find the scent that feels like you.

Every EPC fragrance is designed to be a starting point. Explore the collection, or visit the boutique and blend a fragrance that is entirely your own.

Back to blog