Make perfume based on your personality at Sentosa's new AR-enabled perfumery & retail space

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I’ve never been much of a perfume person. Top notes? Heart notes? What are those? Fortunately, it all made scents when I visited Scentopia, the latest tourist attraction in Siloso Beach, Sentosa.

Located directly across Siloso Beach Resort, this new perfume bar cum retail space celebrates our island’s floral heritage, bringing together the scents of Singapore’s past and present through the use of digital innovation.

Interactive AR exhibits

Upon entering the space, you’ll be greeted with over 250 AR exhibits containing free-to-use artwork in the metaverse. All you need is a smartphone and the Facebook app. Stand in front of the exhibit, hold up your device, and experience an altered version of reality.

Get up close and personal with the prehistoric creatures that once roamed the grounds, or animated characters depicting perfume ingredients like cumin, lavender, and marigold. My colleague and I were very amused by the puns — almost every exhibit was emblazoned with one.

There are seven AR exhibit tours (free with a minimum spend of S$15) available daily from 11.15am, ranging from topics like the science of perfumery to the floral heritage and history of Sentosa.

Digitised perfume making

I’d always wanted to create a bespoke fragrance, the essence of “me”. You bet I was eager to get my hands dirty at the perfume bar.

First up, we had to take a short perfume personality test that would classify us under one of the five scent families: citrus, fresh, floral, woody, and oriental. Despite my initial scepticism at the choice of questions, most of my answers put me as predominantly “woody”, and the defining personality traits — responsible, practical, functional introvert — were pretty accurate.

Test results in hand, we headed for the colour-coded displays of scent wands that were arranged according to “feminine” and “masculine” scents. It was all a matter of choosing 10 scent wands that corresponded to our dominant fragrance. I decided to create something a little more unisex — fragrance should be gender-free, anyway.

With punny names like “good things come to rose who wait” and “lotus go someplace quieter”, the scent selection will be a helluva fun experience. One thing to note: you might (and probably will) experience fragrance fatigue after a couple of sniffs. Take several time-outs if you need.

Once you’ve sniffed out the perfect combination of scents, take your scent wands to the touchless aroma release machines, where you’ll get to create a sample (or two) to try out.

Go outdoors and let it sit on your skin for a few minutes. How does the fragrance evolve? The way a fragrance’s oils react to paper may be completely different from that of skin.

I was pleasantly surprised at how my very own Eau de Christabel turned out. It smelled addictive, akin to that of a “perfume from Hermes”, with complementary woody and citrusy notes.

Ongoing promotions at Scentopia

If you make your bookings ASAP, you’ll get to enjoy the 1-hour perfume making experience at S$45 on weekdays and S$65 on weekends (U.P S$125). This promo is only valid till end-March, so hurry!

Can’t make it this week? Don’t fret — get the 1-hour perfume making experience at S$95 on weekdays and S$125 on weekends during the months of April and May. Kids under 12 can also embark on the Sense of Smell for Kids tour at a promotional price of S$20 (U.P S$65) from 4 April 2022 onwards, which includes an AR exhibit tour and a fun perfume-making session.

There is also a further 50% discount for local tertiary students till June 2022. Bookings have to be made online, and a valid student pass must be shown. This promotion is applicable to students in the following institutions: