Our memories are put to the test as we sniff our way through a dozen of the most commonly used perfume ingredients, beginning with sandalwood and finishing with an amazing material called cis-3-hexanol, which conjures up images of cut grass and is found in fruity fragranced products such as shampoo. You don't have to be a chemist to take part but you do have to be interested in fragrance. So far, Lambeth has had a chef, a pharmacist, a day-spa operator and a candle maker at his courses.
Today's sniffers include a woman who wants to understand why her perfume tastes have changed over the years and a young man who has been collecting fragrances since he was in high school.
We discover that a perfumer has to discard any prejudices and learn to weigh materials in milligrams. We also learn a perfumer is required to work with scented products from bathroom cleaners to laundry powders.
Lambeth introduces the three primary floral notes used in fine fragrance: muguet (or lily of the valley), jasmine and rose. He talks about materials that enhance, such as aldehydes, and the techniques of analysing perfume formulas.
He covers the controversial topic of natural ingredients. The definition of natural is explored and the benefits of synthetics outlined. These include the ethical considerations of using woods from endangered forests or substances derived from animals, the dangerous nature of some natural materials and how hard it is to construct a scent from the limited number of natural ingredients available.
We learn that an old perfume would have up to 80 ingredients, while modern fragrances tend to have no more than 35. We sniff musk, vanilla, bergamot and artemisa strips. We are now versed in the scent of javanol, which replaces the endangered and expensive sandalwood, and hedione, a versatile ingredient Lambeth describes as "the salt of perfumery" because it brings other scents alive. Terre d'Hermes, he informs us, and L'Eau d'Issey are full of the stuff.
At the end, in a room alive with scent, we use our newly enhanced noses to sniff six unlabelled bases resembling famous perfumes; then we construct our choice. What we choose surprises us all but makes us smell wonderful.