The Aroma Lab
The Aroma Lab offers two areas for collaborative innovation between artists and scientists:
1. Laboratory: In this space, you have access to a rotary evaporator, a Soxhlet extractor, and an Oil Ex Tech. Each of these produces a different fragrant compound, even if you use the same botanical material! [Please note: We do not currently work with animal fats or other 'hot' extraction processes.]
2. Library: Our wide range of scents (nearly 400!) allows you to make a perfume all on your own, or just to reshape a compound you have already synthesized in our lab.
What we do here
We host a wide variety of activities in the Aroma Lab. For example, the Aroma Lab team works with the Soxhlet to make an absolute with a botanical material like rose petals or orange peels, and then evacuates away the solvent using the rotary evaporator, to get a pure essential oil or powder.
What you can do here
The Aroma Lab is an environment for experimenting with unusual scents. If you cannot find the perfect perfume, why not make it yourself, from scratch? Here you can extract scents from a biological material that you bring yourself, or pick from our botanical gardens here. Refine them to their purest form using our rotovap, or redesign them using the library.
Renting of the Aroma Lab is divided into shifts throughout the day, so there is a rotation of co-workers. Access to the restaurant and a desk in the office are also included.
To use the Aroma Lab, you first need to undertake a training course with the Aroma Lab manager. (Individuals trained in the use of distillation techniques, especially using a rotary evaporator, will be exempt, as long as valid proof is shown).
We are also able to accommodate group bookings for team-building exercises or to learn more about working in an art/science collaborative environment.
