El Patio de los Perfumes

El Patio de los Perfumes is the Granada shop, museum and workshop of the PATIO perfume brand. It was created by Christian Pamies and Valérie Sabini, both from the Grasse region of France, who also founded Laboratoire Hévéa. They chose Granada as a meeting point of East and West. The house fills a 16th-century Renaissance palace on Carrera del Darro, below the Alhambra, built by the Marqués de Sálar. In March 2017 the Olive Press reported that its perfume museum had opened.

Every PATIO product is made by hand in small batches in the brand's own laboratory in Spain. The perfumes are built on natural ingredients; Jazmín del Albayzín, for example, lists every ingredient as natural in origin. The museum follows perfume from ancient times to today, with a perfumer's organ, an enfleurage display, a copper still and a smelling game for naming the essences.

It has its own shop and museum at Carrera del Darro 5, Granada, Spain. A 50 ml Jazmín del Albayzín eau de toilette costs 68 euros on its online shop. The introductory workshop runs every day, lasts 1 hour 30 minutes, costs 65 euros, includes museum entry and sends you home with a 50 ml spray of your own blend. Try Jazmín del Albayzín first: it is the house's scent of the Albaicín quarter, with mint, bergamot and lemon over jasmine and cedar.