Isparta to create personalized perfumes made from visitors’ sweat samples

ISPARTA

The municipality of Isparta has unveiled an ambitious initiative to elevate the city’s centuries-old rose heritage a step further with the launch of a new international fragrance brand, placing personalized scent production at the center of the project.

Officials announced that sweat samples collected from behind the ears, below the neck and under the arms will be used to formulate tailor-made fragrances registered in each individual’s name.

Provincial Director of Culture and Tourism Vural Oğuzlar said visitors will undergo a scent analysis process in which perspiration samples are evaluated to determine compatibility with specific aromatic compositions.

The resulting perfume will be custom-produced according to the wearer’s skin chemistry, officially registered and assigned a unique number. Clients will be able to reorder their personalized scent at any time, without needing to return to Isparta.

“This is an application found only in a few places in the world,” Oğuzlar said, adding that the city’s deep-rooted rose heritage made it a fitting home for such a project.

The initiative operated under MISPARTA, an international fragrance brand founded by the municipality to build on the region’s longstanding rose trade and aromatic plant production.

Central to the project is the historic Aya Payana Church, a şandmark dating back to around 1750, recently restored and repurposed as both a fragrance museum and production center.

Located in the city’s Turan neighborhood, the 15-by-26-meter, three-nave structure features a wooden ceiling, arched cut-stone windows and rests on 10 columns.

The complex now includes a perfume workshop, library, exhibition areas, café, retail space and a thematic garden of medicinal and aromatic plants.

Officials say the project aims to transform Isparta’s globally recognized rose harvest — gathered before sunrise in late May to preserve its distinctive intensity — into a high-value, individualized cultural experience.