BeautyMatter recently profiled the stateside fragrance retailers bringing a personalized experience to navigating the at times overwhelming waters of perfumery. Now we’re going global. From AI-led product recommendations to monthly discovery subscriptions, here are the fragrance retailers across the EU, UK, Africa, and Asia looking to offer a unique shopping experience for perfume aficionados.
Nose
One can’t talk about scent without talking about noses. In the fragrance industry, a “nose” is another term for a perfumer. In everyday life it’s what guides our olfactory experiences; it also perceives smells differently depending on the owner. Nose is also the namesake of the Parisian boutique in the city’s 2nd arrondissement, founded in 2011 by seven industry heavyweights including perfumer Mark Buxton, entrepreneur Nicolas Cloutier, Esxence co-founder and Cale Fragranze d’Autore founder Silvio Levi, and Juliette Has a Gun founder Romano Ricco. Nose was a frontrunner of incorporating AI into the fragrance retail experience and using it as a tool for custom product recommendations.
Stocking over 500 perfumers from 50 brands its fragrance retail concept operates on the principle of an olfactory diagnosis, which has been developed in partnership with AI experts and perfumers. Customers create a profile and list the latest perfumes they enjoyed, through which an olfactive portrait is created and five corresponding fragrance samples are compiled into a kit that they can purchase for €12, which can be used towards online or instore credit to try at home. They then grade the received samples that can be used towards finding other future recommendations. Alongside this diagnostic criteria, the boutique’s online experience lets visitors look up fragrances according to the noses that created them.
How would you describe the current state of niche fragrance?
Nicolas Cloutier, Co-Founder: Consolidation of brands by the big groups. New challengers like Matière Première, Marc-Antoine Barrois, and Initio arriving, which challenge the niche incumbents or first niche brands. A lot of new niche perfumes that are a copy of other niche fragrances.
What are the biggest perfume trends of the future?
NC: To survive, those upcoming brands will need to have strong, innovative formulation, packaging, and storytelling.
What are your top five best-selling fragrances?
Female category:
Male category:
Unisex category:
Bloom Perfumery
Tucked away in a side street along London’s buzzing Covent Garden area, located off the fittingly named Floral Street, Bloom Perfumery was founded by Oxana Polyakova in 2011 (its original branch was opened on Hanbury Street). With no prior background in fragrance, Polyakova was inspired to set up the retailer in response to reading Perfumes: The A-Z Guide by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez. Like the publication, Bloom Perfumery offers an illuminating light for perfume wanderers. Brands include Arquiste, BeauFort, Carner Barcelona, Imaginary Authors, Masque Milano, Pierre Guillaume, Strangers, and Zoologist.
There’s the store's Nose Club that gives purchases a 10ml atomizer of a fragrance of their choice for a month of daily wear, without needing to commit to a full bottle, which are purchased through a token system (as some fragrances are more expensive to sample than others). Visitors can also subscribe annually to a monthly supply of samples, choosing between a female, male, or unisex option. Each sample pack containing six perfumes is curated according to a particular theme or ingredient, be it gothic floral scents, cannabis-themed fragrances, or boozy perfumes. When it comes to online shopping, there’s a “Smell-alike Perfume Finder” that offers similar-smelling recommendations according to an individual’s favorite scent. For those wanting something truly unique, Bloom Perfumery hosts a bespoke perfume lab.
How would you describe the current state of niche fragrance?
Filip Rabiej, Assistant Manager: The “state of fragrance” surely is a very broad term, however, the simplest answer is it's on the rise. There's a new, emerging type of customer that puts away the well-known classics and takes a more experimental route. We'd even risk saying that the niche perfume industry has never been better.
Nowadays, the general audience has much wider access to the world of niche, mostly through social media, and likewise, perfumers are in a better position to promote their creations. We can see the effects of that on a daily basis, every time a new brand knocks on our doors, or new perfume enthusiasts come to explore our catalog of artistic scents.
What are the biggest perfume trends of the future?
FR: It is hard to say what the trends will be in regards to the notes, especially from the standpoint of perfume disruptors. There's simply no playbook for us. However, when it comes to the bigger picture, we can definitely say it's differentiation, abandonment of gendered perfumes, and experimentation. Perfume customers want scents that are special, different from the mainstream oldstagers, and preferably tied to a certain place or memory.
You can find dozens of creations that represent a certain city, moment in time, or favorite childhood meal—and while perfumers build that on their own experiences, customers are welcome to later rewrite the story on their own terms with their own memories. There's also a visible shift towards fragrances that are free from the “pour homme” or “pour femme” etiquettes, and we think that's absolutely beautiful. If you like the scent—go for it, it doesn't matter if it's a rose or crude oil.
What are your top five best-selling fragrances?
For Him
For Her
Unisex
Seinde Signature
Based in Lagos, Nigeria, the Seinde Signature Experience Studio launched in 2020, followed by the Salon de Parfum in 2021. Founder Seinde Olusola was inspired to set up the space out of his passion for perfumes, which began with admiring his father’s perfume collection. The first space offered an exploration of Olusola’s extensive archive of fragrance, but visitors were soon intrigued to purchase the scents they smelled, leading to the creation of the retail space. The space’s current selection contains over 1,300 fragrances and 35 brands, including brands such as Reinvented, Clive Christian, and Eris, as well as home-grown brands like Catherine Omai. There are now five Seinde Signature Salon de Parfum nationwide with more openings planned in the imminent future.
How would you describe the current state of niche fragrance?
Seinde Olusola, Founder: In Nigeria, niche fragrance is currently on the rise. Once upon a time, a company like ours, which sells exclusively niche fragrances, would not be able to work, but now there is a growing market for unique fragrances.
More and more buyers are looking for scents that feel unique to them; they want something artistic and different from the norm. In Nigeria currently, niche fragrances are a status symbol for the elite. Everyone, both elite and nonelite, wants to show that they have sophisticated taste.
What are the biggest perfume trends of the future?
SO: From our own perspective, we believe the future is artistic fragrances. The more ultra-niche brands will become more popular as people (in Nigeria) are starting to see value in the history and craftsmanship that goes into creating a luxury niche fragrance.
What are your top five best-selling fragrances?
1. Bosporus Pearl by Alghabra Parfums
2. Capua by Electimuss London
3. Bois Imperial by Essential Parfums
4. Mula Mula by Byron Parfums
5. Volcano by Carner Barcelona
Honorable mentions: Kintsugi by Masque Milano, Sex and the Sea by Francesca Bianchi, and Triumph of Bacchus by Argos Fragrances.
7scents
A former fashion marketing specialist, Ákos Pozsgai set up 7scents in Budapest four years ago with the goal of offering an exquisite collection of niche perfumes to not just those based in the Hungarian capital, but perfume collectors from all over the world. Following his own personal travels, Pozsgai wanted to set up a space that harnessed the full exploratory potential of scents. Today the retailer stocks a broad range of brands such as Acampora, Parfums Dusita, Miguel Matos, and Hiram Green.
How would you describe the current state of niche fragrance?
Ákos Pozsgai, Chief Executive Officer: The niche perfume segment is growing rapidly in size and creativity. As a retailer, it's becoming more important to curate, to see through the high number of new perfumes and perfume houses. The niche perfume segment is reaching a wider audience these days, as commercial perfume prices are almost at a similar level and niche perfumes are becoming more available for perfume lovers.
What are the biggest perfume trends of the future?
AP: We see certain trends based on raw ingredients, like the use of more exotic materials, such as yuzu or osmanthus, as well as tropical fragrances that have a bright future with the more exotic fruits like mangosteen, guava, or papaya. Quality is a trend again, and more discreet perfumes after years of very loud ones.
What are your top five best-selling fragrances?
Nose Shop
With locations across various parts of Japan from Tokyo’s Shinjuku district to Osaka, Nose Shop is a go-to resource for the country’s fragrance lovers. Featuring a neon lit exterior and white portrait busts, its interior is a mix of classic and contemporary. Equally, the available fragrance selection encompasses a wide spectrum of brands such as DS & Durga, Nishane, Stora Skuggan, and Tauer Perfumes.
How would you describe the current state of niche fragrance?
Tomonobu Nakamori, Founder: We opened our store in August 2017 as the only niche fragrance specialty store in Japan. The Japanese cosmetics market is very large on a global scale, but in comparison, the perfume market is so small that it is often derided as a “perfume desert.” However, after the Coronavirus pandemic, that market is on the rise, and niche fragrances are driving the growth of that market. The younger generation, from Generation Z onwards, has become the leading force in that movement, and we believe that this trend will continue for some time. We have accurately grasped those needs and currently operate 11 stores in Japan.
What are the biggest perfume trends of the future?
TN: Niche fragrances have come to represent the cutting-edge trends in the perfume market, and many new fragrance brands are emerging worldwide. The current market is a prolific market of cobbled together products. The movement is also spreading globally, with very interesting fragrance brands emerging not only in Europe, Russia, and North America but also in South America and Asia. However, the future market will be segregated between authentic niche fragrances and brands that are not.
What are your top five best-selling fragrances?
1. Need_U by Laboratorio Olfattivo
2. Wulong-Cha by Nishane
3. Fig-Tea by Nicolai
4. No.04 - Bois de Balincourt by Maison Louis Marie
5. Nice Bergamote by Essential Parfums
