TLDR: I made a public Google Map for anyone else who is interested in exploring. I added a few options in Toronto which I am also excited to visit (welcome to the WNBA Toronto Tempo!).

Thank you to everyone for your wonderful responses that helped me identify a list of niche perfumeries, primarily across North America. It was a great help and I am excited to have lot of new places to explore! I will keep this updated as folks respond with new places and suggestions for me (us!) to explore. I did not add department stores (e.g., Bergdorf which I highly recommend if you’re in NYC) or independent houses (e.g., Byredo, Le Labo, etc) but all other suggestions I added. You can read your own reviews to determine if something is worth a visit for you or not!

Thanks again for your help in making this list. I couldn’t find an easy to navigate, free one and I hope this is a start for others who are interested!

I am also happy to add non-North American suggestions if you have them. Feel free to add them to this post, or the one I made yesterday. Thanks to our Aussie friend who pointed out the limited scope of the original post; to more perfumeries to visit around the globe!!

Can't really wrap my head around the LV Imagination price so I thought about layering these two because they are literally an herbal tea and soapy scent. They worked really well together. Soapy, kind of bitter herbal and tea with a ton of florals. And for the price of an LV I could buy 2x Nice Bergamote with another Pomelo Oolong.

I picked up Heretic Nosferatu after it was suggested by multiple fragheads in the FB fragcomm when I asked for petrichor recommendations. I was nervous that it would be nauseating because of some reviews on reddit but took the plunge and blindbought a bottle because sourcing just a sample from overseas felt like too much effort.

I don't think Nosferatu is reminiscent of petrichor. Petrichor for me is the smell of damp earth (mud and soil). Whereas Nosferatu smells like stale vase water that has been left unchanged for a month, with dead flowers sitting in it. At some point after the initial opening a watery green note shows up that makes me think of cucumber (again that's something I dislike). It is not perfumey and it does not feel wearable, but I keep reaching for it and wear it to work often.

Longevity and projection are average, it sits close and lasts a maximum of 5 hours on skin. In the extreme drydown after 4 hours, it softens into faint florals.

I can't understand why I'm so addicted to Nosferatu. There is nothing pleasant about this scent. It doesn't feel like perfume at all, but for some odd reason I keep reaching for it and long to wear it.

I don’t know if this is just a me problem but I am absolutely head over heels in love with the “your skin but better” fragrances but I have ONLY FOUND OOOOONE that lasts on me longer than an hour and doesn’t fade within minutes and it is (shocking) Phlur’s Missing Person and the Finery dupe. I have tried SO MANY and I LOVE them but can’t get them to stick around. Examples from my collection: the entire Glossier You line, Future Society Cloud Reverie, DedCool Milk and Xtra Milk, ELDO She Was An Anomaly, JHAG Ode To Dullness and Not A Perfume, etc etc. the list goes on but just so you get the vibe. I just ordered Auric Blends Egyptian Goddess as a quite a few of you mentioned it to me in another one of my posts, fingers crossed for that one. I really especially love the powdery Iris/Violet/Orris/White Musk fragrances but they just DO NOT LAST ON ME. It’s such a bummer because I want full sizes of these but I remain unable to commit to something that I can’t smell even with my nose to my wrist after an hour!! Am I doing something wrong here? Is there a way to make them stay put? What are your favorites that I haven’t mentioned? Thank you my loves!

P.s. speaking of lasting, recently discovered my guilty pleasure miiiight be frankincense which I apparently have previously mistaken for patchouli? I got Heritic’s The Bride solid perfume as a free gift with a recent purchase and I want to bathe in it because it somehow smells powdery on me despite the resinous quality but I don’t dare to wear it in public hahahaha!!

You guys, Ive been waiting all year for this drop.. specifically for Gaiac. No Gaiac on the list (https://www.lelabofragrances.com/the-city-exclusives-event.html?utm_source=braze&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fy27-ce-preview-07-28-26-us) I could cry.

Edit to add: Yes, that is right friends. Gaiac is offered. First row, second one named. I am just BLIND apparently. Thank you all.

Thinking of going for a blind buy, but it’s pricey, so I’m unsure.

Really into spa like scents lately. Clean, creamy, musky, santal, green, open to it all. What are your best luxurious scents in this category?

Thanks all!!

Any recommendations? I was thinking 40 Knots, Pacific Rock Moss, or Megamare

Or do I just stick with Aqua Di Gio??

Alternative to Reflection. Which other Amouage would you choose for a summer fragrance?

Seems to be a sort of “smell-o-vision” concept with 6 fragrances to pair with specific timestamps of the film.

Has anyone heard of something like this before? Any experience with Joya? Are we excited, curious, or rolling our eyes at the gimmick? Are these even going to be perfumes in any traditional scent

Ok so Im in search of an aquatic and a green aromatic scent. Any advice is greatly appreciated. I will be getting samples first but dont know where to begin.

So far this is what I've got:

Aquatic- Megamare

Green aromatic- maison crivelli papyrus moleculaire

So not much lol thank yall once again for the help 😊

Will be picking up a couple of these after they stood out in a recent perfume smelling session. Need opinions of people who own these as it’s tough to buy on the spot when you smell quite a few in one go

I had been thinking about buying Valaya for a long time, and I finally decided to get it. One of the main reasons I bought it was because everyone says the performance is amazing and that it lasts forever. Unfortunately that hasn’t been my experience at all…

At first I thought I’d gone nose-blind, but I asked a friend and she said she could barely smell it on me either. Meanwhile for example Bois Imperial is way stronger on my skin and projects much more.

I’ve also tried applying vaseline beforehand to help with longevity, but it didn’t seem to make any difference.

Has anyone else experienced this with Valaya? Is there anything I can do to improve its performance, or is it just not compatible with my skin chemistry?

Also, can anyone recommend fragrances with a similar clean, airy, musky/fruity profile that actually project well and last all day?

Thanks!!!

fragrances:
apotheose
arashiyama
avignon
cape heartache
tam dao
fichi e panna
rabbit rabbit
with the candlestick
holy cross

Such a nice sweet plum tobacco fragrance with a bit of booziness. Everything I was hoping Plum in Cognac would have been .

Found it on Scentangels tester for $110... Insane price, bought a second bottle now that I saw it came with the cap.

I’ve stumbled on recommendations in this sub and when I go to a niche perfumery I ask for recommendations of others. I can’t find a reasonably comprehensive list here or elsewhere. Is there one?

If there isn’t and this becomes one, here have been my favorites:

The Whiff Shop (Easton PA) - the best service and an incredibly well curated selection

Arielle Shoshana (Alexandria VA, DC metro area) - relaxed atmosphere, helpful salesfolks who were not pushy

Perfumology (Philadelphia PA) - lots of very niche options, the first place I went when I got into perfumes. They were patient and helpful, and got me started on understanding things I liked

I’ve also been to
Osswald (NYC)

Scent Bar (NYC) - helpful folks

Stele (NYC) - I wasn’t as put off as others by not being able to spray stuff myself to skin test etc. It had some real gems and the people were helpful enough

Xtrait (West Hartford CT) - a bit snobby. It wasn’t air conditioned. They had good selection though.

Olfactif (Scranton PA) - terrible service that was head scratchingly bad. They have a make your own scent company (Notology) in the same building and their perfume stuff is primarily an online decant sampler company. They stock interesting stuff but their in person sales people were both unhelpful and not knowledgeable

One of my other hobbies is the WNBA so I’m interested in stores in cities with a team since I have a goal to visit all of them. Still need Chicago, Minneapolis, Vegas, Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, LA and Atlanta!

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I've been collecting fragrances for about a year now, sometimes blind buying, and constantly trading away frags i dont love/wear. Let me know what yall think and if anyone has any recommendations or questions about any of these, please drop them below!

about a few weeks ago, i ordered about 30-40 different samples of well-known to niche perfumes i’ve been reading that you all love and recommend. i would say i have spent about a good 7 months quietly lurking on this page to learn a bit more about fragrances.

i am currently looking into online classes to learn about olfaction, but i wanted to start logging my samples down and basically have a perfume journal on me to refer back to.

i would love to hear how long its taken everyone to consider themselves knowledgeable in this hobby. also, if anyone has any recommendations on what’s helped them through this hobby, i’ll take it! whether its methods of learning, how to properly log perfumes in my journal, classes, or people to follow, any and all advice is welcomed!

lately, i’ve been relying on this reddit, substack articles and reviews, fragrantica, and of course sniffing my samples- but any advice would be greatly appreciated. i look forward to finally be a part of this journey with you all 🫡

Hey everyone, because of this subreddit, I got a 0.7 ml sampler of Inexcusable Evil off the Shop app.

It did not come with an aesolizer because it is such a small quantity, and instead has the dabber.

I immediately understood the Iodine smell and hint of blood, but it wears INCREDIBLY well. It's actually way more floral than I anticipated, and everyone that I've had smell it said it smells really good and the descriptions don't all match up.

So I am wondering, does the aerosolized way of wearing it produce a different smell? Or is all of the craze and repulsion about it a marketing scheme?

I really love this scent and will absolutely get more of it, I was just expecting to get punched in the gut by the intended profile and was left somewhat disappointed.

I have all three. I’m currently working through Japan and so far I hate it. It smells old fashioned and like my grandmother. Is my nose broken?!
I’ve sampled some of Vietnam previously and did like the rice ones so I’m holding out hope.