New York-based fragrance store Perfumarie sells scents on tap with all the branding removed, allowing customers to shop its range without being influenced by their own preconceptions.
The concept, created by Mindy Yang, sees customers navigate the range on a “guided perfume flight” through the store, accompanied by an assistant who acts as a scent sommelier. The minimalist space features 32 fragrances on tap, which are labelled only by number. Underneath each tap is a small tagine containing a white paper swan soaked in the mystery perfume. The experience provides no clues as to the branding, packaging or price information of the scents. Fragrances on tap range from high-end limited-editions to celebrity-endorsed mass-market perfumes.
Sampling scents in numerical order, customers are encouraged to take notes on each fragrance and select their two favourites to try on their skin. Once they have made their final choice, they are given a sample-sized bottle labelled only with the tap number to take away and trial. Customers can also purchase a larger apothecary-style bottle and fill it from the tap. Even at this point the fragrance’s brand is not revealed to the customer.
To find out which fragrance they have chosen, customers are invited to attend in-store “reveal parties” at the end of every month, where the identity of the taps’ contents are revealed. A full list is also posted online. Customers who are keen to purchase a larger quantity of the perfume can choose to buy direct from the brand or – if the fragrance is revealed to be a cheesy celebrity scent that might induce feelings of shame – they can fill a large apothecary bottle from the tap to maintain its anonymity.
“What we are really trying to create here is a kind of salon where fragrance lovers can go. I am no longer interested in traditional retail,” says Yang. “People need to learn how to be empowered to have a point of view and choose what they like for themselves.”
The first “Perfume flight” is free, after which customers are charged a fee of $20. Returning customers are invited to join the store’s Explorer’s Club. As a member of the club their scent notes and preferences are saved to a database for future reference. Other perks of becoming a member include a quarterly sample box of store-exclusive scents, and invites to events held around the store’s “gathering table,” where they can participate in discussions and scent workshops with the store’s master perfumer.
Beyond creating a multi-sensory interactive experience and reason to return to store (to find out the identity of the scent they have chosen), Perfumarie aims to build a community based around its membership programme (already reported to have 600 registered customers) offering its customers education about fragrance.
Yang also believes that the store could be of use to the brand’s stocked on tap. Each month Yang works with fragrance brands and individual perfumers to bring new-to-market scents to the taps, offering them a chance to gain real-time market research. The notes that customers take on their impressions of each scent are returned to the brands providing valuable customer feedback.
Full address: 155 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10013, USA
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