Vancouver, B.C Canada

Well, I've been here myself and love it. Best for niche and I think the only place to go for niche fragrances in Vancouver. I really recommend this place and I really don't have to say anymore, just ask the other members. Check out their site to see what they carry. Mostly Niche (L'artisan, Serge Lutens, Montale, Amouage, Damien Bash, etc...) and they even carry some hard to get and discontinued designer scents.




I'd recommend only really going to the Downtown store, because it's on your way to the other perfume shops around. They only really carry Designer scents, you might find something rare or discontinued, and they have a ton of mini's. They also have gifesets, etc... Basically a discount designer fragrance store. Beware: Really pushy SA's.



Another Discount Perfume store in the Burnaby area. Roughly around a 20 to 30min drive outside of Downtown Vancouver. Overall mostly Designer scents, some rare and discontinued scents. A ton of mini's again with a lot of Designer Bath and Body Products. The only niche I think they carry is Creed but only the really popular ones like GIT, SMW, Himalaya & OV (no testers and only come in 4.0) and they sell for 150.00 CAN.



They carry a lot of high end stuff worth checking out. They carry Art of Shaving Sandalwood, Clean for Men, The Hermes Line, The Armani Prive Collection and other harder to find fragrances. Also, recently I've found out they carry the Dior Homme Trio, Cologne Blanche, Bois D'Argent & Eau Noire. Holts has a good selection of Creed upstairs in the women's section. These aren't represented at all in the men's fragrance dept. downstairs. Recent lines introduced in stores are Etat libre d'orange, Ineke, Frederic Malle, By Kilian, Bond NY, Tom Ford Private Blend and Clive Christian.



It's a high end streetwear clothing store but they almost carry all the Comme Des Garcons fragrances, and men's grooming aids from Sharp's. I can't remember everything they carried but I remember Series 2,3,6,CDG 2,2man, 3, White, Guerilla 1 & 2 with a whole lot of other stuff. For the hardcore CDG fans, or people just interested in the line, they can test them here. BTW, they don't open really late, they close M-S by 6pm and Sundays at 5pm. Also, their CDG scent are slight overpriced, my 50ml Kyoto costed 109 CDN before taxes.




They carry a ton of beatuy products from Diptyque and the ElizabethW. Sorry, I haven't been here myself so I can't give out a whole lot of information. Their Diptyque only comes in 50ml bottles and they are 85.00 Cdn. They also ship out their items. Also, if you'd like to request something special, you can contact them by phone.



A large department store chain in Canada, they carry designer scents but the better ones are closer to Downtown. Check out the one at Pacific Centre and Park Royal. They carry the newer releases and expect to pay full retail price. I think the ones downtown might carry Annick Goutal or even Serge Lutens. Don't go here too often but worth a shot.



Pros:
* Carry some hard to find perfumes that you will not find at The Bay and other mainstnream places (they have a few Caron and Balmain scents, for instance). They also have some of Creed's. Also have some Guerlain that are discontinued or harder to find at The Bay or Sears etc.
* For every $50 you spend you get a $5 or $10 coupon the next month, which is valid for three months.

Cons:
* The sales people are a bit pushy and rarely knowledgeable, but if you tell them you don't need their help they will leave you alone. First thing they ask you is if you know about their coupon promotion - so just tell them you do and that you buy there a lot and they will leave you alone (they have a lot of new staff all the time so they won't necessarily remember you even if you come there and buy there a lot).



I love this store - it's a Canadian company, originally from Montreal, and they have beautifully packaged scented products - from EDT to bath products to kitchen scented products and even condiments - they also have a fabulous line for dogs that smells really good! I know I would be using it if I had a dog

There are two stores - one on Robson, a couple of stores away from The Body Shop. There is (or was) another one in Metrotown.



On Robson Street, where Lush used to be. They carry Kiehl's Original Musk, which is a great scent. I don't know much about this line, I think it's mostly cosmetics and the musk is the only scent I know of from them. But it's worth visiting just for that.

Cons: They have a huge skeleton in their window, whcih kept me away from getting in But it's worth getting over this scary obstacle just to smell their musk perfume.



In various locations. Unfortunatley, they closed their flagship store on Robson street. They sell some nice body products and essential oils (although unfortuantely their essential oil line is shrinking). They offer a custom-blending counter (you pick the oils and they will blend it for you in a body lotion or soap etc.). They used to carry only naturals, but now started to sneak some fragrance oils into some of their blends, so if you want just an oil blend with no chemical you will need to make a bit of research. Their staff doesn't seem to be too knowledgeable about the product change and also - the labeling for these new products is deceiving and looks as if it's only essential oils like their other synergies, but it's not. My favourite from this store is their coconut milk body spray. A great smelling moisturizer with a perfect consistency... And also their unscented body lotions (a bit overpriced but very good) which you can scent with your favourite perfume or your own blends.


Hermes Boutique - Burrard and Alberni. Went to try out the Hermessence line a few weeks ago, and the kind SA gave me 2 X 4ml samples of my choice. I chose Poivre Samarcande and Ambre Narguille. It's good for now, since a 100ml of these EDTs can go as high as $300.


A recent discovery: Lothantique store on Granville and Broadway. Similar to L'Occitane in concept: French-made home scents, skin care and perfume.



They carry most of Fresh line, Clean, Aquolina, Philosophy, Monyette Paris and also other smaller lines of body care and cosmetics. They used to have Comptoir Sud Pacifique and Calypso, but not anymore.

Their only location now is in Yaletown (they had to close their Denman boutique, unfortunately).




Kiss + Makeup - You will find this store in Park Royal Village (West Vancouver), The stocks Bond No. 9, if not all of the line pretty much the whole list. www.kissandmakeupstore.com



Sears: Another Canadian department store chain. It has various locations and mostly the newer designer releases. Expect to pay full retail and expect the usually from department stores(giftsets and body products).

Shoppers Drug Mart: Another all around drug type store here in Vancouver. Various locations again, they have a chain of stores through out Canada. Nothing really special but they'll have deals now and then. I think they had Rive Gauche 125ml bottles going for 19.99 CAN a couple months back. They usually have weekly deals..like Polo Blue & Black 40ml for 19.99 during one week. Check out their weekly flyers in the mail/newspapers.

Real Canadian Super Store: Various locations again and they have a really tiny perfume section in this massive store. I wouldn't really recommend this place but they have Swiss Army 100ml now and then for 19.99 CAN and you can pick up YSL M7 for 39.99 CAN(two BN faves).

Winners: Various Locations in the lower mainland...big discount department store chain. They have gift-set extravaganza at Winners - Robson&Granville- when I went there yesterday. In the men's section I saw boxes upon boxes of Bulgari PH, Obsession Night, Grey Flannel, Joop Rococo, Boucheron, Bulgari BLV, Le Male, to name a few. The women section is on the other side of the floor (didn't really look).

Hi Alaya, thanks for writing in, I was hoping another Vancouver BN member would write in soon. Sorry about the Elizabeth mix-up, I knew they had Elizabeth.something. Sorry Im not so familiar with a lot of the female scents, but hopefully you came in and corrected me.

Thanks for the other places, I might check them out. I actually havent been to Richard Kidd yet, I was supposed to go last Friday, but I had to work. I might be able to make it out this Friday but I doubt it.

BTW: I just checked out your website and a lot your stuff sounds amazing. I'll have to check out your astrology line of perfumes. I love to see how well Gemini might fit me, but Im not really a true Gemini, I have Libra as my ascendant and Scorpio in my first house, which Ive heard influences my character the most. Rebellius sound extremely intriguing and Rainforest sound very interesting as well. You dont have a retail location yet, but theres Jeweliette and El Diamante that I might check out. BTW, it would be interesting to hear how you went around becoming a Perfumer.

Anyways, I encouage more Vancouver BN members to post =).

Just wanted to note to all Vancouver BN members, I went to the Holt Renfrew store in Pacific Centre Downtown recently and spotted the Dior Homme Trio: Cologne Blanche, Eau Noire & Bois D'Argent there. Definitely, I must try for a perfume lovers, all worth a try if you get a chance.

Also, I say the new Prada Man scent there, if anyone was interested.

On the very bottom floor of Holt Renfrew in the men's fragrance counter. Not upstairs with everything else. The men's fragrance counter near the entrance on the bottom floor. There was an Ad poster for Prada Pour Homme and I went to check it out at the mens counter, and then I say bottles of Bois D'Argent and Eau Noire, and I'm assuming Cologne Blanche was somewhere there. If you need any more help, just ask me.

Okay..thanks for the info I included it up top.

BTW, while I'm writing here, I just noticed Shopper Drugs Mart (Various Locations through out Canada) is selling Polo Black & Blue (40ml bottles) for $19.99 cdn this week as a special.

The "By Kilian" line is now available at the Holt Renfrew store downtown. Also available at the Holts store in Toronto, Montreal and Calgary.

http://www.bykilian.com/

Enjoy!

The prices according to By Kilians site is:

The 50ml / refillable spray = $225
The 1 Liter / 34 fl.oz refillable bottle = $2500
The 1 Liter / 34 fl.oz refill = $2300

I haven't seen the store prices yet, but usually with my experience and Holt Renfrews pricing, it's either close or identical to the official site prices, or to expect a possibility of a 15-25% price mark up. I've experienced this with their Creed & Dior Homme selection. You can also order online through the e-shop if you don't want to pay store prices. Also remember, once you buy the 50ml bottle, it's a refill and the cost to get a refill for the 50ml bottle is $90. Majority of the cost goes to the fancy packaging.

Hoped that helped.

The Perfumeshoppe in Vancouver now introduced the CDG line in their shop. They have a ton of them, just check out their website.

www.theperfumeshoppe.com

There's even the new ones like "888" and "Monocle Hinoki".

They also have Musk to Musk by Montale and Tea Rose in the same line. Supposedly it's a rare Japanese exclusive but I'm not entirely sure.

Just wanted to say that the Perfume Shoppe in Vancouver now has the Bois 1920 line for those interested.

There's going to be a Sephora opening up soon at the Coquitlam City Centre Mall for the Summer of 2009. Typical designer stuff, but good deals on giftsets, etc... Geir Ness and Alan Cumming are going to be the ones worth checking out IMO.

Just a heads up for you guys...right across from H&M and close to Zellars.

TPS now carries the Andy Tauer line.

I went into Holts today to see if they had the White Musk collection by Ford and they still don't have them, but they have the Grey Vetiver. They also moved the Ford Private scents to a new area and they now have a few candles for some of the scents.

I also went to a shoe/clothing store on West 4th Ave (Gravity Pope) and they have the Incense CDG Series with Play and a few others including the Sherbet series with the Incense candles. They also had some Miller et Bertaux candles.

If anyone is interested in the indie niche line D.S. & Durga. There's two locations in Vancouver that carry the line.

Mr. Lee's General Store
East Broadway

Old Faithful
W.Cordova

Holt Renfrew on Dunsmir at the Armani beauty counter is the only place that I know of, but I think Holt's axed the line from the stores.