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Best Niche Fragrance Brands

post #1 of 29
3/6/06 at 4:36pm
Thread Starter 
Hello all, I'm in the process of opening a fragrance boutique in the NW Miami, FL area (should be open by November 1 of this year). Â*In the interim, I was hoping you all could help me put together a list of the finest niche/boutique fragrance brands, and, if available, their american distribution information, for purposes of selling these brands.



*Edited by Ladylonestar
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post #2 of 29
3/6/06 at 6:50pm
Welcome Japes, and the best of success to you!

A good listing of niche frags can be found at such websites as http://www.luckyscent.com, www.lusciouscargo.com, http://www.lacremebeauty.com (my favorite), and http://beautyhabit.com/perfume.html. As far as distributors go, you might try the www.[nameofmanufacturer].com. I've never gone into business myself except to contract out in a totally different direction than scents. There are others here (Cedric???? where are you???), Tigrushka, LadyLonestar, Artisankey, and many others - who can also help you with the "niches".

Good luck - we're glad you're here.
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post #3 of 29
3/6/06 at 8:21pm
Greetings, Japes. I've edited out a portion of your original post. Basenotes has a "no-advertising on the main forums" policy, which you will find in the Rules (Rule #3).

There are some websites that might be able to give you the distribution information you seek. Check the Basenotes Directory and also the following sites which provide contact info:

http://www.fragrance.org/link.html

http://www.fragrance.org/main.html

http://www.perfume2000.com/


Good luck!
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post #4 of 29
3/7/06 at 6:59am
Sorry, my mistake.
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post #5 of 29
3/7/06 at 7:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by glorious1

Sorry, my mistake.

Are Japes and Glorious the same person?

I'd figure the reviews here and at makeupalley.com would be good indicators of which particular products would be most advantageous to stock.
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post #6 of 29
3/7/06 at 7:28am
Thread Starter 
Not sure who Glorious is, or what she is talking about with regards to "her mistake."

Japes
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post #7 of 29
3/7/06 at 7:53am
Are you interested in the best or the bestselling? I'm sure you want your store to be successful

You often need pilar brands (the big houses of the niche world) to support other less popular but sometimes more interesting brands.

Bestselling brands are:
-Diptyque (Philosykos is like Acqua di Gio for mainstream, it's n°1 in many speciality perfumeries).
-Serge Lutens.
-Acqua di Parma.
-L'Artisan.
-Creed.

You will find more info about their distributors on each brand's website.
Ofcourse most brands have distribution exclusivities. For example if your store is to close to Neiman Marcus at Bal Harbour shops (who stocks all these brands), they might not be able to give you permission to sell them...

Good Luck!
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post #8 of 29
3/7/06 at 7:56am
L'Artisan is my favorite.
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post #9 of 29
3/7/06 at 7:57am
Thread Starter 
My store isn't really within about 15 miles of a Neimans, Nordstroms, Saks, or any other high end department store.

And, I agree with everything you just mentioned. I will also be trying to carry some of the less popular, but more interesting niche brands as well. Any suggestions on that end of the spectrum?
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post #10 of 29
3/7/06 at 8:08am
Everyone else has already given you a lot of great information, so I'm not sure what I could really add.

I personally am a huge Etro fan, so would love to see their stuff get a wider distribution.

It seems for the moment that places such as Lucky Scent have the market cornered on a lot of lesser known niche brands. It's hard to know what really goes on, but they make a good show of saying things such as, "We searched and searched," or "We begged and pleaded..."

It might be useful to search the web for small, independent fashion boutiques. Sometimes they have the funkiest stuff, including lesser known fragrances (you know- something interesting and madcap mixed up by someone's aunt who just happens to have a knack.) Making even just a couple unique discoveries of your own could really set your store apart.

It's a very exciting venture you're embarking on- I certainly wish you the best of luck!
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post #11 of 29
3/7/06 at 8:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Japes

My store isn't really within about 15 miles of a Neimans, Nordstroms, Saks, or any other high end department store.

And, I agree with everything you just mentioned. Â*I will also be trying to carry some of the less popular, but more interesting niche brands as well. Â*Any suggestions on that end of the spectrum?

See the selection on www.luckyscent.com
They have lots of more underground brands, with often a "girly" appeal. Some are 100% natural. With more and more people turning to organic food, natural perfumery is surely a trend to follow.
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post #12 of 29
3/7/06 at 9:37am
How would you describe your market in NW Miami? Â*Are these young trendsetters you're expecting to walk in your door? Retirees? A large percentage with a Latin background? Will you be doing any dealing on the internet? If so, I bet a separate thread posing questions about what do you like best/least about online etailers would provide lots of thoughts. A question about what do you like best/least about sales associates and brick-and-mortar fragrance stores would also function as a market analysis and would be fun to read about.
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post #13 of 29
3/7/06 at 9:40am
It's very likely impossible, but if someone other than Barney's could carry Frederic Malle, that would give this line more exposure. People who aren't near Barney's (or in Paris) often miss out on these. (My recent love for Carnal Flower makes me want everyone to smell it ) I think Barney's has exclusive rights to FM outside of the FM boutiques, though.

Caron would be another line that would be amazing to distribute and it would be nice if more people could have the opportunity to try it. Also, there can never be too many Serge Lutens, L'Artisan, Etro, Diptyque, People of the Labyrinths Luctor et Emergo or Ginestet distributors. I wish you the best of luck in your new venture!

Have a look at www.aedes.com as well as the sites suggested in the other posts. Have fun! How amazing is it going to be when you're surrounded by gorgeous fragrances in your own shop? Wow.
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post #14 of 29
3/7/06 at 10:13am
Sorry to be thread-hogging...but

Japes - I just thought of another line that may be interesting to check out for distribution. Dawn Spencer Hurwitz is a talented perfumer with an amazing range of scents. Her fragrances are sold in only a few, select places. Have a look at www.dshperfumes.com. And, again, I wish you the best.
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post #15 of 29
3/7/06 at 10:16am
Thread Starter 
Lutens is one of the more interesting brands to me. Â*I can't seem to find any contact information for them, or even a corporate website. Â*Anyone know?
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post #16 of 29
3/7/06 at 10:26am
There's a telephone number on this site:
http://www.salons-shiseido.com/anglais/indexa.html 33 (0)1 49 27 09 09
Maybe this line can direct you to marketing information...
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post #17 of 29
3/7/06 at 10:34am
http://www.thymes.com/thymes/index.aspx

You may as well sniff around Thymes' products. Their Fig Leaf & Cassis trumps Jo Malone's Wild Fig & Cassis IMHO.
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post #18 of 29
3/7/06 at 2:45pm
i have a dream in my life to open a big perfumery store or being the director of a store with the best niche perfumes brands of the world ,the problem is that a live in a very little city about 30000 people so i will prefer to have a store possibly ina touristic area to deal with foreigners if i were you i will check for these

serge lutens
frederic malle
diptyque
etro
l'artisan parfumeur
santa maria novella
le parfum de rosine
floris
penhaligon's
keiko mecheri
knize
goutal
montale
ormonde jayne
maitre parfumeur et gantier
comme de garcon
lorenzo villoresi
creed
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post #19 of 29
3/7/06 at 5:15pm
OH MY GOODNESS!
I just checked back. I cannot believe you think Japes and I are the same person. I don't "DO" double or triple identities. I was largloworm on POL and Basenotes before the move.....at least I think so...
Anyway............I mistakenly was going to ask Japes about where her store was as I live in "south Florida". I then decided to "modify" my post and found I couldn't delete it because it wouldn't let me even close the thing until I wrote something! So I said sorry!
Quarry....you can ask me directly anything you want. My name is Gloria............LaRoche to be exact.
Now..................I digress.....
on with the topic at hand.
I'm not a SL fan much. I prefer MPG or L'Artisan actually. I'm not much of a Lorenzo Villoresi fan either. I wanted to be but it didn't work.
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post #20 of 29
3/8/06 at 2:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Japes

Lutens is one of the more interesting brands to me. Â*I can't seem to find any contact information for them, or even a corporate website. Â*Anyone know?

Serge Lutens website: http://www.salons-shiseido.com

There is no strictly corporate website but call and they can put you on the right track. Telephone: 33.(0)1 49 27 09 09. Six hour time difference.

Now Smell This had a list of the top sellers for 2005 in many top niche on line retailers and store front plus Internet retailers such as aedes.

http://nowsmellthis.blogharbor.com/b...6/1499762.html


and NST has a handy list of website links to the non-mass market perfume houses, Â*the bigger or more noteworthy niche players.

http://nowsmellthis.blogharbor.com/b...umeHouses.html

Good luck. Do a lot of homework checking out the competition and studying your models -- stores that are succesful and approximate what you want to do.

Would 15 miles still put you in the catchment area of a bg department store, in other words in their territory? Â*

And Barneys does have a Malle exlcusive for a little while longer. From thence the strategy is usually to progress to exclusive or prestige departments stores such as Neiman Marcus/Bergdorf's or Saks and sometimes some select Nordstroms.

In the beginning before they had a big profile, Aedes had a many "gray market fragrances." Ones that were exclusives to Takashimaya or Barneys. You might be able to get away with that.......

What I have noticed from talking to fragrance boutique owners is that they seem to make a fair amount of money on bath and body rather than strictly scent.
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post #21 of 29
3/8/06 at 6:57am
Thread Starter 
My goodness, the wealth of information on these forums is astounding. I can't thank you folks enough. Keep em coming if you have any more suggestions.
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post #22 of 29
3/9/06 at 2:10pm
Thread Starter 
Ok, I need a bit more help here. There's a little bit TOO much information out there (if that makes any sense). Most of these stores have about ten thousand (slight exageration) of these niche brands, and, rather than contacting all of them at once, I would prefer to start off with the best/most popular/most desirable ones. I've compiled a list of about nine of those most desirable ones, and, what I would like, is another 10-15 so that I can go that route. Once that is done, I will then proceed with the smaller, slightly less popular ones. Below you will find my list of the nine most desirable (as a general consensus). Some, like Frederic Malle, will be all but impossible, at least for the time being, but, it is certainly worth a shot.

Any help you folks could provide in that regard would, once again, be greatly appreciated:

Acqua Di Parma
Calypso
Creed
Demeter
Diptyque
Etro
Frederic Malle
L'Artisan
Serge Lutens
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post #23 of 29
3/9/06 at 6:10pm
error--remove this post.
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post #24 of 29
3/10/06 at 2:01pm
Thread Starter 
Anyone wanna try?
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post #25 of 29
3/10/06 at 2:34pm
Here are a couple lesser-known boutiques that might be similar to what you're planning to open. You may find an idea or two in their examples.

http://www.cherieusa.com/boutique.asp
http://www.hamptonct.com/
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post #26 of 29
3/11/06 at 6:49pm
It would be great to have another place online to buy Serge Lutens and L'Artisan in one place. That would make me happy (and broke!).
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post #27 of 29
3/12/06 at 7:11am
I know that it's sort of out of the stream, but have you considered offering the best-selling products from different lines complementing the 9 major lines that you are going to represent?

If you read into this forum, you can get a pretty good impression that some scents are much more popular than the whole lines. Also check on-line retailers for their bestseller lists. I mean, when you start, it's good to have some security?...

I would also keep in mind the range of different types of scents that you get (e.g. soliflore, oriental,gourmand, fresh etc), so that you have not only different names at the end, but a lot of contents too.
I wish you good luck. And I'm a bit jealous, I often think that opening a perfume boutique might be my true destiny!
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post #28 of 29
3/14/06 at 3:46pm
Creed

Etro

Comme des Garcons (although it may not be considered niche)

annick goutal

and others
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post #29 of 29
3/15/06 at 2:46pm
Thread Starter 
I thought i would give everyone an update, and ask a couple of more questions:

Brands already secured, that I will definately be carrying:
Comptoir Sud Pacifique
Calypso, Christian Celle
Demeter

Brands that shot me down:
Creed

Brands which I will probably be carrying and am currently in negotiations with:
Annick Goutal
Etro (same distributor as Annick Goutal)
L'Artisan (no american distributor, so I'm in negotiations with their Canadian distributor until such time as they replace their american one)


I'm having a VERY hard time finding contact information for Diptyque. Not only can I not find their american distributorship, but, I can't find their phone number in Europe either. Any help? Also having a hard time with Lutens, and L'artisan.

Any thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?
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