Sephora: A New Destination for Niche Perfumes

The way we shop and buy niche fragrances has just changed.  When we think of niche perfumery Sephora isn't the place we expect to find "perfumista" brands. As of earlier this month, both Atelier Cologne and  L'Artisan Parfumeur fragrances are now available on Sephora.com and will be in select doors soon. Are you surprised? Or are you thinking, "what took them so long?"

Sephora was founded by Dominique Mandonnaud in 1970 under the name Shop 8 which was changed to Sephora. By 1996, under its new name, the largest perfumerie in the world  opened on the Champs Elysees (and yes, in those days Serge Lutens fragrances lined the shelves). In 1997, the French conglomerate LVMH bought the Company and the first American door opened in New York City. It was a visionary concept; an open selling space unlike any  store of its day. Sephora was the first beauty store where the customer could interact with and experience the products with or without the assistance of a sales associate.It was a place for classic and emerging brands.

Over the years, Sephora's fragrance assortment changed dramatically and became more mainstream, although many small beauty brands found a home and crossed distribution lines. Edward Bess, which launched and still is available at Bergdorf Goodman, is also at Sephora. The beauty brand Molly Rancol goes one step further; you can find her make-up artist line at Bergdorf Goodman, Henri Bendel, Sephora and QVC and no one thought the worse of crossing such diverse distribution lines.

Fragrance has been a different story. Niche perfume as a category is targeted to a very small percentage of fragrance wearers. Think about your non perfumista friends. Yes, you could bond over the merits of Butter nail polish or Blinc mascara, but can you imagine a conversation about L'Artisan Parfumeur's Timbuktu or Atelier Cologne's Vanille Insensee?  Right now,  she'll spend $50 for a Guerlain lipstick  but it may take a bit of time for her to understand a $165 perfume without a designer name. Chances are in six months and in the years to come, your friend won't think twice about the price and will be using  terms like sillage, longevity and chypres.

Currently six  L'Artisan Parfumeur  fragrances are available only online but according to the Company that may be changing. All are listed in both the  men's and women's categories. Atelier Cologne has seven fragrances available online and in select stores. Maybe someone should point out women wear cologne too, but at least it's a start.

 According to Gerard Camme of Atelier Cologne, "Our appeal to Sephora was first and foremost our product. Secondly, they loved the animation aspect and felt our engraving  would add a new dimension to their current strategy. They are brilliant merchants and understand the client experience. So the deal is, bring in amazing fragrance and work out an animation strategy and help them enhance the client experience".

These two companies may be harbingers of what's to come. The entire olfactive landscape will change. More Independent  fragrances that were difficult to find unless you live in NYC or Paris will be available to a broader audience.

In my 2009 interview with Bertrand Duchaufour, the perfumer in residence for L'Artisan Parfumeur he said, "I am sure of one thing: time is the best judge of a fragrance. If Perfumery is to remain an Art, it will be those fragrances that compel us based on quality and originality, not necessarily label or price.

Or for that matter where it's sold.

Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief
 

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11 comments

  • brie says:

    Indeed I hope this is a harbinger of things to come. Sephora is so easy to order online, has excellent customer service and offers many perks/freebies on a regular basis. Also, for those of us who don’t live in NYC (and don’t have direct access to try niche brands) Sephora stores are popping up in many malls in more rural areas which makes for a great place to actually be able to sample some of these niche fragrances. If this does come to pass I will definitely be buying future niche from Sephora.

  • ringthing says:

    I’m all for it, and good for them. There’s so much competition in the perfume world today that anything that helps a niche brand sell well and find new customers is a good thing. Out here in the WalMart Wasteland of the US midwest, there are very few shopping opportunities (the closest Macy’s is an hour and a half drive, and we all know how limited Macy’s perfume selection is) so I’m happy for all the online shopping opportunities available!

  • Olga says:

    It had been fascinating indeed to observe how the lines between mass market, mainstream, niche and even indie are blurred. I think it makes sense to widen the access to perfumes because with the quantity of new releases each day one may simply skip something, even a die-hard perfumista. Make it easy to sample a fragrance and make it hard to pigeon-hole it into an all-familiar category or concept, that’s what I would say.

  • Joan says:

    I’m all for it, but Atelier Cologne and L’Artisan Parfumeur aren’t that niche. What about real, great niche perfumery lines like Parfum d’Empire?

  • Claudia says:

    Thats sort of real exciting news and for many of us perfumistas that do not live in a city like NY where the niche brands are much more readily available, we can now go to a Sephora near us and check these brands out.

  • Quichange says:

    It’s true that you can find emerging and small beauty brands in so many places but not fragrance
    what I like about sephora is that they don’t charge for samples and you get points
    How cool if they offer a sample kit of lartisan for 500 pts

    The thing that concerns me is that the sas for fragrance don’t know enough about perfume in general
    I once asked for Bulgari black and the sa said we don’t have that one
    Sure enough it was on the men’s section
    Hopefully sephora can create kiosks for the niche perfumery with a specialist
    If they do I want to apply for the job!

  • Melody says:

    This is so exciting
    You are right my real time friends think I am crazy because I prefer niche perfume but now they will have the chance to experience them
    Mure et musc was the first one I tried years ago and it got me hooked
    I can’t wait to see what other niche fragrances they carry

  • Darilyn says:

    I love shopping at Sephora! They are very generous
    about making samples of any fragrance you would
    like to try.

  • Sujaan says:

    I was at first taken aback at the idea that precious our niche brands would be slopped in with all the other brands at Sephora. And I do think that Quichange’s comment about the SAs is a good point, however knowing that Sephora could help niche perfumery find its way to more people makes me very happy. I hate the thought that most people’s only intro to perfume is through Macy’s or Walmart. The more savvy the shopper becomes, the more niche will be sold. I’d rather the niche noses make the money they deserve than Paris Hilton.