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Sniffing in Willesden

Several Fridays ago I did a Scent Gathering in the kitchen of a large 1930s house in Willesden in north-west London. It was hosted and organised by the mother of one of my son's best mates. She and her husband run a health food store.

Virginie is somewhat averse to very chemical-smelling, mainstream fragrances, and initially when I explained to her about my site she was very sceptical.

But, in early December, she came along to an event and she was hooked. Numerous discussions followed about the fragrances I stock -- and others like them. After a while, she said she would like to host a Gathering.

She gathered together a number of friends and customers and -- over soup, cheese and wine -- we delved into around a dozen of the perfumes I stock.

The women (I have yet to have a man participate in one of these informal events -- I'm sure it will happen) introduced themselves and talked about what they've worn in perfume and smells they like. Surprisingly to me, at this Gathering, no one mentioned Chanel No 5 as a past or present fragrance preference.

We talked of what a bad idea it is to buy unsniffed and there was murmured surprise when I mentioned how many people I spoke with said they usually purchased at duty free, after sniffing the cap, or only wore perfume received as a gift.

One, Jane, had worked at Harrods and talked of walking through the fragrance hall on the way into work or back from lunch and spraying something new. She mentioned the Prada Amber fragrance as a past favourite, and YSL Opium as one of the first fragrances she ever purchased.

Virginie brought out her bottles of Guerlain Jardins de Bagatelle and Guy Laroche Fidji (Fiji) for us to smell (she'd had both for a good while but each had held up very well).

I've learned to start with the lighter fragrances and work my way towards the deeper smells. Interestingly, to me, the salty-floral Lostmarc'h scent Ael-Mat, which usually gets a lot of love, wasn't popular this time. However, there was interest in the Lostmarc'h citrus Din Dan as a good summer perfume and I Profumi di Firenze's lush, aquatic floral Magnolia Purpurea, which has been a firm favourite at past Gatherings.

But, I think the star of the evening was Hilde Soliani Stecca, which everyone was fascinated by -- even if they couldn't see their way to wearing a fragrance based around tomatoes. An adult citrus, an alternative to all the overly sweet fruity florals floating around the market.

As always, I find participants' reactions fascinating -- their pleasure at discovering these more unusual perfumes gives me a lot of pleasure. And it is interesting to observe (and participate in) their surprise at discovering they enjoy a fragrance genre that in the past they dismissed (eg, someone who has in the past gravitated towards florals finding incense-based perfumes attractive). Finally, the whole process, including participants' consistently positive feedback, reinforces in me the rightness of offering these sorts of informal gatherings as a means of widening the 'footprint', for lack of a better term, of niche perfumes.