Over the weekend, the Scent Room officially opened their Los Angeles location in Larchmont Village. Upon entrance, guests are welcomed with a fresh and inviting scent in the air. The walls of the space are lined with shelves, each one filled with dozens of travel to full size perfume bottles, candles, and diffusers, with most of the product ranging from $30-$500. The aesthetics are eminent with unique lighting fixtures and indoor plants.
Although the space is intimate, the in-house collection features more than 500 rare, handcrafted fragrances from 50 independent brands. At The Scent Room, not only do customers have an opportunity to explore the different artisan perfumes, but they are taken on an educational journey surrounding the benefits and overall influence of perfumery.
The Scent Room specifically highlights hard-to-find fragrances, a couple being John F. Kennedy’s classic, barbershop signature scent and a forest floor inspired fragrance from Iceland. In addition to their impressive and unrivaled collection, The Scent Room team is passionate about and dedicated to helping customers explore and find ways to express themselves through fragrance. “Our main focus is to showcase niche perfumes; stuff that you won’t get at your local Neiman Marcus or other department stores,” said junior retail associate George Castillo. “Before the Scent Room, there was no place to smell luxury and niche perfumes…at least the only places are at department stores where they’re really trying to push certain products and make sales happen. Here, people can approach the fragrance themselves and not feel the pressure of a salesperson.”
While exploring these niche scents is exciting, it can also be an overwhelming process, being that there are more than 500 perfumes to choose from. Each fragrance can be tested using tester strips, and there are pens scattered throughout the store so that customers can label each strip and track their scent journey, allowing them to stay organized and revisit what scents they like.
Sam Clark, owner and co-founder of The Scent Room expressed how the environment of the space is one of inclusivity and adventure. “Places that are touching on [scent] don’t feel super accepting or inviting and that can be a little bit overwhelming,” Clark said. “But people in here can spend three to four hours, I kid you not, and they find something.”
Clark, and the entire team at The Scent Room, eagerly assist their customers in finding their distinct scent through thorough consultation and experimenting. “People want to come in and they want to learn, you know,” said marketing coordinator Erin Warady. “Here, it’s like you come in and you get to spray, play, and just test around to figure out what you like and don’t like, which is huge.”
For those who still aren’t sure what their signature fragrance is, customers at The Scent Room can build their scent wardrobe by accumulating different samples and trying on different personas. “I tell people, ‘Step into the shoes. Just try it on,’” said Clark. “When people step into the shoes of the scent, they can come back with this newfound confidence in themselves.” Finding the right fragrance is a trial and error process, but The Scent Room is the place where customers can meticulously take their time doing so. “The fun part is the antithesis to the signature scent,” Clark said. “Some days I want to smell like the forest floor, while other times I want to smell like the salty, briny ocean.”
At The Scent Room, customers will also get to experience the mental and emotional impacts of fragrance. According to the National Library of Medicine, “the sense of smell plays an important role in the physiological effects of mood, stress, and working capacity.” Aroma and fragrance have many healing and therapeutic benefits on humans, as smell has a very direct and innate power to impact the central nervous system. “There are many mental and health benefits with scent and fragrance being talked about right now,” Warady said. “People can be brought back to memories that they had about their youth or love for the first time, or just their passion and their business.”
The Scent Room opened its first location in Dallas in 2019 and has now finally found its way to Los Angeles after Clark realized how untapped the scent scene is here. “We’ve been very thoughtful in our expansion,” Clark said. “We just wanted to properly pick the right neighborhood, and Larchmont was it, it really was.” The Scent Room in Larchmont Village is neighbored by other retailers, makeup stores, restaurants, and bakeries on a charming street lined with tall trees and hanging lights. “It feels like a very natural community here, rather than just like a strip mall situation,” Castillo said. “Everyone’s welcoming us into the neighborhood. They want to share with you, exchange with you.”
For Clark, the hope is that customers leave The Scent Room feeling inspired, and hopefully, with their new favorite fragrance in hand. “If you want something, you will find it here,” Clark said. “If you want to spend enough time here, I promise you, you will find something that makes you want to hug yourself and go, ‘This feels like me. This feels like a missing puzzle piece.’”
The Scent Room Los Angeles is located at 142 1/2 Larchmont Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90004. For more information, visit https://www.thescentroom.com/ or follow @ScentRoomLA on Instagram.
