From cocktails to scent swaps: Inside China’s experiential perfume clubs

Tiao’s front door is more speakeasy than perfume boutique store. Inside, soft lighting, boho-chic furniture, and vintage touches create a space where the crowd seems completely at home — some enjoying cocktails, others nursing cups of tea. The drinks menu offers its own surprises: cocktails mixed with perfumery ingredients such as frankincense and lavender, presented alongside iconic perfume bottles like Amouage and Chanel. Tono, the founder and mixologist, introduces Tiao as part of a new wave of perfume clubs sprouting across Shanghai. Here, smelling sessions alternate with perfume swap evenings, and guests come to learn about fragrance ingredients and experience them through both scent and drink. Every surface in the lounge — shelves, coffee tables, display cabinets — is filled with perfume bottles, oil jars, and other scented vessels of exotic origins. After passing through the bar area, visitors are admitted into the inner sanctum, a space organized as a retail display of candles, perfumes, incense, and solid fragrances. Small cups filled with mulberry silk cocoons are scattered around for scent sampling. Informal as it seems, there is no mistaking this as a perfume experience store. Tono started Tiao as he wanted to connect with people who shared his passion for fragrance and cocktails. “People are lonely and anxious these days,“ he tells Jing Daily. “But I wanted to create something more than just a place to escape urban loneliness. Chinese consumers are still at a stage where they have much to learn about fragrance. I’m not selling consumer products but an experience and knowledge of scents.” The rise of perfume boutique houses As grassroots perfume clubs like Tiao popularize olfactory knowledge, China is on a quest to create its own perfume boutique houses, its answer to Jovoy Paris — curated destinations for fragrance lovers. No less than 10 multibrand perfume boutiques exhibited their collections at Notes Shanghai, China’s fine fragrance and perfumery trade exhibition, this April. In a scent market driven by discovery and personalization, these perfume boutiques are luring consumers with spaces of intimate exploration, a sense of community belonging, and unique learning experiences. “I run Laporte as my perfume living room, and I hope to receive guests as if they were good friends,” says Koon, founder and managing director of perfume boutique Laporte (窄门). “Ours is an aromatic space that is taken care of by fellow perfume enthusiasts, serving as both a hub as well as a destination for perfume lovers to gather and breathe.” Ankita Gill, founder of Param Sara, a new niche Indian perfume brand, says choosing Laporte as its first retail partner in China was a natural extension of the brand’s values. “La Porte is widely recognized as the home of perfume enthusiasts, a space where niche fragrance is explored with depth, curiosity, and cultural insight,” she says. “Their stores are experimental, exclusive, and meticulously curated, offering an environment that treats perfumery as an art form. They cultivate a loyal, fragrance-literate community and champion brands with intention.” For Ankita, this approach mirrors Param Sara’s own commitment to cultural authenticity and craftsmanship. A fast-expanding retail ecosystem Apart from Laporte, which now has boutique stores in five Chinese cities, other notable multibrand perfume houses include May X Tang, Aroma Traveller, OR Perfumes, Nichetalks, Olfacto Project, and Popscent. With unique store profiles and different founder stories, these perfume boutiques share similar origins and operating models. All emerged during the pandemic, building local communities between 2021 and 2023 before expanding beyond their home cities with highly curated boutique spaces and WeChat mini programs. With portfolios made up of roughly 10% to 20% Chinese brands and 80% to 90% international brands, they represent a viable but still relatively little-known route to market for niche and luxury fragrance companies seeking to enter the market. While only in business for four to five years, their physical footprint across the country is growing, and many now operate five to six stores in different Chinese cities. Laporte, for instance, plans to operate 10 stores by 2027. From e-commerce to experience-first stores The emergence of multibrand perfume boutiques reflects a broader strategy shift as fragrance brands respond to Chinese consumers’ demand for sensorial retail experiences. While many international fragrance brands initially entered China through cross-border e-commerce — enabling direct-to-consumer sales before full offline product registration — they are now increasingly prioritizing physical debuts. “Cross-border e-commerce is no longer the mainstream business model in China, at least for most perfume brands,” says Zhan Wei, brand and operations director of May X Tang (寐堂香圃). “It is largely seen as a transitional channel.” He explains that the brand started offline because fragrance is deeply sensorial and experiential, requiring customers to smell and experience products in person to fully appreciate them. “Later we expanded to online channels to reach more consumers nationwide while keeping offline boutiques as our core experience hubs for niche luxury scents and imported fragrance brands,” Zhan adds. The new perfume boutique houses are building communities through curated niche selections, masterclasses, brand pop-ups, and collaboration experiences. Some have even begun creating their own branded products, capitalizing on the wealth of data and user experience gathered. Laporte (窄门) Laporte’s flagship store is now firmly on the map for perfume connoisseurs in Shanghai. Its narrow, wood-carved gate (its Chinese name means “narrow door”) opens into a shaded courtyard that is minimalist and green, with walls lined with botanicals in wine bottles. A large magnolia tree soaring above the surrounding buildings through the narrow door has become the signature visual of the store. The retail space is tiny, but its boutique selection now boasts 50 brands, with a new brand introduced each month. Global brands include niche French houses Ella K and Matière Premiere; artisanal brands with a strong Asian identity such as Maksim Perfume and Param Sara; as well as a selection of oil perfumes from Sultan Pasha Attars. Chinese fragrance brands are also represented, including Voice from the Sky, Qicunjiu, and Suoyin. “We journey across countries and continents to hunt for independent niche perfumes,” says founder Koon. “We try to decode the world through scents.” He launched the store in 2021 in Guangzhou, in the middle of the pandemic. “I saw scent as a cure,” recalls Koon. “My intent was to use it to relieve anxiety and stress.” As one of the earliest boutique perfume stores, Laporte is fortunate to be recognised by consumers, according to Koon, a visibility that has helped it scale into new cities. It has since expanded into Shanghai, Ningbo, Chengdu and Beijing, and now operates a WeChat mini program with 30,000 members. A key milestone for Laporte was the launch of its own brand, Lapot Studio, with signature scents such as Tobacco Lover, Yuzu Cologne, Jasmine Poet, and Iris Hermit. “I have always had two dreams,” shares Koon. “To build a community and create our own brand. In the future, I hope we will have our own brand boutique.” May X Tang (寐堂香圃) Unlike many perfume boutique houses that have emerged in southern China, May X Tang originated as a curated perfume experience space in Beijing. The company now operates four independent boutiques — two in Beijing, two in Shanghai — along with branded counters in mainstream shopping malls and online channels. “We strive to cover all price tiers of fragrance products, which we achieve through diverse store formats and innovatively designed counters,” says Zhan. “The Chinese character tang (堂) means ‘a hall where things converge,’ which is why many of our spaces are larger than typical boutiques in the same category.” The Shanghai boutique on Xiangshan Road feels generous and carefully sequenced; a courtyard leads to a product display hall, followed by a salon for talks and smelling sessions. The variety of scented products is also broader, offering a fuller fragrance experience. “We aim to let customers experience premium scents at accessible prices,” explains Zhan. “To do this, we have expanded our range to include incense sticks as well as personal care items with broader scent profiles and wider appeal — hand creams, body lotions, shower gels, soaps, and shower oils.” He outlines plans to expand into Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Chengdu. The ambition is that, as May X Tang scales up, it secures exclusive distribution rights for promising emerging brands both at home and abroad. “This aligns with our original vision of growing alongside these brands,” says Zhan. “When the time is right, we will also launch our own brand, which will not be limited solely to perfumes.” Aroma Traveler (旅人游香) Aroma Traveler is a relatively young perfume house founded in 2024 in Guangzhou. It is now expanding rapidly in Shanghai, with two boutique stores and its own fragrance brand, Xi. “We operate the usual sales channels as other perfume stores, but Aroma is all about the experience,” says Mak, the brand manager. “We pay great attention to the perfume containers as vessels that can convey beauty and experiment with scents that are more interesting or unconventional.” Aroma’s brand Xi is a visually striking product: all perfume bottles and scented candles are wrapped in virginally white crushed paper produced through an ancient technique considered an intangible heritage in China. The fragrance concept was created in collaboration with Givaudan as an artistic collection intended for an exhibition on mental health organized by the Shanghai government in late 2024. The public resonance of the collection gave Aroma confidence to open its Shanghai boutiques. Its product range is also expanding, from perfume sprays to solid fragrance, home scents, and car tablets. Antoaneta Becker is the director for consumer economy at the China-Britain Business Council. She is a China brand strategist, working with fragrance, beauty and luxury brands to support their entry and growth in the most dynamic consumer market.

From cocktails to scent swaps: Inside China’s experiential perfume clubs

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From cocktails to scent swaps: Inside China’s experiential perfume clubs

How Bottega Veneta weaved China’s forever it bag