Scents and Sensitivity

By Jeninne Lee-St. John

Eva Pasco, who loosely based her novel Underlying Notes on her fragrance addiction, has boxes and trunks and specially made cabinets all over her house for her perfume collection. She calls herself a "fragrance floozy," but she's no eccentric kook. At least half a million people like her subscribe to blogs like Sniffapalooza and Now Smell This, virtual clubhouses for those who love perfumes, particularly hard-to-find niche brands.

These consumers are the bright spot in the $2.9 billion high-end-fragrance industry, whose sales declined slightly in 2007. Niche perfumes were only 9% of that market, but their sales have risen 60% since 2005, says Karen Grant of market-research firm NPD--especially striking since most niche brands start at about $100 for 1.7 oz. (50 ml) while the average cost of a scent that size is $31, according to Euromonitor.

Now everyone is trying to nose in on this growing market. Sniffapalooza hosts a yearly event in New York City that gives members access to perfumers at European houses like the 250-year-old Creed and to retailers like niche specialist Aedes de Venustas. Recently the group met with Chanel for a lesson in the art and origin of its iconic perfumes and even got an exclusive sneak sniff of its new scent Sycomore, which launched two days later.

One of the 60 attendees, Christopher Voigt, is a freelance copywriter whose blog Vetivresse explores his twin passions for wine and fragrance--which both stimulate multiple senses. "It's not superficial. It's a link to your mood," Voigt says of selecting scents when dressing. "Am I going to be the nerd today? Or am I going to be the macho catch?"

This personal relationship with perfumes, which smell different on different people and at different times of day, distinguishes scentophiles, like oenophiles, from other collectors. Says March Dodge, an editor of the blog Perfume Posse, which had 50,000 unique visitors in January: "I like shoes, but shoes are boring."