6 of the World’s Most Niche Fragrance Brands

Founded by fashion, art and design extraordinaire Serge Lutens, this French perfumery landed its big break thanks to a collaborative project with Japanese cosmetics brand Shiseido. Since going it alone in the early nineties, Serge Lutens has gained a cult following for its unique and niche products, appealing to luxury fragrance aficionados across the globe.

Creed is founded by James Creed in 1700s Britain, is another perfumery that used to supply royal families, including Queen Victoria. Now, generations later, the company still remains in the family, in the hands of Oliver Creed who insists that all the components are weighed, mixed and filtered by hand as they were centuries ago.

L’Artisan Parfumeur is a French niche perfume house, established in 1976 by Jean Laporte. He later left the company to form rival Maître Parfumeur et Gantier.
Many of L’Artisan perfumes are innovations and because of its exclusivity discovery of fragrances is mainly left to adepts. In 1976 L’Artisan created and presented an innovative home fragrance shaped as amber ball. Each ball is handmade and contains crystals of herbal origins with smell identical to ambergris. The smell of crystals lasts for about two years, and they can be replaced with new ones afterwards.

Starting out life as a barbershop, this British scent maker made its first foray into fragrance back in 1872. Since then, Penhaligon’s has collected two Royal Warrants, with many of its traditional scents still best sellers today. The brand’s simple, elegant packing adds to the old-school sense of refinement, with each scent coming in a glass bottle finished with a small ribbon bow.

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5. Amouage

This fragrance house has royalty to thank for its formation, being founded by the Sultan of Oman in 1983. With tradition and luxury at its heart, the label still uses the same rich ingredients from around the world in its products, including garwood, incense, musk, rose and spices. The bottles pack a punch too, with each scent contained in beautifully embellished, shelf-worthy vessels.

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6. Dyptique Paris

Diptyque was established in 1961 by three friends: painter Desmond Knox-Leet, set designer Yves Coueslant, and Christiane Gautrot, who worked in an architecture firm. Their original plan was to design and market cotton print fabrics, but scented candles, introduced in 1963 as something of a sideline, turned out to be more popular than the fabrics. There are currently over 50 scents in the candle collection. In 1968 Diptyque launched their first personal fragrance, L’Eau.

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