Scent Bar NYC — Local services in New York

My partner and I had planned a jam-packed NYC trip, and on the top of my To Do list was check out Scent Bar (he was just tagging along). I recently got into the niche fragrance community, and had several brands/items I was curious in, specifically Zoologist and Xerjoff. I had some questions ready, but also had some money set aside specifically for this trip. I was excited and knew that I would be purchasing something.

Now I had checked out the reviews in advance, and noticed some pretty bad experiences. I knew that going into any higher end stores can foster a sort of pretentious atmosphere, and had some worries, but I figured this is NYC for goodness sake. Surely people, especially tourists, are not dressed to the nines when trekking around NYC. My partner and I finished brunch and showed up a little before 11am when they opened and waited outside, as we knew we were early. There were two women in there still setting up. I took a photo of the outside because I was excited to share it in the fragrance group I am in. There is really nowhere else that I can go to sample such niche fragrances, so I was excited!

My partner and I chatted outside while we waited. The two women eventually finished preparation for opening (or so we thought) and were now seated chatting with one another. We kept talking and thought, ok they will open up soon. Nope. We made eye contact several times with them and the one pretended not to see me. She completely refused to acknowledge my presence. There was NO ONE else around on this entire street. It’s a calmer street than most NYC storefronts. There was truly no one else around, and no possible way they could have not seen us. It was very clear that we were customers waiting for them. What kind of place wouldn’t want customers?

Let me be clear, I am not mad about a store not opening at 11am on time. I am mad that it was made very clear we were not wanted there. They gave none of those universal gestures that indicate “hello” or “just a moment”. These two women chatted and did everything in their power to not look at us. They never changed the sign from “closed” to “open”. Based on this, we then knew that even if we continued to wait until they were forced to open, it would be an unpleasant experience.

We left at 11:07AM without any interaction.

The only obvious conclusion one can come to, is that they didn’t want to open because they didn’t want to help us based on our looks alone. While we are a gay couple, I do not believe this to be the reason why. I’d certainly hope not, but who knows these days. I believe they just judged us simply by our dress/looks. Isn’t that a lovely feeling to walk away with?

I am leaving this review in hopes others see this and the other 1-star reviews and take their money elsewhere. If the owners are ok with these practices and allow their employees to be this unwelcoming, they don’t deserve your money. I’d sooner blind buy fragrances directly from the companies themselves than ever attempt to...

My experience here was like aggressively bad which is a shocker considering all any employee here has to do is pull perfumes and talk about them. I go to scent bar la, ministry of scent in San Francisco, and ZGO perfumes in San Francisco and have absolutely no issue. What’s going on here? Was helped (not really) by this employee in store today. They were dressed in a t shirt and jeans (from what I remember) and had an Afro/ Afro-like hair. (Using visual descriptors as I never even asked for their name because it seemed like the worst pain in their life to speak to me, so it didn’t even get that far.) The employee told me to walk to the end of the bar to be helped,so I did. They asked me “what are you looking for today?” With the most pained fake smile in the world. I instantly was wondering if something had happened to them, or a rude customer interaction had occurred. I looked around and saw no sign of either. The employee proceeded to pull the ONLY three perfumes I asked to get a spray of in the most irritated form (not a single word when asked to smell it, just a blank stare, a nod, a spritz on paper and giving it to me to smell.) and INSTANTLY pull out their phone to do who knows what the second I started smelling the paper. Didn’t seem interested in helping with the actual scent “BAR” aspect of the business. Make no mistake my fellow yelpers, I am not a lunatic customer. I’m your overly kind -make employees and any and all service workers feel appreciated because I understand the job- type of customer. So I knew it wasn’t me because several times I tried to plaster on the most intense “I am a kind human person please treat me as such” smile I could even manage. After 3 perfumes pulled for me and more blank stares and going on their phone (ignoring me completely unless I spoke basically) I gave up and asked for a bottle of what I came for. Lame. Oh, and they also barked at this poor guy next to me, saying “DON’T spray there, spray AWAY from the table!” As if the guy’s name was Bill Scent Bar. Like how was he supposed to know?? I went to scent bar in LA when I lived there for the last three years. The experience is extremely different and very very disappointing in NYC. Patrons, I hope you don’t have the experience I did, but be prepared for it...

There’s so many different scents out there, it’s a little daunting. This initial apprehension made me feel as though I were going to look like a clumsy oaf, browsing and trying out different colognes like an idiot.

Upon coming in, a representative was on the phone. They ended it and greeted me warmly. It meant a lot they took the time to make sure I got immediate help. We talked about what I was interested in—what I used to use for cologne and why I liked it (and why I wanted to try something else). I told him what kind of direction I wanted to go into, and after a bit of thought, they chose one for me.

It smelt amazing.

I felt like I was in Harry Potter, where Harry is picking his first wand and the shopkeeper finds different choices for him. Likewise, my experience was nothing short of magic. It made the wall of different choices less overwhelming because I was being helped with an experienced representative.

I liked being able to discuss the scent with someone experienced. I would consider myself a complete novice to fragrances—I don’t always know how to describe what I liked about each scent. Vijay, the representative who helped me, would determine what I liked about the fragrance and offer another. I loved the contrast between the two. Suddenly this decision went from hundreds down to just a few.

Vijay, I can’t thank you enough. You were like a maestro, guiding me in the right direction and selecting different scents to look deeper into. I was able to get two samples, and I look forward to wearing them.

This is how scent selection should be. We need to experience the smell in person before settling with what we exactly want. Sure, we could blind-buy a hyped up fragrance on some online shop, but what about seeing what else there is to offer? The journey of finding the right fragrance ultimately becomes the most delightful part of selecting one.

I cannot recommend this experience enough. This shop exceeded my expectations, and will make me a future, loyal customer to Lucky Scent and the Scent Bar. I look forward to going again and trying more during the next...