EX NIHILO, described by its founders as the "Tesla of fragrance," is bringing the art of bespoke perfumery to its retail stores around the world.
The niche fragrance brand — founded by Sylvie Loday, Olivier Royère and Benoît Verdier in 2013 — has installed the The Osmologue, a fragrance-customizing robot, in seven of its flagship stores across Europe, Asia, and North America.
The Osmologue experience starts with a consultation to pinpoint a customer's taste, personality, and lifestyle. (Fear not — the consultation is with a human, not a robot.) The customer will have the opportunity to sniff EX NIHILO's pre-existing range of perfumes, as well as a selection of natural ingredients like rose, iris, and orange blossom, to better identify their preferences.
Then comes the fun part: The customer can choose the EX NIHILO perfume they want to customize, along with their preferred ingredient add-in to "boost" the fragrance.
"All these combinations have been validated by our perfumers here in Paris," co-founder Verdier tells Highsnobiety. The Osmologue will then blend your special creation on the spot, as well as bottle it in a flacon that can be customized with your initials. "You will be able to leave our flagships with your own scent, without waiting weeks to get the result," Verdier says. "We will also give you a certificate of authenticity and keep all your preferences into our database," so that customers can easily re-order their custom perfume.
EX NIHILO first conceived of The Osmologue 10 years ago, long before bespoke perfume services were accessible to the average customer. The brand's Osmologue service is pricey — 100 milliliter bottles start at at $400 — but relatively affordable compared to the other bespoke perfume offerings available. (Of course, The Osmologue only allows for a margin of customization, rather than a totally bespoke scent.)
Henry Jacques charges prices starting at $133,000 for fully customized juice, while Krigler requires a $75,000 deposit for custom fragrances (the process can take up to two years).
Perfumer Marissa Zappas — whose eponymous fragrance line is a favorite among New York City's downtown set — also creates bespoke scents for her clients, starting at $4,000. So does independent perfume brand Kismet Olfactive, for sums starting at $3,500.
There are options for those without thousands or even hundreds of dollars of expendable cash. Fragrance experts are increasingly offering "perfume consultations," wherein they help customers sift through the overwhelming number of scents on the market to find The One.
