Dallas Store Review · Brotherhood Of Scent

Dallas Store Review

I had a work trip up to Dallas this weekend that turned out to be a big bust professionally. Probably one of the worst travel experiences I've had in a very, very long time.

But in the middle of it all, I did get some time to visit a couple of places that were bright shining spots in an otherwise dumpster fire of a weekend. I'm not sure where to file this under, so I"m going to call it a review.

Place #1: Classic Wholesale Perfumes. Exactly what it says it is. They are a wholesaler who supply retail stores, discounters, and others. It's a big nondescript warehouse in the industrial area on the north side of town. They have a salesroom that is open to the public, and it's amazing. Absolutly. Amazing. Selection is a bit limited to whatever they have as overstock, with some actual sales stock. They do not sell on their website, so the only way to buy as a member of the public is to walk into the show room and buy in person. Pricing is absolutely ridiculous. For example, they had most of the Memo Paris Leather line for $112 for the full presentation. I would have bought one, but I had a tight budget, and this would have been the only thing I could have bought. So I made a note and will be back. They had every Lattafa you've ever heard of, plus some that I hadn't. I got to try out Amber Al Oud, all of the Badee al ouds, Asad / Yara / Zanzibar and the flankers, all of the Fakhar, Kahmra, Philos, Emir, and Sheikh clones. All Lattafa on the table was $36/bottle, so some were overpriced, but others were way below what they are going for online. They had Armaf, Hermes, and on and on. I ended up getting a 100mL of Versace Pour Homme Oud Noire for $50 and a 125mL of John Varvatos Artisan Blu for $35. The staff was incredibly friendly, but not very knowledgeable. They know the names of things, but didn't have much information beyond stock and price and where it was on the shelf. No biggie, though. I had about 30 minutes in the store, and I could have spent hours. I will be back.

Place #2: The Scent Room. Niche only retailer in McKinney. I was worried that I would get looked down on in this store. It's one of those high end retailers next to Kendra Scott and a Parisian beauty bar. Lots of Porsches and Teslas parked on the street. The sales clark asked if I had ever been in, and when I told her it was my first time, she walked me through the entire store and had me test everything. She asked me about my favorite notes, what kind of scents I had, and we talked like a pair of geeks at ComicCon about who was better, PDM or Xerjoff. They had so much stuff! Argos, Imaginary Authors, PDM, Orto Parisi, Zoology, Stora Skuggan, Nasomotto, Mes Bisous, Roja, Mancera, Amouage, Xerjoff, Merchant of Venice, Ormond Jane, just to name a few, and big surprise, they had my all time favorite Andrea Maack. I spent 90 minutes wandering around snorting perfumes like Scarface on a bender. And through it all, she was as giddy as I was walking me through the little nooks and crannies of the shelves and showing me little treasures from brands few have ever heard of. She was Willy Wonka, and I was Charlie. It was amazing. I ended up taking home something that I'll do a write up on soon. It broke my bank a little, especially when you consider the price per mL, but it was worth it just for the experience. And she gave me a big handful of samples to take home, which was a lovely surprise.

All in all the visits made up for the difficult weekend that I had. I'm still working through the Canada Day sale stuff, so now I've got even more to go through. But I'm absolutely done for a good long while.

15 comments