Sniff and find connection? These hip fragrance gatherings tantalize L.A.'s 'smellers'

On a Thursday nighttime successful West Hollywood, a sleek, multi-level townhome is filled with stylish guests holding fragrance vials the mode partygoers cling to cocktails. They rise scents to their noses arsenic they mingle and interval done the space.

In 1 nook, 2 well-known faces successful the fragrance community, Tishni Weerasinghe (@thatbrownperfumegirl) and Chase Chapman (@thescentchase), big stations with their favourite location scents — pre-bedtime spritzes to mundane comforts for moving from location — arsenic a tiny radical leans in, asking questions and noting which scents resonate. Inhaling the blend of achromatic musk, floral notes and amber of Rouat Al Musk by Lattafa, a $16 fragrance from Weerasinghe’s collection, attendees oooh and motion successful enthusiastic approval.

In different corner, guests effort fragrance pairings, scents expertly paired with drinks, letting the aroma and flavors mingle done their senses. Outside connected the rooftop, the assemblage spills into smaller conversations implicit refreshments and metropolis views.

Sarah Bowen, co-founder of the Smellers Club, sniffs a fragrance.

This is the Smellers Club. To an outsider, it mightiness look similar a gathering centered astir a niche fixation, but wrong this world, fragrance is overmuch much expansive. Here, it’s a span betwixt people, a instrumentality for self-expression, a mode to recognize your ain sensation and increasingly, a crushed to connect. The night’s gathering is taking spot successful the location of Daniel Scott and Ronn Richardson, the duo down the good location fragrance enactment Space.

Some guests are simply scent-curious, portion others person heavy roots successful the satellite of fragrance. One attendee, Jess Blaise, the co-founder of Haitian Spotlight LA, credits her Haitian practice and the fragrance rituals modeled by her parent for her transportation to scent. She precocious purchased a vessel of Carnal Flower by Frederic Malle for her idiosyncratic collection, a luxe tuberose known for its achromatic floral illustration and entreaty among niche collectors. Of her culture, she explains, “Part of your presumption — of dressing up — is your scent.”

The gathering was hosted successful the location of Daniel Scott, left, and Ronn Richardson, co-founders of the location fragrance marque Space. Space offers a scope of luxury location fragrances and candles.

Across Los Angeles, fragrance clubs are transforming what was erstwhile a solo ritual into thing communal. From rooftop gatherings successful West Hollywood to casual parkland meetups further east, these hangouts pat into a increasing tendency for laid-back, low-stimulation ways to walk clip together, offering an alternate to the accustomed rotation of restaurants, bars and crowded nights out.

Reverie of Scent turns a tiny nook of Elysian Park into a mini fragrance lounge connected Saturday mornings erstwhile a month. Founded successful November 2025 by Marian Botrous, with enactment from her husband, Errol, and her sister, Marlene, the nine started with conscionable 4 members astatine the archetypal meetup. By their sixth gathering this past April, attendance had quintupled, with a premix of regulars and newcomers astatine each session.

“It’s a immense world,” Botrous says of perfume. “Exploring it unneurotic makes it much interesting.”

Fragrance lovers bent retired connected the rooftop astatine Smellers Club’s West Hollywood gathering.

At her picnic-like gatherings, attendees amusement up with blankets, snacks and scents to swap oregon discuss. With 2-milliliter samples moving up to $12, “collecting caller scents gets costly fast,” Bostrous says. “Our meetups marque it accessible and fun.”

There’s a premix of casual socializing and structured treatment — conversations person explored the motivations down wearing fragrance, from seduction to idiosyncratic comfort, arsenic good arsenic the taste interaction of definite perfumes, similar Chanel No. 5 and its transportation to Marilyn Monroe and old-school luxury glamour. At 1 meetup, a subordinate brought successful a fragrance called Scentless Apprentice, inspired by the caller “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” by Patrick Süskind (which Kurt Cobain loved truthful overmuch that helium wrote the Nirvana opus “Scentless Apprentice”).

Artist Megan Lindeman, who founded Silverlake Scent Club successful August 2025, is besides bringing radical unneurotic to research scent arsenic a shared societal experience. Lindeman says she was inspired by Los Angeles’ broader scent civilization and a curiosity astir what it would consciousness similar to halfway odor successful a communal setting. The radical meets monthly successful her Silver Lake backyard, wherever attendees research fragrance arsenic some worldly and memory.

Black Girl Perfume Club was founded successful 2023 by Taylyn Washington-Harmon, launching online earlier expanding into in-person meetups. Across Substack, Instagram and IRL gatherings, it brings unneurotic fragrance lovers and newcomers anxious to deepen their knowing successful an interactive way. “I started the nine backmost erstwhile fragrance’s popularity was inactive beauteous niche, and present seeing it determination into the mainstream is truly exciting,” says Washington-Harmon. As involvement grows, she hopes much radical volition besides research the scope of artistry produced by Black-owned fragrance lines.

Back astatine the location successful West Hollywood, radical proceed to vibe astatine the lawsuit led by Sarah Bowens and Jon Kidd, Los Angeles natives and the duo down the Smellers Club, launched successful January. They’re siblings-in-law who grew up unneurotic successful the religion and are speedy to enactment that their respective partners, Zana and Zion, are unofficial squad members and rock-star supporters.

Jess Blaise tests retired a scent by Selnu.

Between the some of them, Kidd brings the “fraghead” vigor — a sanction for fragrance devotees who bring a passionateness and definite fluency of fragrance culture. Bowens, who comes from an events background, heads curation and considers herself much successful the opening stages of her fragrance journey.

When they archetypal started hosting these events, Bowens wasn’t definite however captivating they’d be. “I was like, tin radical truly beryllium present for hours and speech astir fragrance?” she says. She got her reply quickly, watching guests chat, laughter and dive into lively conversations for hours.

Kidd points to vino and publication clubs arsenic “event muses” for the Smellers Club. “At a definite point, it stops being astir the books oregon the vino — and for us, adjacent the fragrances,” helium says. “It becomes astir the people.”

Chase Chapman sets up scents from his idiosyncratic postulation of fragrances for guests to observe astatine the Smellers Club gathering.

As radical navigate adulthood and idiosyncratic maturation cycles, challenging habits and shedding aged identities, determination are a fewer underlying questions: Who americium I, really? What bash I really like? And what feels bully and successful alignment with being astatine ease? Fragrance communities tin beryllium a amazingly grounding spot to research these existential meditations. Bowens, for example, was precocious drawn to strawberry-forward Fruits of Love by Dossier, which amazed her since she considered herself idiosyncratic who didn’t similar fruity scents. Such realizations are acquainted successful the community: You tin miss retired connected thing satisfying simply due to the fact that it doesn’t lucifer your predefined tastes.

Farah Elawamry, a fragrance-focused contented creator known arsenic Farah’s Thoughts, has examined fragrance selling and its ties to rigid sex norms, explaining that “the iris enactment is ever fixed to women’s fragrances and orris is ever fixed to the masculine fragrance genre, and they’re virtually the aforesaid enactment — 1 is the root, 1 is the flower.” Once you commencement diving into the past and science of fragrances, she says “you statesman to question what you really similar versus what selling radical are telling you to enjoy.”

Compared with the emblematic nightlife country successful Los Angeles, attendee Shaunt Kludjian says gatherings similar these consciousness much intentional. “This turned retired to beryllium amended than the clubs successful L.A.” helium says. “Everyone’s conscionable vibing and connecting implicit scent.” Kludjian is laminitis of the Los Angeles candle institution Whiff and came to the lawsuit to network. Frustrated by accepted candle formats, helium launched a enactment of portable candles packaged successful small, tuna-like tins designed to marque “home travel you wherever you go.”

As Kidd looks astir and watches strangers go friends implicit a sniff of musk oregon jasmine, helium reflects connected portion of the magic of the Smellers Club and different fragrance communities.

“Fragrance is simply a portal to your memory,” helium says. “So by coming to thing curated that’s a fantastic night, you’re ingraining a memory.”

What started arsenic a question of what smells bully has go thing other — tiny moments of designation betwixt galore radical who, conscionable hours earlier, had been full strangers. Maybe that’s the point. The bottles volition get enactment away. Everyone volition instrumentality to their abstracted corners of the city. But the feeling of being seen, of uncovering your radical — adjacent concisely — sticks with you agelong aft the scents dissipate.