Le Parfum: Finding Your Fragrance with a Perfumer

A beautiful perfume is transparent clothing on the skin…
Zsolt Zólyomi

Le Parfum is a specialist perfume shop opened in Budapest by perfumer Zsolt Zólyomi. It brings together niche fragrances from around the world, helping customers compare scents before making their final choice on the skin. In a personal fragrance consultation, conversation with the perfumer offers a way to discover what to choose.

Contents

How the Shop Began
1. A Perfumer Opens a Place to Choose Fragrance
The Thinking Behind the Shop
1. Understanding Fragrance Preferences Through Conversation
2. The Final Test Is on the Wearer’s Skin
Shops to Visit
1. The Erzsébet Square Shop
2. The MOM Park Shop
References

How the Shop Began

A Perfumer Opens a Place to Choose Fragrance

After studying biology, Zólyomi trained in perfumery in Versailles, France. Alongside creating fragrances, he devoted himself to building a place where he could introduce the work of other perfumers to Hungary. In 2008, he opened the first Le Parfum on Cukor Street in Budapest.

In the early days, some customers arrived looking for perfumes from familiar fashion brands and were puzzled by the selection on the shelves. Those searching for separate men’s and women’s sections found no such division. Zólyomi’s shelves invited them to set aside familiar names for a moment and try the scents in front of them.

The business later expanded to a corner of Fashion Street. Its shop inside the hotel facing Erzsébet Square reopened after renovations in the summer of 2016, and another shop followed at MOM Park in December 2019. From its small beginnings, Le Parfum had established places to choose perfume both in the city centre and in a shopping centre.

The Thinking Behind the Shop

Understanding Fragrance Preferences Through Conversation

Le Parfum’s selection includes BDK Parfums, Frapin, Juliette Has A Gun and Puredistance. Exploring brands with different creators and approaches to fragrance, customers look for scents they feel comfortable wearing.

An important part of this is not reducing a preference to a single word. If someone asks for a sweet fragrance, for example, Zólyomi asks whether they mean the sweetness of vanilla, honey or cocoa. The same word can call different scents to mind. As conversation makes those differences clearer, the choice of perfumes to try begins to narrow.

A personal fragrance consultation lasts about an hour. While trying a range of scents, the customer explores their characteristics with Zólyomi.

Together we analyse potential fragrance families, accords and raw materials…
Zsolt Zólyomi

He begins by asking about preferences, perfume-wearing habits and the occasions the fragrance is intended for, before comparing a range of scents. Consultations currently involve trying 30–40 perfumes and testing promising candidates on the skin. Unlike a bespoke commission to create a new perfume, this is time devoted to finding a fragrance for that person among existing creations.

The Final Test Is on the Wearer’s Skin

The individual’s skin scent matters most.
Zsolt Zólyomi

For Zólyomi, choosing a fragrance involves more than the impression made by its name or description. Perfumes that catch the customer’s interest are applied to the skin, so they can discover how they feel about them. Scents previously compared on paper become something experienced on the body.

Expertise alone does not sustain these consultations. Zólyomi has valued treating a famous actor and an older customer carrying a shopping bag with the same care. Alongside perfume knowledge, he looks for kindness, openness and curiosity about other people in his staff.

Illustration of the Le Parfum interior, with slender gold-framed perfume shelves, a round wooden table and beige chairs. — Inside Le Parfum (illustration)

Slender gold frames outline the shelves, with chairs beside a round wooden table. The wall of bottles and the place to sit face to face are close together. Browsing perfumes and taking time to talk are accommodated in the same space.

Shops to Visit

The Erzsébet Square Shop

In central Budapest, the shop to visit stands where Erzsébet Square meets Fashion Street. The hotel that houses it was formerly The Ritz-Carlton and is now called Al Habtoor Palace Budapest.

The shop has also welcomed fragrance creators. In 2017, Puredistance’s Iris Vos visited and spent time with Zólyomi and his staff. Beyond bringing together perfumes from around the world, Le Parfum connects their makers with the Budapest shop floor.