escentials: Singapore Perfume Stores, Selection and History

we wanted people to buy perfumes for the unique relationship that it has with each person’s skin and personality.

Alwyn Chong (excerpt)

Bringing the reason for choosing a perfume back from the brand name to one’s own skin: this question runs through the history of escentials, the fragrance and beauty retailer founded in Singapore. Beginning in the Raffles Hotel shopping arcade in 2001, the store developed a place to try perfumes and discover the backgrounds of their creators.

Behind it stands LUXASIA, which brings perfume and cosmetics brands to markets across Asia. A distribution company created a store where it could meet users directly, then extended those in-store encounters online and to cities around Southeast Asia. Following these two developments reveals why escentials is more than a sales floor with a long list of brands.

Contents

Essential Information
A History That Began at Raffles Hotel
Broadening the View of Perfume Through Selection and Service
The Operational Shift That Connected Stores and Online Shopping
1. Changing Staff Working Practices to Develop Online Retail
2. From Singapore to Cities Across Southeast Asia
Where to Find the Stores in Singapore Today
An Aside: Alwyn’s Favorite Ingredient
References

Essential Information

Name: escentials
Opened: 2001, at Raffles Hotel in Singapore
A central figure in shaping the store: Alwyn Chong
Operator: LUXASIA Group. The terms and conditions on the Singapore official website are issued by LUXASIA Pte. Ltd.
Business: A specialist fragrance and beauty retailer, with an online store
Official website: escentials

A History That Began at Raffles Hotel

From a Family Fragrance Distribution Business to a Place for Personal Choice

LUXASIA was founded in Singapore in 1986 by Patrick Chong and Joseph Spartz. A company bringing perfume and cosmetics brands to market, it established escentials as its retail business.

Patrick’s son Alwyn had been exposed to the family business since childhood. He studied philosophy and economics at university and eventually joined the company. His interests extend beyond perfume to photography, design, and the presentation of brands. He later also became a co-founder of Gallery & Co., the multiconcept retail space at Singapore’s National Gallery.

At escentials, he addressed people who were not satisfied by a famous name alone. They wanted to understand a perfume’s heritage, the quality of its ingredients, and the stories of its perfumer or brand. The store offered these customers personalized service and time to understand fragrance. These were the kinds of encounters with perfume that the shop in the hotel arcade set out to create.

A Purpose That Survived the Unprofitable Years

The business did not prosper from the outset. In a 2017 conversation, Alwyn disclosed that for years after opening, escentials had been an unprofitable venture sustained by passion. He had also been frustrated by customers choosing perfumes for purchase gifts or brand associations. The opening quotation arose from that experience.

In the same conversation, he explained how, after beginning as a specialist perfume boutique, the store was approached by skincare and beauty brands attracted to its niche, distinctive assortment. Its expansion from perfume into beauty did not come from filling out the categories of a general store planned that way from the beginning.

The business grew through both department-store locations and standalone boutiques. The official history records the first Raffles Hotel store and the second location inside TANGS on Orchard Road under 2001–2002. A flagship opened at Paragon in 2010, followed by ION Orchard in 2019, adding places to compare perfumes along the city’s main shopping routes.

Historical Timeline

Year	Event
1986	Patrick Chong and Joseph Spartz found LUXASIA. This is a separate starting point from the opening of escentials.
2001	escentials opens in the Raffles Hotel shopping arcade.
2001–2002	The official history records the first store and the second location inside TANGS.
2010	A flagship opens at Paragon.
2017	Escentials.com launches, developing a business that connects stores with online shopping.
2019	A location opens at ION Orchard. Fulfillment of online orders moves from the store to a warehouse.
2021	The business expands into Malaysia at Suria KLCC.
2023	The official history and an executive interview from that year record expansion into Thailand and Vietnam. The ION Orchard store reopens following a move within the mall.

Broadening the View of Perfume Through Selection and Service

Considering Both the People Behind a Brand and Those Who Use It

The selection process Alwyn described in 2016 was not determined by brand recognition alone. The team read beauty trade publications and blogs and visited local retail spaces while traveling. When considering a new brand, they looked at the people driving it, its fit with customers, ingredient quality, trends, and its following.

This involves both finding unusual things and bringing them to people who will use them. Highlighting a creator’s personality alone does not create an encounter if there is no connection with a customer’s life. This is why service also placed importance on understanding how customers lived and what they wanted.

to allow for the fragrance to develop on their skin.

Alwyn Chong (excerpt)

Time to try a perfume is integral to the store’s thinking. Rather than asking customers to decide on a first impression, it makes room to learn about a brand and explore its relationship with one’s own skin. That approach also connects with the services offered on the official website today.

Exploring Preferences Through Fragrance Profiling

The official website describes Fragrance Profiling, a service using conversation to explore scents that suit a person’s preferences, whether for a special occasion or to mark a new phase of life. It is a starting point for discovering, through dialogue, what draws one’s interest.

The official information also lists makeup services by appointment, occasional beauty events, and workshops. Rather than isolating fragrance, the store also creates connections with users across the broader field of beauty.

For people who want to try products before ordering online, however, the official FAQ directs them to the Paragon, ION Orchard, and TANGS stores. Its role is easier to understand as a business where people discover products in person and can also buy them online, rather than assuming a permanent mail-order sampling program.

What Enthusiasts Mention: A Place to Smell Niche Perfumes in Person

escentials also appears in Reddit discussions about finding perfume in Singapore. A 2023 thread includes a recommendation as a place to try niche perfumes in person, along with another reply naming the store. This suggests that it is recognized as somewhere to compare several brands.

Reactions to service are not uniform, however. Alongside comments on convenient locations, a 2023 post recounts one person’s experience of being stopped from further sampling after trying several perfumes at ION. This does not establish a rule across all locations, but support for the assortment and satisfaction with an individual visit need to be read separately.

The Operational Shift That Connected Stores and Online Shopping

Changing Staff Working Practices to Develop Online Retail

The online store launched in 2017. In the original 2020 interview, then regional managing director Karen Ong explained that orders had initially been packed inside the shop, that a system for making use of customer information was introduced in 2018, and that fulfillment moved to a warehouse in 2019.

Technology was not the only challenge. To store staff, directing customers online could seem like giving up their own sales and commissions. The company therefore revised its assessment and incentive arrangements so that an online purchase could still connect back to the person who had served the customer face to face. Allowing online shopping to continue the work of in-store service required changes behind the scenes as well.

However, for beauty the store will always be the heart of [of the business]

Karen Ong (excerpt; bracketed wording as printed in the source)

This was how Karen expressed the importance of a place where people first smell and touch a product. Growing online sales and valuing discovery in stores were part of the same business.

From Singapore to Cities Across Southeast Asia

International expansion progressed from Malaysia in 2021. The announcement of the Suria KLCC opening described eight brands spanning fragrance, skincare, makeup, bath and body, and home. Rather than importing the entire Singapore assortment, the business began with a more focused range.

In 2023, Karen, speaking as a senior executive, said the business had also expanded into Thailand and Vietnam. For LUXASIA, this was a strategy of establishing its own retail spaces with direct customer relationships alongside its work distributing brands.

We’re not playing a short-term game.

Karen Ong

Her statement that year expressed a commitment to developing the stores over the long term despite economic fluctuations. Rather than assuming that people across Asia share a single fragrance preference, the business creates places in individual cities where they can compare and consult in person. Its regional role lies in the expansion of these tangible retail spaces.

Where to Find the Stores in Singapore Today

As checked in October 2026, the official Singapore store directory lists these three locations:

Paragon: 290 Orchard Road, #03-02/05
ION Orchard: 2 Orchard Turn, #B2-29
TANGS Plaza: 310 & 320 Orchard Road, Beauty Hall, Level 1

After first opening at ION in 2019, the store relocated within the mall and reopened in 2023. Its current Basement 2 address should be distinguished from the date of its original arrival.

The official brand directory differentiates availability at Paragon, ION, TANGS, and online. Byredo, Amouage, Creed, and D.S. & Durga are among the names listed, but not every location carries the same assortment. It is a place to explore what attracts you while encountering the styles of multiple brands. That way of enjoying the store has continued since its beginnings at Raffles Hotel.

An Aside: Alwyn’s Favorite Ingredient

In 2016, Alwyn named vetiver as his favorite ingredient. He also said he rotated the perfumes he wore rather than remaining with a fixed choice. The store’s selection criteria and his personal taste are not the same thing, but this suggests that someone who introduces diverse fragrances also enjoys perfume without limiting himself to a single bottle.