Ministry of Scent: Independent Perfume in San Francisco

Inside the bottle is where my customers, not to mention these makers, begin.

Antonia Kohl

Ministry of Scent in San Francisco brings together perfumes from around the world. Some take animals or fictional stories as their subjects; others explore the scents of tea or wood. What unites them is a store where visitors can compare the personalities of different creators, rather than enter the world of a single brand.

It began as a small pop-up that a perfume-loving designer set up in a friend’s jewelry atelier. A perfumer joined as co-owner, alongside staff who could talk about fragrance and local makers. That history continues in its two present-day stores in the Mission District and Pacific Heights.

Contents

Essential Information
The Founder and the Making of the Store
The Work Behind Selection and Sampling
References

Essential Information

Name: Ministry of Scent
Former name: Tigerlily Perfumery
Beginnings: Launched as a pop-up in 2013; the first permanent store opened in February 2014
Founder: Antonia Kohl. Ineke Rühland joined as an equal co-owner in 2018
Location: San Francisco, USA. The Mission District store is at 962 Valencia Street; the Pacific Heights store is at 2408 Fillmore Street
Business: A multibrand specialist in niche and independent perfumes, with an online shop
Official website: Ministry of Scent

The Founder and the Making of the Store

From Printmaking and Game Design to Introducing Perfume

Kohl was born in California and grew up around Berkeley. She studied printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design on the East Coast, then spent roughly twenty years working across comics, toys, game development, and systems design. Long before turning to perfume, she had been giving expression a tangible form through different media.

Her interest in perfume also went back a long way. Her friend and mentor Judith Brandman introduced her to niche fragrance, and her friendships with Ineke and perfumer Yosh Han extended that interest to local creators. Niche perfume is a term for fragrances whose approaches to creation and distribution differ from those intended for broad, mass-market sales.

I wanted to work with people; I love learning what makes them tick.

Antonia Kohl, 2015 (excerpt)

Kohl wanted a place that would bring together the perfumes she loved and a job that involved meeting people.

A Pop-Up in 2013, a Permanent Store in 2014

In 2013, she started Tigerlily at Love & Luxe, a friend’s jewelry atelier on Valencia Street. After several months as a pop-up, she opened the first permanent store on the same street in February 2014. It is this stage that accounts for 2014 being cited as the store’s opening year.

I was craving a local store that showcased the work of independent, artistic perfumers.

Antonia Kohl, 2024 (excerpt)

The name Tigerlily was intended to combine the beauty of a lily with something rare and powerful. It could accommodate not only beautiful floral scents, but also expressions with a more unusual character.

In 2015, Taking Custody of Makers’ Unreleased Perfumes

The shop soon became a meeting place for creators and enthusiasts. In 2015, more than 120 people attended an event with Jeffrey Dame and Andy Tauer. Drawing on that enthusiasm, Kohl and Dame conceived UNRELEASED, a project presenting scents that perfumers had made for themselves and experiments they had not yet shared publicly.

Participants included Tauer, Josh Meyer of Imaginary Authors, Bruno Fazzolari, Ineke, and Liz Moores of Papillon. The idea was to accompany perfume samples with videos from their creators. Offering access not just to finished products but also to ideas still in development reveals something of the shop’s interests.

In 2017, the store also hosted workshops in which Yosh Han assessed participants’ creations. Meanwhile, its shelves brought together perfumes from local California makers, American independents, and overseas brands. Introducing regional creators and looking out into the wider world had coexisted in the same shop from the beginning.

From Joint Ownership in 2018 to Two Specialist Stores

In 2018, Ineke became an equal co-owner. A perfumer with her own fragrance brand was now developing the retail business alongside Kohl. The store subsequently changed its name to Ministry of Scent, expanding its range of brands, sampling program, online business, and staff.

In its Tigerlily days, the store was at 973 Valencia Street. Today’s Mission District shop is at number 962, a different address. A second store opened at 2408 Fillmore Street in June 2024. This was an expansion into Pacific Heights, not a move replacing the existing store.

As of October 2026, Ineke’s own official website carries an announcement that she has wound down her perfume brand and will concentrate on Ministry of Scent.

I’ll be focusing my efforts on Ministry of Scent.

Ineke Rühland (excerpt)

It is a decision to apply her experience as a perfumer not only to her own compositions, but also to bringing the work of many different creators to people.

A Timeline of the Store

Year	Event
2013	Tigerlily starts as a pop-up inside Love & Luxe.
February 2014	The first permanent store opens on Valencia Street.
2015	The UNRELEASED project introduces unreleased scents and personal creations.
2017	The store continues to host exchanges, including workshops in which Yosh Han evaluates participants’ creations.
2018	Ineke joins as an equal co-owner. A new name and an expanded assortment and online business follow.
June 2024	The Pacific Heights store opens on Fillmore Street.
As of October 2026	The business operates two stores, at 962 Valencia Street and 2408 Fillmore Street.

The Work Behind Selection and Sampling

From Established Niche Names to Small Independents

The current official introduction describes a selection of more than ninety niche perfume brands across the two stores. Its brand directory includes Parfums de Marly, Nasomatto, Orto Parisi, Maison Crivelli, Matière Première, Marc-Antoine Barrois, and D.S. & Durga, among others.

Zoologist, Tauer, Kerosene, Imaginary Authors, and Fazzolari’s FZOTIC are also represented. Brands from Asia form part of the selection too, including J-Scent from Japan, BORNTOSTANDOUT from South Korea, One Day from Hong Kong, and d’Annam from Vietnam.

The official sales pages list, for example, Layton by Parfums de Marly, Black Afgano by Nasomatto, and I Don’t Know What by D.S. & Durga. This is not simply a directory displaying brand names: it is a store selling perfumes from multiple houses. Each location, however, has its own selection, so not every product appears on both sets of shelves.

Connecting a Creator’s Background with the Scent in Front of You

In Kohl’s approach to service, explaining a perfume and telling its maker’s story are inseparable. Since the Tigerlily days, she has described creators’ backgrounds, ingredients, and working methods while customers try fragrances on their skin. The store has carried both compositions centered on natural materials and those using synthetics.

However, both forms of perfumery are legitimate.

Antonia Kohl

Rather than making the natural-versus-synthetic distinction the sole basis of selection, this approach asks what a creator achieves through the chosen method. The official website has also built up a collection of interviews with brand founders and perfumers. These include John Pegg of Kerosene, Victor Wong of Zoologist, and Michael Wong of One Day: conversations with the people behind the scents on the shelves.

Starting with a Preference, Then Comparing Several Perfumes

Mention a liking for lavender, and several different lavender perfumes can be set alongside one another. A preference for amber becomes a chance to explore its range of expression. This is the kind of guidance offered at the Pacific Heights shop. A specialist store’s strength lies in being able to compare scents described by the same word across several brands.

This work has not always taken place in a peaceful shop interior. Michael Ryan, who has worked at the store since 2017, remembers a period during the pandemic when customers were served across a table at the entrance. If someone wanted a rose fragrance, staff brought possibilities out from inside. Customers smelled them on the street and came back while maintaining their distance. Even under restrictions, the essential service of listening to a preference and offering several scents remained.

As of October 2026, the official website still provides a contact point for free fragrance consultations. Helping someone discover preferences they cannot yet put into words is different from simply passing on knowledge. It also means watching their reactions and choosing the next bottle accordingly.

Samples and Events That Extend the Encounter Beyond the Store

Online, the shop sells small samples for trying perfumes. The official website encourages customers to test them on their skin and discover what they like. It is a way to take a first impression from the shelves back home and see how it holds up in everyday life.

Events also reflect the store’s relationship with creators. In 2023, DJ Zernell Gillie presented Hip Hop, his music-inspired perfume, at the shop. In June 2024, it hosted BOHOBOCO Perfume founder Michał Gilbert Lach for an event combining a public interview with fragrance sampling. These are opportunities to enjoy perfume as a form of culture while listening to people’s stories.

Ministry of Scent is shaped by more than the number of brands it carries. It places perfumes by different authors side by side, allowing visitors to test their differences and become curious about the people who made them. Preparing the ground for those encounters has been the store’s work since its small pop-up beginnings.