ZGO Perfumery: A Place to Share Favorite Smells and Their Memories

“our goal is to tell those stories.”

Claude Gratianne, ZGO co-founder

ZGO Perfumery stands at the corner of 19th and Castro Streets in San Francisco’s Castro district. The shop, with its candles, perfumes and teas, began with a conversation about favorite smells.

Co-founders Claude Gratianne and Tani Kampakum have created a place that does more than gather perfumes from around the world: it connects the people behind them with those searching for a scent. Following the shop’s history reveals how a perfume retailer’s work runs continuously from buying and customer service to devising ways to try fragrances.

Contents

Essential Information
The Founders and the Beginnings of the Shop
Selecting Perfumes, Serving Customers and Making Room to Try
The Current Shop and Fragrance in Everyday Life
References

Essential Information

Founded: 2010
Co-founders: Claude Gratianne and Tani Kampakum
Name: The initials of Zen Garden Oasis
Current physical shop: 600 Castro Street, San Francisco, California 94114, USA
Business: An independent specialist carrying niche perfumes from multiple brands, candles and other scented products
Official website: ZGO Perfumery

The Founders and the Beginnings of the Shop

How a Civil Engineer Raised in Sonoma Came to Open a Fragrance Shop

Claude was born into a family of French immigrants and grew up in Sonoma, California. As a child, he also spent time on his family’s small farm in the French Pyrenees. Hay, mud, farm animals, rain, cheese aging beside the barn: his scent memories encompass not only beautiful flowers but also the strong, sometimes less-than-pleasant odors of farm life.

Claude went on to become a civil engineer and work on a number of projects. Eventually, he and Tani left their previous working lives behind to embark on a business exploring scent. What drove them was an interest in the role of smell, a sense whose influence in everyday life often goes unnoticed.

The question posed in 2010, as recorded in the official founding story, was “What are your favorite smells?” Friends’ answers included freshly cut hay and the smoke of a campfire. Talking about scent brought out people’s memories. From that discovery grew the idea of a shop that would gather scents from around the world and allow people to encounter their own memories through them.

The Image of Earth Within the Name Zen Garden Oasis

Tani grew up in a Buddhist environment and Claude in a Catholic one. Their travels across Asia deepened their appreciation of Buddhism. Claude, meanwhile, had long been interested in space. He imagined Earth as a garden and an oasis floating in a vast, desert-like universe. Those two interests came together in the name Zen Garden Oasis.

In an account published in 2017, the two described discussing the meaning of their work over candlelit dinners, and wondering why scent and flame affect the emotions. This way of thinking, extending from a small domestic flame to the planet itself, was also part of the beginnings of a shop whose interests reached beyond perfume alone.

From Online Candle Sales to a Perfumery in the Castro

ZGO moved from an online candle business to a shop in Hayes Valley and then to the Castro. By March 2013, it was already trading at 600 Castro Street and expanding its perfume selection. Claude also saw online sales as an important way to connect the shop with people who could not travel to San Francisco.

The shop at that time occupied a Victorian storefront with high ceilings and large windows. At a 2013 event introducing newly stocked brands, representatives presented Nez à Nez, Agonist and Nasomatto, while glass bell jars covered the candles. Displays that invited people to lift a cover and smell, and events where visitors gathered to try perfumes: ways of presenting scent were part of the shop’s work from an early stage.

Inviting Creators to Share the Background to Their Work

The shop’s role between brands and customers is also evident in later events. An announcement sent in April 2022 promoted a May 8 launch event for Gris Charnel Extrait with David Benedek, founder of BDK Parfums. The plan was to discuss not only the new release but also the original eau de parfum and the personal journey of the man who created BDK.

Presenting two concentrations with the same name side by side does more than increase the available choices. It provides an opportunity to hear from the person behind them about what was retained and what changed. ZGO’s in-store events offer a way to approach a perfume’s background before receiving it simply as a product.

Key Moments in ZGO’s History

Date	Event
2010	Claude and Tani found ZGO.
By March 2013	Following the online candle business and the Hayes Valley shop, ZGO expands its perfume offering in the Castro.
2017	The shop is described as carrying more than 75 brands across perfume, home fragrance and beauty.
2022	ZGO announces an in-store launch event for Gris Charnel Extrait with BDK’s founder.
Today	ZGO operates its physical shop at 600 Castro Street and an online store, with samples and individual fragrance recommendations.

Selecting Perfumes, Serving Customers and Making Room to Try

Telling the Perfume Makers’ Stories Rather Than the Shop’s Own

Claude believes the stories the shop should bring to the foreground are those of the brands it carries, rather than its own. Perfume makers are artists who speak through the sense of smell. The key to understanding ZGO’s selection lies less in the category of niche perfumery itself than in its interest in each creator’s personal perspective.

“a storyteller through scent.”

Claude Gratianne, on the perfumer

The current official store lists Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s Baccarat Rouge 540 Eau de Parfum and BDK’s Gris Charnel Eau de Parfum. Alongside these well-known niche perfumes are fragrances such as Jorum Studio’s Pony Boy and Francesca Bianchi’s Sticky Fingers. Rather than selling only its own products, the shop allows visitors to explore works by different creators.

A 2025 guide to perfume shopping in San Francisco also names Jorum Studio, Francesca Bianchi and D’Orsay at ZGO, describing a selection worth exploring alongside the city’s other specialist shops. When visiting shops around the city, differences between the people doing the selecting translate into differences in the perfumes one encounters.

Listening to the Candid Reactions of Someone Choosing a First Perfume

One customer encounter Claude remembers involved a young girl who came in with her mother to choose her first perfume. Full of curiosity, she tried several fragrances and reacted candidly both to those she liked and to those she did not. In the end, they found one she loved.

“they don’t hold back their opinions about it.”

Claude Gratianne, on children trying perfume

Claude finds it rewarding to help customers who do not know where to begin. Being able to describe perfume skillfully is not a prerequisite here. First, smell; then react; then look for the next possibility. Supporting that exchange is part of a perfume shop owner’s work.

Taking an In-Store Discovery Home to Try

ZGO currently offers both samples supplied by brands and small spray samples prepared by the shop in accordance with the brands’ standards. The aim is to allow people to spend time trying a perfume on their skin before deciding on a bottle. Customers can also ask staff to suggest samples based on their preferences and the situations in which they will wear a fragrance.

Rather than ending the decision with a first impression on a blotter, the shop makes it possible to take a fragrance into one’s own life. The conversation in the shop and the small spray bottle are less two separate services than two ways of continuing an encounter with scent. Some brands do not permit small-volume samples, however, so not every perfume can be tried in the same way.

The Current Shop and Fragrance in Everyday Life

The main physical shop today is at 600 Castro Street in San Francisco’s Castro district. The official visiting information lists opening hours of 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Sunday. Hayes Valley belongs to an earlier chapter of the shop’s history; the current place to visit is the Castro.

Alongside perfumes, the online store carries Diptyque candles and Mariage Frères teas. This selection extends fragrance beyond the skin into rooms and teatime, retaining something of the character of a business that began with candles.

Part of the pleasure of visiting ZGO is discovering an unfamiliar creator beside a perfume one already knows. Then comes the chance to hear the story behind that bottle and find out how it feels personally. The stories the shop gathers from around the world meet the scent memories its customers bring with them.