Ode to Perfume, a niche and indie fragrance boutique, is simultaneously warm and upscale — the vibes owner Rachel Greiman was hoping for.
“ I wanted people to know that I care about their experience when they come in, and I want it to feel cozy but luxurious, and approachable, because fragrance, in a lot of circles, does not feel very approachable,” she says.
Ode to Perfume was born out of a dark period of Greiman’s life. In 2022, her two-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia. She spent two and a half years in and out of the hospital while he was being treated.
“ He couldn't really walk and talk when we were in there, so I was doom scrolling my life away, just trying to disassociate as hard as humanly possible,” recalls Greiman. “I got sucked into the world of fragrance TikTok, and it was just like these beautiful, ethereal women talking about fragrance as if it was life-changing.”
Greiman started ordering samples of niche perfumes and looking into local boutique fragrance shops. She found storefronts in places like Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago, but nothing local.
“I started looking in Denver for something, and there's just nothing unless it's at a department store,” she says.
As her son started to recover, she traveled to fragrance boutiques to take in more scents and experience the atmosphere of the small businesses.
“ I got really sick, really quickly of paying $6 plus shipping for a tiny little dabber bottle sample, one milliliter. And I was like, ‘Somebody should really open this in Denver,'" she says.
Greiman didn’t expect that person to be herself. She was running a copywriting business and caring for her son. However, when her son was cancer-free, she decided it was time to create the fragrance space she dreamed of in Denver.
She knew she had to move quickly.
“ As soon as I sold it, I was like, ‘Okay, no one's done this yet. Now I'm gonna hit the gas on this,’ because it felt a little urgent because so many are opening up,” she adds. “I have raging ADHD, and I love to learn new things, so it felt like a good combination of my skill sets of liking this industry, or this niche, and just putting a new challenge for my brain.”
She sold her copywriting business last fall, began searching for spaces for rent in January, signed a lease in March, and opened Ode to Perfume at 3040 East 6th Avenue in June.
“ For ten years I was inside hunched over, like a cashew, over my laptop in my pajamas, writing for people, which I loved,” Greiman says. “But I was like, ‘I want to go be where the people are.’”
In finding fragrances for her store, Greiman chose small businesses with unique scents and important missions. Most of them aren't sold anywhere else in Denver.
“ Almost every fragrance in the store is women-owned, person of color-owned or queer-owned,” she says.
Greiman says she has two demographics that are often interested in her store. “ I have the fragrance nerds who want weird and funky. They might want something that has animalic notes in it,” she says, holding up Room 237 by Fzotic, which was inspired by the bathroom in The Shining. It has notes of a vinyl shower curtain.
“They want to smell like no one else,” Greiman says. “And then I have my 'It' girls that come in in their gorgeous athleisure sets who probably love Le Labo and want something a little different.”
For those who aren’t sure what they’re looking for, Ode to Perfume offers free 45-minute personal fragrance consultations to help customers find their perfect scent. An employee asks the customer what smells they usually enjoy. Then, they pull bottles they think the customer will like. It’s a very relaxed experience, and there’s freedom to try out as little or as many scents as necessary.
The employee sprays each fragrance onto a small paper tab with the name written on it, so customers can keep track of and return to scents. Once the customer gets down to their top six or fewer scents, they write the names on small stickers and place them on their arms. Then, they spray each fragrance next to the stickers to see how the scent smells on their skin.
For those who aren’t sure what they’re looking for, Ode to Perfume offers free 45-minute personal fragrance consultations to help customers find their perfect scent.
Ode to Perfume
“It's so intimate to sit here with someone and listen to why they want to smell a certain way and what they're looking for. They might be marking a season, whether that be a fun season, a change in their life, or something difficult that they're going through,” says Greiman. “Fragrance can be something that grounds you or uplifts you through anything.”
Ode to Perfume, 3040 East Sixth Avenue, is currently open by appointment only. Appointments can be booked on odetoperfume.com.
