Maddie W.
Yelp
Overall the experience met all of my expectations but one. We were greeted almost immediately in the store and asked how we could be helped. They seemed surprised that we knew about the diagnostic services and asked how we found out. I had googled information about services like this in Paris, and this was the google-recommended location.
We were given the opportunity to fill out the questionnaire on their tablets - an easy enough process and explained nicely; though, I wish I'd been able to list more than 3 perfumes of ones that I already like. We were checked on about 1/2 way through but then I felt a little rushed. Once we had our diagnosis they whisked away our information and took us to a bar area to be seated. They were able to give us paper-sprayed samples of each of the perfumes that registered for us. After we smelled and rated them they did a new diagnosis based on the one we each liked best. Then they brought us another 3 of the 5 that we got to choose to smell; I wish I'd been able to smell all 5 and not just 3 of the 5 remaining.
After that period, we were able to pick 3-4 that we wanted to try on our skin and walk around with for a minute or two. My husband and I both found new scents that we were very happy with and purchased. The whole process took about 45 minutes from walking in to checking out.
The expectation that wasn't met was knowledge. I've done a lot of wine tastings, food pairings, and general "learning experience" type stores so I was hoping to learn more about the smells, oils, perfumes and walk away with a better understanding of the whole process. It's possible it was a language barrier. We interacted with all 3 of the staff members, but no one asked us what we thought, or discussed the scents with us. It was just a "here, try this one" and then they would walk away. I was hoping for explanation of each scent, maybe some history of the plants and oils. There were a lot of bottles with specific ingredients, e.g. argan oil, rosemary, etc. I thought we might breakdown what we liked about each of the fragrances in to a specific ingredient and really get to know what we were smelling. My husband and I were both disappointed we walked out with exactly as much perfume knowledge as we walked in with.
Note: if you want to receive your VAT back from France, you'll need to have the goods to show them at the airport, but we had already packed these so well in our checked bags we decided not to bother with it.