The very first ScentFest SF is being held from June 26–28, 2026, at Fort Mason in San Francisco, bringing together fragrance lovers, independent perfume houses, retailers, and industry professionals from around the world. Created by Sebastian Jara, better known as The Perfume Guy, the inaugural festival was an incredible success and quickly established itself as a must-attend event for anyone passionate about fragrance. More than 100 brands filled the venue, giving attendees the opportunity to discover new scents, meet founders and perfumers, attend educational talks, and immerse themselves in the world of niche perfumery.
As someone who loves fruity, gourmand, and sweet fragrances, I had been counting down the days until ScentFest opened its doors. It completely lived up to the hype. The atmosphere was welcoming, the brands were enthusiastic to share their creations, and there was always something new to smell around every corner. From a syrupy sweet cherry to gasoline!
In this post, I’ll share my favorite discoveries, the perfumes that surprised me, tips for future attendees, and plenty of photos from this unforgettable event.
I am no stranger to Fort Mason! GenBeauty, Renagade Craft Fair, WestCoast Craft and Sephoria’s Masterclass Tour for Fenty Beauty have been held there. I was expecting to walk into gorgeous rolling hills with the morning sun, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. Nah. Overcast. Walking right into Karl. Getting wet. Can’t see the bridge. Construction everywhere. So much for that photo I wanted to take! I heard Saturday was clear skies and sunny…. really?
As of posting this, there is one more day for the festival! But don’t worry, I think this event was successful enough that they will be able to host another for next year! You will have to keep up with Sebastian’s socials and he can tell you what his plans are for next year.
The thing about luxury niche… the full sized bottled typically cost over $100, sometimes even reaching $400. There’s just no way I can afford that! So there was no impulse buying! I researched every single vendor on the exhibitor’s list. In a notebook, I wrote down all the brands and fragrances I was interested in trying.
I had a strategy when it came to making purchases:
I couldn’t just like it. It HAD to make me giddy in delight.
I had to let it dry down and immediately love the scent once more.
If I had ANY hesitation or negative thought, it wasn’t for me.
Most importantly, they had to come in a mini or travel size.
My budget was $200 maximum.
My first stop was Kayali. Since it’s the only mainstream brand and the one I have heard of, I assumed the line would be very long! But since I was early and got in sooner than the rest of the crowd, I was able to walk right into the Kayali setup! Admittedly it was my favorite, I know as basic as it sounds to like the most luxurious and well-known of the brands exhibiting…but it was a great experience! The people who worked there were all super friendly! There was a claw machine where you could win a prize! And you could take as many tries as it took to get the ball. The fun thing is, you can see the name of the prize through the ball so I made sure to get the Yum Boujee Marshmallow! You could win full size bottles, but I was fine with a Yum Boujee Marshmallow mini! It also came with a cute caddy! There were photo ops, places to sit and free engraving if you made a purchase.
I already own three Kayali fragrances (Lovefest Burning Cherry, Eden Juicy Apple and my favorite, Yum Vanilla Candy Rock Sugar) so I was choosing between Eden Sparkling Lychee and Eden Sweet Peach. Peach won me over!
Being able to get a free mini perfume was alone worth the cost of admission. They retail for $38, the ticket price is $49 and the mini perfume comes with a caddy… (who knows the retail price of that?)In my own experience Kayali and Imaginary Authors were the only ones to give away freebies (Imaginary Authors had samples in a basket) However, it sounds like other people may have gotten free samples from certain booths. I don’t know which brands. This is definitely not the expo if you wanted free samples to take home. Therefore, getting a FREE perfume from Kayali, made my experience with them even sweeter. Though I know… niche brands… they’re small businesses. They can’t afford to give out freebies. They’d lose money! I get it, I understand it.
The thing about niche is that you’re not always going to get that “Omg what are you wearing? It’s smells so good” like you do with designer fragrances. Niche brands get CREATIVE. They usually have a story behind them and very questionable notes. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of pretty scents and cute sweet scents here at Scent Fest… but a lot of them are pretty out there. Welcome to the world of niche fragrances!
On my list was to visit Mitti Parfums, particularly to try Rani Pink. It is a very nice fragrance of Sour Berry, Clove, Davana, Vanilla, Cedarwood, Bubblegum, and the secret ingredient: Inner Child. I liked the booth very much, they were very welcoming and friendly.
The owner of the brand nahes, was passing out tote bags proudly stating, “This is my brand!” It was adorable how proud he was of his accomplishment. How could I not visit his booth?
On my list to visit was Alloy Studios. I just loved Bryson! I was interested in Silver Haze and Idyllic. I enjoyed the scent story of Silver Haze but I ended up liking Idyllic, which was fruity and fun. I need to go buy it on his website because he does have smaller sizes available! Luster is a fun fragrance if you wanted to smell like Thanksgiving!
Zoologist has been on my must-try list for years! They may be the niche brand that got me into wanting to try niche brands! They are inspired by animals. They don’t actually smell like the animals themselves… BUT I know that some of them are quite… “challenging.” That is really the fun of the whole brand!
When it came to what I wanted to buy, I watched videos on reviews of the brand and I ended up with Rabbit, Bee, and Hummingbird. I also saw Love Bird on their website and wrote it on my list to try. Love Bird is so good, I may buy it!
Pictured below is the founder, Victor Wong.
Based on the packaging and the names… I knew that I had to try Elysian!
I wrote down seven fragrances I wanted to try. I thought for sure Sucre de Soie with its Raspberry, Guava, pear and apple would get me or the dreamy Moonpetals would be for me. But the surprise of the day was the The Fairest of Them All won my heart! It won an award and I can see why. The notes are red juicy apples, cassis, marine, peony, fresh pear, violet, caramel, brown sugar, tonka bean, musk, blonde woods. You definitely get that fresh apple scent and the dry down of florals. It is a beautiful scent and my second buy of the show.
When I search for Chloq perfume, Google always tries to correct me and send me to Chloe. It’s very annoying. I am glad she includes a QR code cause Google does not want me to find her perfume! It’s seriously just chloq.com
She had a cool concept where you would listen to the accompanying music while experiencing her fragrances. But I was talking to her the whole time, so I didn’t. I thought Boardroom Badass reminded me of being at a music festival. Outsidelands in particular. My favorite was her floral called Intoxicating.
I don’t know how I managed to not take any photos or videos of the music-based fragrance brand, Jusbox, but they were on my list and I absolutely loved Sisters B4 Misters. If you like the Escada summer scents it may be up your alley. It’s on my list of minis or decants to buy! They sell Jusbox at ZGO Perfumery in the Castro.
Below is the infamous butt perfume. No they absolutely do not smell like booty! (My Lyft driver made me laugh after I apologized for being so fragranced. She said, “At least you don’t smell like B.O. or booty!”) These pink, almost-peach-shaped bottles are from a Korean brand called, Scentseum. Since they all looked the same, I didn’t realize they were all difference scents until I tried them. It was all about KOBAHKZOUK. I believe the lemon and cherry caught my attention. It also has notes of damask rose, jasmine geranium, clove, patchouli, musk and amber. If a mini or a decant is offered, I’d get it.
Here is a shared booth with Sacred Scents, Planets Perfumery and Herbcraft Perfumery. I liked Jenna and Coco’s vibe, their aesthetic, their style, their kindness and their whole selves! What a pleasant experience! Check out Planets Perfumery and Jenna will explain the brand. Their packaging design was elite! Yes, more than the butt perfume. I love space so the plant cap is swoon-worthy! Venus was my favorite that bright opening of champagne was really lovely. Mercury was also interesting and pleasant. (Hermes is my favorite greek god, so I may be partial to it.) I took the blotter cards home and my husband really liked Mars because it reminded him of an Old Fashioned. I will see if they come out with Moon eventually because I’m a Cancer (my birthday is in four days!)
TheMarieMarie an online retailer showed cased a few brands including Hilde Soliani. One of the bottles was my surprise hit of the show! I had never seen this brand before, but now I am obsessed with a syrupy sweet cherry scent called Una Tira l’Altra! So delicious, I want to drink it and bathe in it! It’s $180. I cannot be taking such expensive baths.
I don’t have any photos of the Scent Split booth unfortunately. I think I was just too excited that they actually had the perfumes I wanted to try right there on their table! But what a great business model for us consumers! We get to choose the size of the sample we want, and can fit it according to our budget. What a great concept! So if you are blind buying or are unsure if you liked a fragrance, you can pay $4 for 1 ml. If you can’t afford a $180 bottle of Una Tira l’Altra, you can pay $26 for 9 mls. If you use it up, you know you like it enough to save up and invest in the full size (Or just get another mini!)
Because I don’t have any photos of it, I should at least tell you about Michela Mezzetti Parfums !
I have been on the HUNT for a haunted carnival fragrance. It doesn’t have to be haunted. But I am looking for cotton candy, candied apple, popcorn, funnel cake…. and I found a LOT of them from indie brands. Like I have a massive list and I am completely overwhelmed. Well add Pop Me by Michela Mezzetti to the list! Cause it has popcorn, toffee, cotton candy, puff pastry and pink icing notes! Then I saw Crush Me! On no, it’s cherry. My weakness. Then Lick Me, an ice cream scent. I am doomed!
The Split Scent booth had Lick Me, Breathe Me (not on my list, but I really liked that one!) Me and another woman were gushing about how delicious Lick Me was! I will absolutely be ordering it from Split Scent! That is a must-buy for me! Might as well get the rest since I can get decants for an affordable price!
Scent Split also had their exclusives on the table, and the sweet ones were on my list: Syn.cherry by Scentologia, PreTe by Hilde Soliani and and Sugar Party by Lumi. I liked Sugar Party and Syn.cherry but not PreTe. It’s a gourmand, but maybe too milky for my taste.
I took a fragrance personality test at Algorithmic Perfumery before the show. They give you three results before you decide to buy it. I was very surprised by the notes they gave me. 43% oxygen. Sounds half empty. I was unsure of how they did it at the show because I didn’t end up doing it. I didn’t want to commit to pay for a fragrance and not loving it.
This was my sleeper hit of the festival. I guess I did not research Lorzeno Pazzaglia, but I know about his brand now! Everything I grabbed (which were the cute pink ones) were very good! I have bookmarked them too buy on Scent Split so I can make a decision if I want to buy a larger size.
I did my research on Imaginary Authors, and was so excited to try four of their scents but I was particularly excited about In Love With Everything. Reading the notes, it had to be my #1 fragrance to try! It has notes of raspberry, citrus pulp, coconut palm sugar, Madame Issac Pereire, sandalwood, tropical punch and stardust. I didn’t know what Madame Issac was (it’s a flower) but everything sounded right up my alley! I was also keen on trying A Whiff of Waffle Cone, First Peach of the Season and A Little Secret, which is a cherry scent. They were my intended second stop because I knew I was going to make a purchase and I wanted In Love With Everything on my wrist! I was walking around, looking for their booth, finally discovering that a lot of brands were tucked away in smaller rooms. I finally found Imaginary Authors…. it was an unmanned (well-decorated) stand with only one scent featured.
Well, not all was lost… there was an Imaginary Authors party at 7pm in The Mission at Ministry of Scent. But as I was winding down, I knew there was no way I was going to make it, as I was very tired and it was several hours away. So after I left I opted to not take the 49 down Van Ness, and ordered a Lyft to the Fillmore location of Ministry of Scent instead! What a great decision! The employees were nice, and one even recognized me from the show! (It’s my hair, it’s purple and blue.) They had the whole Imaginary Authors line, as well as Zoologist! I loved the dark academia vibe, it looks like The Lost Cauldron!
Well, I have a shock for you. In Love With Everything wasn’t the one to blow me away, it was A Little Secret! I told, you cherry is my weakness! The main notes are cherry, marzipan and puff pastry crust. On the way back home, I got a whiff of that dry down. LOVED IT instantly. I was glad I had bought it without waiting to see if I liked it hours later.
I should have explored the neighborhood a lot more, but I decided to go to my old college stomping grounds, Union Square and get my favorite thai food. It was sad to see so much of Powell closed. I went to college at the Academy of Art and my department was the Illustration/Animation building on Powell. It’s been 20 years since I graduated. I do miss being a part of an artistic community. I miss my city.
I loved the Rock scent from Zernell Gillie!
I enjoyed my experience at Ministry of Scent and will be taking my friend here when she comes to visit soon!
My haul:
Elysian Fairest Of Them All
Kayali Yum Boujee Marshmallow 81 and Eden Sweet Peach 35
Imaginary Authors A Little Secret
You can get the Rainbows & Unicorns background here.
I spent $116 total on three fragrances and one of the Kayali minis was free. I went under my budget and was happy that I had self-control! I can get In Love with Everything later, Kayali at the Sephora sale, and anything else I wanted on Scent Split!
Would I attend Scent Fest again? Yes!
The price of admission was $49 for one day and one day was all I needed. The ticket paid for itself when I got a free perfume from Kayali! I would hope to go with a friend next year instead of solo. The only thing is I hope they get enough funding to rent the Festival Pavillon instead. The Gateway is smaller, and the back is broken up into rooms. The Festival Pavillon is much larger and airy, making it easier to get around the crowd, and would be less humid inside. My gripe about the festival is people with no spacial awareness: groups standing and talking right in the way of everyone else, and rude people who push their way to the front instead of patiently waiting for their turn. I leave if someone who pushes get served before me. Because of the layout, some areas were more narrow and it created a bottleneck when people were standing in one place. Some crowds would back into other crowds and it was hard to get around them.
I also noticed that there were no coffee beans. I don’t know if it’s because its not practiced anymore or it there’s just no food allowed. At some point I got “scented out” and needed to take a break outside. That’s the great thing about it being on the bay and I knew Sebastian thought of that when he planned this!
My number one regret is that I forgot to look for the museum, which was probably at Cowell Theater. I went to the back, not realizing I could keep going. So I missed out on the fragrance exhibit!
My tips:
Bring a pen and write down the fragrance names on the blotter. So when you take it home, you know which one it is.
Bring a water bottle. They have water stations, but I get parched when I am talking to people and I wont always have a cup with me.
Don’t bring a big bag, it gets in the way.
Save your precious real estate and spray only fragrances you are considering buying on your arm. Wait for the dry down to see if you still love it.
If you have any hesitation about a fragrance or if you have to talk yourself into liking it, it’s not for you. The same goes for men.
All in all, I am glad we get something in San Francisco! The beauty conventions have stopped coming to San Francisco an I was itching for one! I was also glad to be able to go back to my city of origin days before my birthday.
Disclaimer: This post is based entirely on my personal experience attending ScentFest. All opinions are my own and fragrance is highly subjective—what smells amazing to me may smell completely different on someone else. I paid for my admission, travel, food, and any fragrances I purchased unless otherwise noted. This post is not sponsored, and I have no affiliation with ScentFest, The Perfume Guy, or any of the brands mentioned.
