Scared of scent shops?

Just a few of the many sniffable scents at 4160 HQ

Petrified of perfumeries?

Or why otherwise able and confident people run in fear from sales staff holding atomisers

I've had a few chats recently with professional, educated people with good jobs, who happened to mention that they daren't set foot inside a perfumery. We tried to work out why this is.

It seems that we're all slightly nervous that we'll be bamboozled into buying something we don't want or need. Perhaps the sales staff will use language they don't understand - drydown, sillage, chypres - or talking about oudh, tuberose, and opoponax as if we all ought to know what they smell like.

Or maybe we'll be carried away and buy something only to find out that it doesn't smell quite as good on our skins as it did on the paper, or the touches, as some people insist on calling them.

Or there's the opposite end of the scale, the perfume sales person who doesn't really know anything about their range, and will just point us in the direction of whatever is new, or Chanel No 5.

In the last decade I've aquired quite a few bottles of scent, and now I'm sharing. As well as the final fragrances from many different houses - brands from Madonna to Frederic Malle, Guerlain to SJP - I've got several hundred raw materials. So I'm throwing open the perfumery doors and inviting you all over for tea. 

Our Saturday afternoons are for people who'd love to know a little bit more, to sniff the vanillin, then the Shalimar that contains in, the patchouli, then the Angel.

We've got vintage dating back to the 1920s (some not smelling so great, but others still magnificent) and some of the classiest current niche names. Plus the entire range of 4160Tuesdays of course.

It's going to be friendly, and there's cake. So if you're within travelling distance of London W3, we look forward to seeing you soon.

Come sniffing.