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Fragrance swaps are organized meetups where perfume loversalso called fraghagsexchange scents.
Courtesy of Viv Chen; Getty Images
Fragrance fans sampled scents from indie and designer brands alike at Chen’s swap in Berkeley, California.
Chen broughtJ-Scents Ramunea bubbly, minty blend meant to mimic the essence of Japanese sodato her swap.
I think people really enjoy hyper-specificfoodand beverage fragrances, she says.
Fragrance fans sampled scents from indie and designer brands alike at Chen’s swap in Berkeley, California.
Chen wanted her event to be in a cute" space, similar to a clothing swap.
But unlike clothing, fragrance is something that’s so easily interchangeable with folks, Chen says.
You don’t have to worry too much about sizing and logistically they’re just so much more compact.
Swapping replaces selling, allowing people to barter their personal bounties through the process of exchange.
Sometimes, the swaps are just thata bottle for bottle exchangebut at others, money does change hands.
(Though the price of an exceedingly rare, hard-to-find sample could fall in the hundreds.)
So if [someone is] selling a 25ml partial bottle, they [might] charge $75.
After all, more isnt always better.
I think so much of fragrance content has become about consumption and over consumption.
Sustainability, too, is a growing concern.
When people are going through hard things, we get together and send them gift cards, says Kanti.
The social aspect is really important, says Pauly.
Since Covid, people want to find moments of in-person human connection.
At Chens event, 26-year-old Ishan McCarthy fell in love with that bottle of A Scent by Issey Miyake.
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