How to choose a Vietnamese perfume brand

Walk into a mall in central Ho Chi Minh City and you will find Vietnamese perfume brands on the same shelves as imported names. Many visitors walk past them because the labels are new to them. This guide explains what a Vietnamese perfume brand is, how to choose a bottle that suits you, and where to start.

What makes a perfume brand Vietnamese

In Vietnam, people call these "local brands": perfume brands whose scents are conceived, made and sold by a Vietnamese company. Think of the local fashion label you might pick up on a shopping street, except this one goes on your wrist. To check where a perfume was made, look at the box. NOTE - The Scent Lab, for example, prints "Made in Vietnam / Sản xuất tại Việt Nam" on its packaging.

Why choose a Vietnamese perfume

A gentler price

Because the perfume is designed and made in Vietnam, the brand does not pay to import a finished product. A local bottle often costs less than an imported one of the same size.

Scents drawn from familiar places

Some Vietnamese brands build their scents around places and moments people here know well. At NOTE, Lemonmelon takes its cue from a hot Saigon noon, and Not A Rose from a morning in the flower gardens of Sa Dec, in the Mekong Delta. The places are the inspiration, not the ingredients. Each perfume brings back the feeling through its notes.

Easy to try in person

Local brands now have counters in shopping malls and on the main shopping streets of city centers, so you can smell a scent on your own skin before you buy.

How to choose a bottle

Start from the scents you already like

Before you think about brands, think about what you reach for: floral, fruity, woody, herbal or fresh citrus. Knowing that turns a full shelf into a short list.

Think about where you will wear it

For the office, a soft, clean scent sits better with the people around you. For an evening out, you can choose something bolder.

Allow for the heat

Heat makes perfume evaporate faster. In Saigon's warm weather, a light, fresh scent is more comfortable. If you want it to stay with you longer, step up one level in concentration, for example to an Eau de Parfum. In cooler weather perfume evaporates more slowly, so the same bottle lasts longer on your skin.

Read the concentration on the label

Perfume comes in five main concentrations. From strongest to lightest:

• Parfum (Extrait de Parfum): more concentrated than the others, and it lasts longer too.
• Eau de Parfum (EDP): high concentration, long-lasting.
• Eau de Toilette (EDT): one step lighter than EDP.
• Eau de Cologne (EDC): light and fresh, and it fades quickly.
• Eau Fraîche: lighter still, there and then gone.

The NOTE perfumes in this guide are all Eau de Parfum.

Test on paper, then on skin

In a store, try three or four scents at a time. Beyond that, your nose starts to blur them together. Spray each one on a paper strip to begin with. Keep the one or two you like, then spray on clean, dry skin at the wrist or neck, holding the bottle 15 to 20 cm (6 to 8 inches) away.

Then give it time. A perfume opens with its Top notes, settles into its Middle notes, and its Base notes stay on the skin after the others fade. What you smell an hour later can be quite different from what you smelled at the start, so make your choice once the scent has settled.

Where to start: NOTE - The Scent Lab and R Parfums

NOTE - The Scent Lab

NOTE - The Scent Lab started in Saigon, with a group of people as curious about science as they are about art. The brand makes perfume, home fragrance and essential oils, using IFRA-compliant ingredients. Its scents are designed in Saigon and made in Vietnam. Businesses also come to NOTE for perfume workshops for their teams, a scent designed for their brand, and corporate gifts; see NOTE for business.

Four NOTE perfumes to start with:

• Lemonmelon. Top: lemon, orange blossom. Middle: lavender, melon. Base: cedarwood, amber, musk.
• Not A Rose. Top: rhubarb, citrus, blackcurrant. Middle: jasmine, iris, peach, amber. Base: cedarwood, musk, vanilla.
• Dance In The Wind. Top: bergamot, peach, an airy ozonic note, pink peppercorn. Middle: osmanthus, iris. Base: moss.
• At The Sawmill. Top: berries, cedarwood. Middle: Iso E Super, jasmine grandiflorum. Base: sandalwood, tonka bean, musk.

You can see the full range on the NOTE perfume collection page.

R Parfums

R Parfums is a Vietnamese niche perfume house that tells stories of East Asian culture through scent. Its perfumes are sold at the three NOTE stores listed below. Find out more at r-parfums.com.

Where to try NOTE in Ho Chi Minh City

NOTE - The Scent Lab perfumes are sold at three stores in Ho Chi Minh City: 2nd Floor, 42 Nguyen Hue (inside The Cafe Apartment), District 1; 34 Nguyen Duy Hieu, Thao Dien; and 3rd Floor, 26 Ly Tu Trong, District 1.

What each store has on the shelf changes from day to day, so message NOTE before you go, on WhatsApp or Messenger. NOTE delivers to addresses within Vietnam. If you are visiting, buy in store and take the bottle home in your luggage. The guide to traveling with perfume covers how to pack it.

To blend a perfume of your own, book a perfume workshop with 9base at https://the9base.com/