I took a small break from Amsterdam Dance Event to check out Skins in the Conservatorium. I had visited the store in the 9 Streets (close by Felix Meritis) before and received excellent consultation and suggestions. At the Conservatorium, it was exactly the same experience. It’s obvious that they love perfume and to share it with others.
The display from Keiko Mecheri was breathtaking, as was the closet of Odriu. When speaking to shop manager (or owner), he said their goal was to only feature truly niche perfume and that when a line is picked up by a large company, they choose to no longer carry it. Its a similar ethos to underground dance music, where DJs don’t play anything mainstream – choosing to only support noncommercial music. I can see both sides of this plan, but will say that the Skins plan seems to be working well for them.
I experienced the NuBe line for the first time, and Helium (H3) stood out to me (and I ended up buying). A new natural line from Abel with Vintage 13 didn’t really speak to me. They had the full Terry Guzman line, which is now at Barneys in NYC. A few nice ones, but none that completely grabbed me. I was impressed to see the Naomi Goodsir line that I had just discovered in Italy at Corsi Como — watch out for these two scents. There were so many quality niche lines – M Micallef, Creed, etc. that I’ve forgotten most of them.
The customer service here is excellent and I strongly recommend a visit to Skins if you visit Amsterdam.
Basically, across the street is a wildly exuberant (and extravagantly priced) store called People Of the Labyrinth. They have a scent called Parfum A*maze. The female version is a flower bomb. The male version is a boozy monster (in a good way). I grabbed a tester and look forward to giving it a runthrough.