Ever wonder about the curious stories behind the creation of a specialist masterpiece? The world is filled with unique shops with stories that are one-of-a-kind just like their perfumes. As of today, there are many custom-made perfume shops but let’s zoom into the ones with decades-old or even centuries-old history.Â
Today, we are visiting a small street in Belgrade (Serbia).
Parfimerija SAVA
The Last Custom-made Perfumer of Belgrade, Serbia
I came across this shop a lot when I was surfing the internet. The rich history behind the store front makes it really interesting. The effort to keep this store going is rather intriguing.
According to BBC News (2015), this is the last perfume shop that makes perfumes in the traditional way. Nenad, the shop owner, keeps the store going to maintain the history of Belgrade, Serbia after the first owner, his father, opened the shop around the time of World War Two in 1941.Â
Here’s what I have gathered after watching many videos of how they work. Nenad will first ask you how many milliliters of perfume you would want. Then, he would ask about the general scent preference of your choice. Afterward, he would start experimenting with a couple of perfumes that he thinks you might like according to his knowledge of perfumery. He would spray the perfumes a couple times on your wrists and inner elbow but he would ask you to wait for a bit before smelling it. This allows the perfumes to set into your skin and works its way with your body temperature to allow you to have a better idea of what they smell like.
Once you have chosen your preference, he would type out a coded label with his old typewriter (possibly the old French typewriter sold to his father by a German soldier for buying an eau de Cologne, as mentioned by BBC News). If you want to repurchase the same perfume, you just need to show him the code and he will be able to remake/identify which perfume. After your purchase, he will spray more perfume to your whole body before you leave the store.Â
Due to high requests, they had published their pricing on their Instagram website as well.
