Sfumato Fragrances Serves Up Scents And Stiff Drinks At New Detroit Location

Sfumato Fragrances commingles smell and taste at its new Detroit perfumery-cum-pub.

The intimate 650-square-foot space in the garden level of a Gothic Victorian mansion sells scents by day and serves cocktails at night that pair with the brand’s fragrances. The location even contains so-called Murphy tables, which are diurnal fragrance displays that disappear into the walls in the evenings.

“The concept introduces fragrances to people who normally wouldn’t be thinking about their noses. We want to show the connections,” says Kevin Peterson, who founded Sfumato with his wife Jane Larson. “The two businesses really reinforce each other. If someone drinks a cocktail, they might think they would like a scent with similar notes and, if someone likes a fragrance during the day with certain notes, they might come back at night and try a cocktail with them.”

Erected originally in the 1880s, the exterior of the shop and bar features a brick-lined patio and wrought-iron staircase detailed with iterations of the brand’s logo representing the progression of a fragrance. The interior contains a mahogany cabinet housing Sfumato’s fragrances, cash wrap and bar area made from concrete with brass inlay, and light fixtures signifying molecules of water, glass and alcohol, all substances required in scents and cocktails.

Peterson and Larson poured $120,000 into completing Sfumato’s store and cocktail lounge in the Midtown neighborhood. They stitched together the money from savings, a small-business loan from the Detroit Development Fund and a $20,000 grant from Motor City Match. Assuming Peterson and Larson take salaries for themselves from Sfumato’s sales, Peterson estimates it will take a couple years to pay the loan off, but he projects the location will be a “fully viable” business within a few months.

“Detroit really lost a lot of its retail scene during the economic downturn, and the city has been taking steps to build it back,” says Peterson. “We have found it to be a very supportive community in terms of financial help and advice from people at similar stages as us in different fields. We have a good peer network in the city.”

Outside of the brand’s store and website, Sfumato fragrances are available at roughly 20 retailers across the country. It’s also been engaging with customers at museum events and culinary affairs where scents are linked to various dishes. Peterson imagined the smell of outer space in a tie-in with the Michigan Science Center.

“A lot of our stores have come through personal connections or recommendations and a lot happens through travel. We always make sure to check out stores in cool neighborhoods where people are shopping. We like to find stores that we have a good vibe with,” says Peterson. “There’s no way to transmit scent digitally. People can read the scent descriptions and about your brand, but you really have to smell the scents in person.”

Peterson, an engineer by training, constructs Sfumato’s fragrances, and Larson guides the brand’s visual character. Sfumato offers five fragrances as well as custom scent creations. Its bestseller, Survival Instinct, isn’t for the scent shy. Inspired by the structure of a knife, Peterson remarks that it has a dramatic trajectory. It starts with a sharp anise note and dries down to woody notes of palo santo, vetiver and Atlas cedar. Another strong seller, Mocha Valentino, is a fragrance ode to chocolate with notes of cocoa, coffee and tobacco. Fragrances are priced at $30 for 8-ml. sizes and $90 for 60-ml. sizes.

Conceived by Larson, the external fragrance packaging is folded and stamped with a letter seal. “I wanted to harken back to the 1800s before synthetics were a big thing,” she explains, adding, “We were both really into origami as kids. A big part of the brand is having the packaging unfold in unique ways to convey that it’s unique and special.”

In the fragrance market these days, special is prized. Niche fragrance brands are on the rise, and Sfumato, a name that shares a Latin root with the word for perfume and refers to an oil painting technique practiced by Leonardo da Vinci, certainly fits into that category. Its reliance on natural compounds is relatively rare, though, in the fragrance arena, niche or not.

“The subtlety and complexity that you can get from natural ingredients is a departure from the mainstream, and the culinary notes are something that differentiates us,” says Peterson. He continues, “The commercial fragrance world has really turned off a lot of people. My favorite customers are people that tell us, ‘I don’t wear fragrances, but I will check you out.’ Once they do, they say, ‘This isn’t like anything I’ve tried at a department store.’ They end up becoming a customer. They hadn’t realized the depth you can find in a scent.”