Geurenland: Celeste Parfums in The Hague

The Hague has one of the nicest niche perfume stores in the Netherlands called Celeste Parfums. It’s located a bit outside the City Centre, (but on foot only just 15 minutes from the Royal Palace) in the beautiful Frederikstraat. An area surrounded by ambassies and nice stores with an international atmosphere.

When you approach the store and see it from the outside, you already know it’s going to be nice inside as well. And it is. Last week I visited them and I had an interview with the owners.

The store

When entering the store a (sophisticated woman with) classy lady will immediately greet you politely, but she will not bother you until you want her to approach you. Her name is Antoinette Borsboom. She and her daughter Virginia know everything about perfumes and run the store jointly. It’s that traditional little family store that has everything. Everywhere you look, from the ground to the top of the ceiling, you notice the most exiting perfumes. You would like to spend the night to try them all out.

The List of Brands they carry for such a little store is enormous.*

Virginia and Antoinette characterize Celeste as follows:

A good service is central to the shop. Customers always want to be treated kindly, with professional advice and in a friendly and intimate atmosphere. Celeste has a beautiful and extensive collection, which is unique in the Netherlands.

Inside the store

They have many top brands in fragrances, skin care and makeup. You will find many exclusive fragrances, selected during their numerous quests for special products. They also carry exclusive men shaving soaps, brushes and grooming products. It’s a real joy to be there. The many samples from the fragrances that I reviewed, come from Celeste.

Besides the vast collection of perfumes they have, their politeness and their willingness to advice, in my opinion, were not only most agreeable but can be seen as one of their strongest assets.

You will do the talking and they will listen and bring you the things they think you want. They do that in a modest and non-intrusive way. You will be served. It’s not that kind of a store that tries to sell you something. Always polite they tend to promote other stores that sell perfumes.

Mother and daughter Antoinette and Virginia Borsboom established Celeste Parfumes in 1999. The mother has been fascinated by perfumes, and Virginia because of working in perfume stores before. Just like her sister who is in the business as well. Father is doing the administration and one of their sons is responsible for the logistics.

Virginia and Antoinette Borsboom

Antoinette:

Long time ago there was this exclusive perfume store with the name Michels. When I was 18 I started working and my first salary was spend at that store to buy that special exclusive perfume. Later Mister Michels, the owner of that store, became the head of Guerlain Netherlands. I grew up in this neighborhood.

Virginia:

My mother and I always liked lovely fragrances. Because of my mother's enthusiasm I started working in a perfume store on Saturdays. Just like my sister.

Guerlain was the first brand we were selling. We where the first who had the old (red. exclusive) fragrances. Guerlain was located near by (at the Lange Voorhout) and we went up and down by bike if we needed something. They gave tremendous courses on perfumes. We learned a lot there.

Antoinette:

In the beginning it was hard to motivate brands to sell to a small perfume store (red. at that time the exclusives where available at bigger stores - later smaller stores started to sell niche perfumes). We really had to fight for it. We decided keep a shorter list of brands. In Paris we were intrigued by the Creed store. We keep a nice contact after to selling Creed perfumes. Beside Skins Cosmetics, that became the main importer of Creed in the Netherlands, they allowed that little store in The Hague to sell Creed perfumes as well.

Virginia

After that we went to Floris Perfumes in London. We were the only country that did not sell Floris. So they were happy with us. Short after that we started with Penhaligon’s. At Floris’ they keep a royalty book about royal sales. The Netherlands is the only royal house in the world that never bought perfumes at Floris. (Not in any year)Never ever.

You know, a few years ago I would never have expected that our store could grow to this.

Antoinette:

I think it’s also because people are traveling around the world so easily nowadays. They know a lot about perfumes. And we love selling them and helping people to find their right fragrance. Sometimes it takes up to one hour to find the right perfume. And we take that time.

So, perfume lovers, if you have a chance, visit this beautiful store in The Hague.You will not regret it. And let me know if they happen to offer nights over.

Oh, and I love those Cire Trudon candles.