Shy Mimosa Perfumery

Almost every independent perfumery in Britain is in London. Shy Mimosa is in Clifton, Bristol, which is the first thing worth saying about it: if you live in the West Country and want to smell Ormonde Jayne or Le Galion before buying, this is a shop you can walk into rather than a two-hour train.

Maria Kabakova-Upfold founded it, and the company behind it has been registered since June 2016 and is trading normally. The selection is artisan and independent rather than designer - Les Cocottes de Paris, Paul Schutze London, Jardins d'Ecrivains, Le Galion, Ormonde Jayne, Lorenzo Dante Ferro. Houses that are hard to find anywhere in Britain outside a handful of counters.

The detail that tells you what kind of shop it is: they sell perfume books and magazines alongside the bottles. That is not a margin decision. It signals a place that expects you to be interested in the subject, not just the purchase, and it is rare enough in fragrance retail to be worth flagging.

The genuinely distinctive service is weddings. They run a Bride and Groom scented service and scents for bridal parties - a consultancy few perfumeries offer and one that suits a small boutique far better than a chain. If you want a scent tied to a specific day rather than a shelf, that is an unusual thing to find in a shop you can visit.