Micheal Ryan has always been into scents.
On a recent Tuesday, the 33-year-old store manager of Ministry of Scent, a perfume shop on Valencia Street, pointed out the store’s collections: Crystal bottles with round wooden caps from around the globe.
“On the right, we have Oregon, Italy, France; and on the left, we have Japan, South Korea and North America, and California locals like Los Angeles,” Ryan said, pointing out perfumes that capture animal scents, and others that try to bottle the aromas of trees and forests.
It all started with a trip to Las Vegas in 2010.
As a child, Ryan had wondered why designer clothes were so expensive. On his trip to Las Vegas, he went into a Dior Homme store and asked the sales clerk: “Why is this stuff so expensive? I don’t even see the name on it anywhere.”
The clerk looked shocked and grabbed Ryan’s hand, taking him around the store and letting him touch each item of clothing.
“He was like, ‘It’s the craftsmanship, the quality, the thought process,’ and just broke down everything,” Ryan recalled.
On his way out, there was a bottle of 2011 Dior Homme perfume. Ryan grabbed it and sniffed. “I was like, this is the best thing I’ve ever smelled!”
“That would be the point in my life that changed my entire life,” he said.
To this day, he still has two bottles of the life-changing 2011 formula, which he keeps behind the counter at Ministry of Scent. “It’s an iris-y chocolate fragrance, which works great, because you can always wear warm fragrances in the cold, cold San Francisco weather,” Ryan said.
Ryan has been in San Francisco since 2012. His first job in the city was as a fragrance promoter for Puig, a fashion and perfume company that owns luxury brands like Prada and Christian Louboutin. Stationed at Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue in the Westfield Mall, Ryan would walk around promoting Puig’s perfumes.
The work was tedious, but Ryan did not care. He got to work with his two favorite things: Fragrance and fashion.
In 2017, Ryan started at Ministry of Scent and moved into the city. He recalled how the store survived the pandemic, when all its customers were wearing masks and he had to stay a good distance away.
“We had a table up against the door that people would come up to,” Ryan said. “People would just be like, ‘I want something that smells like rose,’ and then we would run and grab different fragrances that smell like rose and bring them back.”
Customers would then walk into the street, sniff, and walk back to the store, keeping a six-foot distance.
It worked. Ryan said business was good during the pandemic, bolstered by the store’s online shop.
Among all the collections at the store, one of Ryan’s favorites is the Imaginary Arthurs by Josh Meyer, which transforms fiction storylines into scents. Ryan was able to meet Meyer earlier this year when the Portland-based perfumer came down to the store for an event.
“I was just starstruck. And during the Q&A, someone was like, ‘What got you into fragrance?’ and he was like, ‘I liked the idea of making fragrances that hurt people,'” Ryan recalled. “And I was like, I love this. You’re so punk rock.”
But he is not sure if he wants to be a perfumer himself, mixing scents. “It’s a lot like painting,” he said. “The whole perfumer idea seems amazing until you’re actually doing it.” Ryan has never been professionally educated for perfume-making. He still hopes to have his own fragrance line one day, but perhaps as the creative director.
Michael is the best, always will to show you what smells great and why. I love this shop very much.
“Imaginary Arthurs” would be a great name for something but the line of fragrances he’s talking about is called Imaginary Authors.
Michael helped me pick out perfumes to try at MoS, and it was so much fun! I cannot recommend a visit there highly enough.