Nairobi, April 29 -- Over the years, as demand for perfumes has risen, getting your favourite scent as become as easy as walking into any one of the hundreds of cosmestic shops in Nairobi's city centre.

New shops are now opening, promising a different experience. It is not the kind of shopping you stumble into.

An appointment is booked in advance. The pace is unhurried. There are no glass counters crowded with dozens of bottles, no aggressive sales pitches. Instead, a consultant guides you through a curated selection of scents, some rare, some limited, many unfamiliar. The process is as much about discovery as it is about purchase.

"This is a niche category," says David Oremo, General Manager at Maven Luxury, a Kenyan distributor and r...