2020
NOTE Co. founded
Linh and three perfumers open the first NOTE counter on Đồng Khởi street. Two years later, 2,400 reviews and a single five-star average across them.
Why nine?
Linh Trần spent two decades at a perfumer's bench — in Grasse, then in Singapore, then at home in Sài Gòn — chasing the same question. How few families do you really need to tell every story a nose can tell?
The Western canon teaches fourteen. The Japanese practice splits into hundreds. Linh's answer, after two thousand blends and four notebooks, was nine. Four fresh, one floral, one woody, one fougère, one chypre, one resin. Every memory you've ever had — first day of school, the morning after a typhoon, your grandmother's kitchen, a stranger on the bus — sits in one of those nine, waiting for top and middle notes to pull it back.
On Vietnam
"Vietnamese noses know coriander, fish sauce, jasmine rice, and rain at the same time. A perfumery built here has to listen to all of it."
On the workbench
"A counter sells you a bottle. A workbench teaches you the bottle. We chose the workbench."
On time
"Ninety minutes is the right amount of attention. Less and you rush; more and you stop trusting your nose."
The timeline · Mốc thời gianSix years of slow work,
Six years of slow work,
one workshop at a time.
2023
The Grasse archive
A year of slow listening — every Vietnamese accord we know mapped against the canonical fourteen families. Nine emerges as the unit that holds it all.
2025
The Passport begins
First batch of fifty leather Passports stitched in Bến Thành. Designed to outlive bottles, refillable, portable across borders.
2026
The first workshop
Atelier opens on Lê Thánh Tôn — bilingual, by appointment, capped at twelve guests an evening. Bangkok next.
Begin · Bắt đầuEvery scent in this atelier
Every scent in this atelier
began as someone's question.
Ninety minutes with a perfumer, a workbench, and the nine families. You'll leave with a 30 ml flacon and a Passport stamped in your hand.