Welcome to The Drydown Boutique Newsletter!

Hi there, and welcome to The Drydown Boutique Newsletter, San Diego’s first and only niche and indie fragrance boutique. We are launching this newsletter as a way to highlight our favorite sniffs from the perfume houses we stock here in store from all over the world, upcoming events, new releases, and more! This week, we’ll be chatting about some of our favorite petrichor perfumes. Before we get to that, a little bit about us.

The Drydown Boutique was founded in November of 2025 by Shaya Assareh, a (no longer!!) practicing optometrist, amateur portrait photographer, and lover of all things fragrance. All of us here at The Drydown believe that the best perfume shopping happens when you’re going at your own pace. This is why we provide pens and paper so you can let your nose lead you on your fragrance journey without feeling rushed or losing track of what you’re smelling. We also sell samples of everything in store so that you can take a test drive of anything that piques your curiosity. Better yet, if you fall in love with a perfume after sampling it, we will deduct the price of the sample from your full bottle purchase! We also love nothing more than connecting with fellow fragrance lovers, which is why we host Scent Club on the first Saturday of every month. Each month we select a new theme and encourage our community to bring samples, decants, and bottles of perfumes that fit the theme of the month. This brings us to this month’s theme, April Showers. Let’s talk perfume shall we?

April Showers

Have you ever stepped outside during a spring rainstorm, taken a deep breath, and thought, “man it smells good out here,”? You might just love petrichor in perfume. “Petrichor” is the word for the smell of rain and we have a couple gorgeous perfumes on our shelves that capture this evasive aroma perfectly.

Steamed Rainbow - D.S. & Durga

notes: Red mandarin, Orange, Yellow elemi resin, Green cedar, Blue almond flower, Indigo grass, Violet, Vetiver, Vapors (ROY G BIV you can smell!)

Remember when you were a little kid on summer break? The air was hot and maybe a little muggy, and nothing in the world felt better or more refreshing than playing and running around in the sprinklers? That’s what Steamed Rainbow smells like. Co-Founder of D.S. & Durga and house perfumer, David Seth Moltz (and fellow Substack Creator) does an exceptional job capturing this image with impressive photorealism. Steamed Rainbow is a perfect scent memory of cool misty water bottled in fragrance. It’s damp, grassy, fresh, and an absolutely gorgeous wear in spring and summer heat!

Nosferatu Eau De Macabre - Heretic

notes: lilac, petrichor, violet absolute, orris concrete, vegan ambergris, labdanum

Nosferatu Eau De Macabre was made in collaboration with Robert Egger’s Nosferatu 2024 and it was inspired by Ellen and Thomas Hutter’s parallel and chilling journeys with the iconic vampire, Count Orlok. If you long to smell like an apparition running through castle grounds in the rain, you have to get your nose on Nosferatu Eau De Macabre. Douglas Little, founder and house perfumer of Heretic Parfum, blends the aroma of rain on concrete castle walls and dewey lilac. This is a fragrance that is deeply pretty and slightly eerie. Upon first sniff, wet florals embrace and welcome you in, but when you breathe a little deeper, you get the sense that there might be someone or something trailing behind you. “Providence,” indeed.

Upcoming Events

Scent Club

Saturday, April 4th 2026, 6-7:30 pm:

As previously mentioned, Scent Club is the first Saturday of every month. Join us after close for some light snacks, sips, and sharing your favorite petrichor perfumes!

Sip & Create Perfume Workshop with Michael Salazar of Aromas de Salazar

Sunday, April 19th 2026, 4-6pm & Sunday April 26th, 4:30-6:30pm

Create your own signature perfume in a guided, hands-on workshop led by Michael Salazar, perfumer and founder of Aromas de Salazar. Enjoy a glass of bubbly - alcoholic or non-alcoholic - as you explore curated accords, experiment with scent combinations, and blend your personalized formula. Leave with a custom 15ml fragrance crafted entirely by you.

Thank you so much for reading! The Drydown Boutique newsletter will be available bi-weekly. We cannot wait to continue sharing what we have happening in store!

With love,

The Drydown Team

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