Independent perfumers are making a big splash in the fragrance world

Hiram Green shows off some of the raw essences that go into his perfumes. He's at Twisted Lily, a fragrance boutique in Brooklyn.

​At Twisted Lily, a fragrance boutique in Brooklyn, I learn that things quickly get personal when you’re talking about perfume — like when co-owner Eric Weiser explains why I won’t like one of his favorite perfumes.

Player utilities“It has one word [in] the name, and it’s stercus," he says. Stercus, in case your Latin is rusty, means “feces.”

But I take a whiff — and it smells nice. Not fecal at all.

Stercus is just one of the words perfume fanatics use to describe something that smells really great. “Skunky, dirty, fecal, urine-y, barnyard-y,” Weiser says. "It can be a compliment to a perfumer.”

Asking personal questions of a perfumer is actually what brings me to Twisted Lily today. They’re unveiling a new scent by Hiram Green, a perfumer based in the Netherlands. Most of the perfumes sold here don’t come from Chanel or Christian Dior. They're handmade by individual perfumers, most of whom are self-taught — which I find striking.