Entry No. 93 — the New Orleans file — filed under: perfume
Hové Parfumeur
Mrs. Alvin Hovey-King learned perfumery from her Creole French mother and started blending in 1931 out of 529 Royal Street, once the house of Spanish governor Estevan Miró. Four generations of the same family have kept it going since — daughter, granddaughter, and now Amy van Calsem Wendel and her husband Bill, who took over in July 2011 and moved the operation into an 1809 building on Chartres. The house style is single-note and unfashionably direct: tea olive, vetivert, heliotrope, Spanish moss, the scents that actually smell like this city rather than like a department store. Vetivert is the one to understand — the root New Orleans households used to tuck into armoires to keep linens from going musty in the damp, and it's periodically out of stock because the plant supply is the plant supply. They blend on site, and the shop keeps a couple of dozen formulas going at any time.
→ Three more vintage, record & maker shops in New Orleans — never the same twice
The story
In 1929 Mrs. Alvin Hovey-King's husband lost their money in the market. She had learned to make perfume from her Creole French mother, and by 1931 the hobby was a business, operating out of 529 Royal Street — a house that had once belonged to the Spanish governor Estevan Miró — with the family living in the apartment above the shop. Hové bills itself as the oldest continuously operating perfume manufacturer in New Orleans, and the line of succession is unbroken: the founder until her death in 1961, then her daughter, then Mrs. Julie van Calsem IV, who came in during 1970 and was joined by her husband in 1987, and since July 2011 Amy van Calsem Wendel and her husband Bill.
The address has moved three times and never far. Toulouse Street from 1938 to 1982, then 824 Royal, and since the 2011 handover an 1809 building at 434 Chartres, where the shop occupies the first and second floors and the owners live on the third — the old French Quarter arrangement, still running.
What's on the shelves is stubbornly unfashionable: single notes and antique house formulas rather than anything a department store would recognize. Vetivert, Tea Olive, Easter Lily, Lavande, heliotrope, alongside names the family invented decades ago — Touchié, Valiant, El Capitan, Corduroy, Eau de Cologne Napoleon. Vetivert is the one to understand, and they sell the loose root as well as the perfume. It also goes out of stock for long stretches, because the crop is the crop: their own site once announced the root would be back in early spring.
What it's like
The shop is high-ceilinged and unhurried, and nothing costs anything to smell. Tell whoever is at the counter that you want to work through the standard line rather than buy one specific thing, and they will keep pulling bottles as long as you stay curious — this is a shop staffed by people who will name the note you can't place. Go easy on your own scent before you walk in, and pace yourself: six or seven fragrances in, everything starts smelling like the fifth one. Don't build the visit around a single bottle, because individual scents disappear for months when a crop runs short. Open Monday to Saturday 10am–5pm and Sunday 11am–5pm, closed Mardi Gras Day, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The move: Get there around 3pm, tell whoever's at the counter you want to smell the whole standard line rather than buy anything specific, and work through it on paper strips — vetivert against tea olive is the one that separates you two. Buy each other a dram of whatever the other person kept sniffing (drams are cheap), then walk two blocks to Napoleon House for a Pimm's Cup and argue about it.
📍 Before you go Monday–Saturday 10am–5pm, Sunday 11am–5pm; closed Mardi Gras Day, Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Phone (504) 525-7827. Individual fragrances go out of stock for months at a time when a crop is short — don't build the evening around one specific bottle. Nothing here is by appointment and there's no charge to smell; the staff will keep pulling bottles as long as you're curious. Don't wear a strong scent in, and remember the shop is now on Chartres — older guidebooks still list the old Royal Street address.
- 📍 New Orleans
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Low-key
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 434 Chartres St, New Orleans, LA 70130
Hours: Added 2026-08-26 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- New Orleans Pharmacy Museum — Half a block up Chartres at 514, where the same era's hand-labelled bottles are behind glass instead of on a counter you're allowed to open.
- Bottom of the Cup Tearoom — A block down Chartres, and the other French Quarter business that has outlasted nearly everything around it by not changing what it does.
- Tijon New Orleans — The deliberate contrast: instead of smelling four generations of finished formulas, you put on a lab coat and blend your own from scratch.
More weird in New Orleans
Good to know
Isn't Hové on Royal Street?
Not since 2011. It spent 1938 to 1982 on Toulouse and then years at 824 Royal, but the shop is now at 434 Chartres St. Older guidebooks and blog posts still send people to the old address.
Do I need an appointment, and does sampling cost anything?
No appointment, no charge. Walk in during opening hours and ask to smell things; the staff will pull bottles and talk you through the line without any expectation that you buy.
What does it cost to walk out with something?
Less than a perfume counter. Solid perfumes run about $25 to $28, glass candles $25, French-milled bar soaps around $7, and they sell sampler sets if you'd rather take several small ones home and decide later.
Why is the scent I wanted sold out?
Because they blend from actual plant material and a short crop stops production. Vetivert Root in particular has gone out of stock for months at a time, with the shop posting a return date a season away.
What should I try if I only have twenty minutes?
Vetivert and Tea Olive, in that order — the two that smell most like this city rather than like a fragrance. Then one of the old house formulas such as Eau de Cologne Napoleon for contrast.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · frenchquarter.com
last checked: 2026-08-26