Running the department-store gauntlet of sales ladies spritzing mists of perfume is no way to shop for a new fragrance. Want to try the latest from Dior? Or J. Lo’s Glow? Forget it.

The mass appeal of scents from fashion designers and celebrities defined the industry for decades. These days, smaller brands with limited distribution that use creative marketing stories to sell fragrances are on top. “The growth is in the niche category,” the executive director of the Fragrance Foundation, Mary Ellen Lapsansky, said. “These are special, independent brands that have captured the imagination of the consumer.”

These brands don’t have extensive advertising campaigns, and they’re not sold in every department store. How you hear about them depends on what you read and where you shop. And the most important draw is that they’re not on the wrists of every woman in town.

One local example of such niche success is Bond No. 9, the perfumery that launched scents inspired by neighborhoods in New York City, from Chinatown to the new Coney Island scent, introduced this summer. Founder Laurice Rahme, who has created the brand’s 30 fragrances, finds that her customers want an emotional connection to a scent of their choosing. “People like to discover something. There is a strong desire for individuality,” she said.

Invisible though it is, fragrance does communicate a great deal about your individual style and tastes. And while custom-made scents have long been available, the Fifth Avenue retailer Henri Bendel has introduced a new way of providing custom potions in minutes. Bendel’s second-floor atrium is devoted to Memoire Liquide, a palette of 150 scented oils that customers can mix together or wear individually.

The process takes between 30 and 45 minutes, which are spent smelling different scents with a salesperson who helps you narrow down the combination that you like the best. If you love citrus and vanilla scents, for example, you can smell several in each category, then see how your favorites fare when mixed together. At prices of between $45 (for a half-ounce bottle of roll-on perfume oils) and$60 (for a two-ounce eau de parfum spray),these can reach a consumer that may never have considered a personalized fragrance.

Memoire Liquide occupies some serious real estate in the Bendel fragrance area, which is dominated by niche brands. That decision was made by Senior Vice President Claudia Lucas, who three years ago began expanding the store’s fragrance offerings in a direction that emphasized upstart labels. “Designer brands and celebrity brands were everywhere. There was no point in replicating that,” she said.

The ideal, for her, was to find “great products created by people who have a passion for what they’re doing.”

Though the selling floor boasts famous names including the French label Annick Goutal, it also includes California perfumer Mandy Aftel, whose brand Aftelier is based on the production of scents that are entirely natural, with no chemicals or preservatives. This fall, Ms. Lucas predicts she’ll have a huge hit with the two first scents in the new perfume line Juliette Has a Gun, created by Romano Ricci, grandson of Nina Ricci.

What connects these fragrance lines is that the retailer is selling both the scents and the stories, which provide a sense of authenticity. In selecting products, Ms. Lucas asks herself a simple question: “Is there a reason for the product to exist? The world is full of ‘me-too.'”

The marketability of authenticity and heritage is employed by the top names in the luxury game. “The classics are having a resurgence as the younger generation is discovering them,” Ms. Lapsansky said, citing Shalimar as an example.

Hermès and Chanel both have in-house perfumers who can create new scents that capitalize on existing heritage. This summer at its Wall Street store, Hermès is launching Kelly Calèche, a fragrance that links with the house’s two signature products: the Kelly handbag and the classic fragrance Calèche.

The new scent illustrates the philosophy behind the luxury-goods retailer’s approach. “Fragrance is deeply a part of Hermès. All the categories are very mixed in the essence of the company,” the executive vice president in charge of international affairs, Christian Blanckaert, said. “The Hermès perfumes are so close to the products that you cannot separate them.”

Keeping fragrances special, though, isn’t easy. In days when Coco Chanel launched No.5, there were fewer products launched in a given year. That made it easy for a woman to choose one scent as a signature.

In recent years, mega-brands have increased the speed of introductions by adding ever-changing versions of their star performers: Calvin Klein’s CK One is available in variations such as CK One Summer, CK Be, and CK IN2U.

Having so much on the market makes for a confusing cascade of product. And some of it may be swiftly discontinued. The volume of options and speed of change can reduce the feeling that fragrance is a special purchase. That’s the gap that the niche brands are filling: By emphasizing narrativeand discovery, the creators of niche brands are shifting fragrance to luxury and away from commodity — regardless of price.

pcatton@nysun.com