The Xuelei Fragrance Museum in Guangzhou, China, has been officially recognised by Guinness World Records as the world’s largest fragrance museum. This distinction was confirmed on 27 November 2025 and acknowledges its total area of 9,500.878 square metres.
The new museum, which explores the cultural, historical, and sensory aspects of scent, is spread across five floors. Its architecture features a distillation-inspired shape clad in red brick, with a tall central atrium that lets in natural light.
The museum features 18 thematic galleries that explore global aromatic traditions and the history of perfumery.
Visitors can enjoy over 300 scent discovery points to sample different fragrance notes, and a dedicated library offers 400 fragrance samples. Eastern aromatic heritage is showcased through carefully curated displays and immersive scenographic environments.
See also: The smell of success: how scent became the must-have interpretative tool
AI-driven installation
A key attraction at the museum is a multi-level installation of hanging transparent vessels encircling a spiral staircase. This setup is integrated into the museum’s interactive scent-mapping experience.
Visitors utilise a digital “Scent Card” to capture their reactions to various fragrance notes, which are then combined into a personalised “Fragrance Travel Report” displayed in the museum’s Time Machine of Scent gallery.
An AI-assisted blending station on the ground floor creates a personalised perfume according to these recorded preferences. The process involves formulating the mixture and bottling the final product.
Since its opening, the museum has garnered interest from the fragrance industry and media covering design and cultural tourism.
As an experiential space that investigates the connection between scent, memory, and perception, it is anticipated to attract visitors who are curious about fragrance culture and multisensory museum experiences.
In 2023, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York joined forces with the "smart fragrance" company Pura to create a range of scents inspired by its artworks and galleries.
Pura released six aromas, some of which evoke the museum's Astor Chinese Garden Court and Greek galleries, while others suggest artworks and marble statues.
Other museums to dabble in fragrance include the Louvre, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Prado Museum.
Charlotte Coates is blooloop's editor. She is from Brighton, UK and previously worked as a librarian. She has a strong interest in arts, culture and information and graduated from the University of Sussex with a degree in English Literature. Charlotte can usually be found either with her head in a book or planning her next travel adventure.
