Common Scents
Categories: Cosmetics & Beauty Supply, Skin Care [Edit]
Neighborhood: Noe Valley3920 24th Street
Suite A
(between Noe St & Sanchez St)
San Francisco, CA 94114 (415) 826-1019
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Wheelchair Accessible: No
22 reviews
Neighborhood: Marina/Cow Hollow
"There are two things that really stress me out when I move to a new city. One is finding a hair stylist - and to be specific, I do mean a…" read more »
34 Reviews for Common Scents
I loved it!
Great selection, and lots of Alba products at good prices!
Tons of unique product lines! I will definitely be back to check out more!
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Great selection of organic and mild personal care products. Everything is stacked to the ceiling. Prices are decent as well. Just beware of the smell of all the soaps and candles and lotions all mixed together. It's very strong. Made my nose hurt upon entering.
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What a lovely little shop. I buy Jessicurl products here, great hair care line for curly girls. Lots of lovely little hair clippies, incense and skin care products. The staff was very nice, which is always a big plus!
Next visit I'll be buying some new candles!
Love, Love, LOVE this place! I had no idea, until very recently, that this store has been open for more than 35 years!
I go here for all my incense, bath, skin care, oils... they sell the complete line of Kiehls skin care products - no need to go to the mall.
I like the option to buy in bulk with your own containers - re-use, recycle!
Five enthusiastic stars!
Common Scents is uncommonly wonderful!
They carry a number of cruelty-free personal care products -- such as Alba, Avalon Organics, JASON, and Nature's Gate -- which is an endorsement in itself.
The gals who work there are very friendly, and dogs are welcome in the store -- which is another major selling point for me!
The variety of beautiful candles, lotions and other delights for the most underrated sense is truly astounding, given the teeny shop space.
The high quality of the goods is proven by the subtlety of the scents - if a candle is strong on the shelf, it's unbearable when lit. No such olfactory offenses, here.
While cutie was procuring a special vegan candle for the anniversary of our friend's first ever spanking, I wandered about wondering how long I was gonna hafta hang in this girly boutique.
Then I spotted it. A precious object I had seen elsewhere that remained elusive until this day. The clouds part and I sense the scent of heaven: BACON CAR AIR FRESHENER!
The Bitchin' Saturn Wagon is now the Bitchin' Bacon Saturn Wagon. It'll have to do until I install the underhood skillet.
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This is a haven for curly or wavy haired girls... the only place in the city that you can buy Jessicurl products which are INCREDIBLE!! Seriously, if you have curly or wavy hair, you owe it to yourself to go to Common Scents and grab some Jessicurl products. If you don't want to commit to large sizes, they even have travel sizes that you can try. I highly recommend the Gelebration spray, Rockin Ringlets gel, and Confident Coils Styling Solution. They come in three scents... Island Fantasy (sweet, vanilla-ish), citrus lavender, and no scent at all.
Anyway, Common Scents also has an awesome selection of soaps, natural products, and their own house line. The sales people are really nice and helpful. With the holidays coming up soon, this would be a great place to buy a gift for any woman in your life!!! There are also a lot of cute gift shops right nearby if you're looking for several people.
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This is a store full of olfactory fun.
I also think I have a thing for jam-packed stores like this, that use every possible inch for excellent products, & no inches for lame, uninteresting items. This store has a little bit of yum for everyone - female, male, old, young, and all the in betweens. Nice staff too. I guess it helps when you're surrounded by products intended to help one relax, regroup & be clean & soft & in love.
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This is a lovely little store. My daughter (now 18 years old) was in love with "tiny animal soaps" when she was a little girl and this was her favorite place to go and get them.
I have not bought any "tiny soaps" in a long time but I still stop in here whenever possible. The staff is friendly and knowledgable. They make great product suggestions.
This is a good place to go when you want to buy a little gift...either for a friend, or better yet, yourself.
I love the free samples up next to the register.
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I was impressed, they had travel size version of Tom's of Maine toothpaste. Not only that, but they had like 10 different flavors of their toothpaste, pretty nifty.
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I'm usually day dreaming when I'm trying to get to this place and always end up at Guererro before I realize it.
I love this place for the "soap wall." Literally one whole wall is dedicated to different bars of natural soap. Yes, I have a life thank you. I know I shouldn't be this excited about soap, but I am.
Last I was in here, I bought this yummy pineapple soap and an Asian style piece of umm, well, it's not a pot, but is it still called "pottery?" Whatever. It's in the shape of a green sea shell. They have a pretty big scented candle selection as well as incense (both oil and stick).
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This place smells like heaven, I love it.
You can find almost every scent possible here.
It is tight, can probably only fit 5 poeple in the store at a time, but i buy my toothpaste, hand creams, and shampoos here often.
love the selection
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On a recent visit from NYC I sought refuge in Common Scents on 3 occasions. The store is small but very organized-all the products are faced and most of them have testers. The only issue is that my olfactory was overwhelmed after about 15 minutes. I ended up purchasing some Jasmine and Amber oils. The saleslady kindly informed me that there was a price break if I returned to refill the bottles. I told her I lived across the country and she said they do mail order. When next in Noe Valley I will definitely return!!
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This place is way too smelly.
I think it should be against the law for the employees to spend 8 to 9 hours a day bathed in pungent olfactory bombs.
Will their sense of smell ever be normal again? I am concerned for their well being.
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I love this place. I walk from my neighborhood in Glen Park over to Noe Valley with my dog every few weeks to refill on face cream and other lotions that they package and sell from bulk at a discounted rate. When I made the switch from expensive, organic face creams, my skin celebrated. There are treasures to found in that tiny little store.
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Such an amazing selection!! I didn't think I could ever find a local store like this one, but here it is.
I love their face moisturizers which they make in store & its pretty cheap too.
The staff is also super knowledgeable & friendly. They give my dog treats whenever we go in together.
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When I was a young kid, before Noe Valley had become yuppified it was actually kinda similar to the Bernal heights area, very neighborhood oriented and a little hippie-ish. There was the Noe Valley Community Store, Star Magic, The Taste of Honey, Simon's Burritos, The Meat Market Coffee Shop, the flower shop that was in someones front yard, and of course the only one remaining, Common Scents. There are a few other places that have made it through the struggle of the ever persistent gentrification that both plagues and beautifies our diverse city, but not many.
Common Scents is a small beauty supply store that is the size of a large walk-in closet but manages to have almost everything you could imagine when it comes to skin, hair, and beauty products. One of my favorite things about this place is that they have a lotion bar where you can choose the unscented lotion that best suites your skin type and then blend your own scents using the several essential oils that they provide. They have floral, musky, earthy, fruity, tea, and tropical scents. My personal favorite is the paradise tea scent which is a blend of green tea and pikkoci (sp?). But I get bored easy so I love the variety of products that they carry and the helpful staff. You get the impression that they haven't just tried several of the products that they are selling but they actually use many of them as well.
The other thing that I love about this place is that it is not that uncommon to run into the owner working the counter which shows me that she genuinely cares about her business as well as her customers. I have been coming here with my mom since I was about four or five and her face has become familiar. While I don't visit them often I haven't forgotten the trips with my mom to get bubble bath and sponge pills as she got her soap and shampoo, which even then I could tell were small luxuries that made a new family feel especially good.
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I don't understand why this place got 4 stars from anyone. I mean, what's wrong with it? What more could you ask for that would wrangle that 5th star from you? A gumball machine full of ecstasy? A free $25 gift certificate to Tartine with every purchase?
This place rocks. Try their own house line of products which are wonderful and reasonably priced.
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What a cute store! They had such a wide selection of soaps (big soap, medium sized soaps, miniature soaps!) in every scent imaginable. The shop girls were very friendly and after greeting me, left me alone to browse. I love that they carried the Kiehl's line, Pacifica soaps and candles, a million kinds of lip balms and a variety of travel sized items, perfect for your next trip!
This tiny shop is PACKED with anything and everything that'll get your bod to smell and feel like a million bucks. They have their own line of great handmade lotions as well as other brands I enjoy like Kiehl's, Thymes, and L'Epi de Provence. You'll definitely find that perfect scent, and with their friendly and knowledgeable staff, your search will actually be a lot of fun.
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This is my favorite place for me and my puppy to shop, socialize with the friendliest employees and owners, and choose which kiehls facial product will change my life this week. They carry everything I need-- mistral soaps and alba botanica kukui nut oil being at the top of the list. But sometimes I just go in to say hello to the ladies who work hard to keep Common Scents the lovely and authentic SF shop that it is.
Unfortunately, certain "common scents" are unpleasant, to say the least. I would love to meet the person who invented incense matches. Really. They are perfect for traveling, especially if you're not used to sharing a bathroom....know what I'm saying? Pick some up. Your significant other will thank you.
You can find incense matches, along with tons of other fantastic stuff at Common Scents, including candles, soaps, facial cleansers, essential oils, lotions, and on and on and on.....
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This place is awesome...its a demure sort of place from the outside. Its only about 3 feet wide. The shelves and walls are JAM-PACKED with all sorts of wonderful lotions, soaps, etc. It makes Lush seem like a desolate and boring place.
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I used to visit Common Scents as a kid and my mom would always let me pick out one of those animal-shaped soaps or bath gel thingies to take home. This place smells wonderful, and not in a gross over-powering way. Also, one of the few spots to buy Jason brand toothpaste, which, thanks to Erica, I am a recent and quite devout convert.
I appreciate the fact that they will re-use plastic shampoo bottles too. The ladies at the counter will give you a very honest opinion about the product, and last time I asked a question about the scent of a well-packaged sunscreen, they popped it open to smell it on the spot, kindly informing me that if it wasn't to my liking, no sweat.
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Walking into Common Scents is like opening the wardrobe door in the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. You might not enter Narnia, but opening the 24th street door exposes you to a wonderful hidden world of many beauty/personal care items that one cannot possibly discern from walking past.
There are a ton of the popular "organic" type beauty products in here - from Alba to Shi Kai, to more exotic brands (of which the names escape me). They have some items that are hand labeled - for example, I bought my roommate some product a while back, and "Aloe Shaving Gel" was handwritten on the label.
They also have a massive selection of industrial size random lotions, gels, and liquids on their back shelves. I believe that they'll fill up bottles you bring in from the outside world with at least some of these precious substances. So yes, you can bring in your Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Castile soap bottle from Trader Joe's and they'll refill it for you at a fraction of the cost of buying a new bottle....And you'll be doing the environment a favor too....
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Mmmm...smelly, girly, soapy stuff...I love Common Scents. They offer a lot of the usual "Crabtree and Evelyn" stuff here. But there's also a lot of natural products, and the Burt's Bees collection's here too. But the real draw for me is that they carry my favorite...Kiehls! Oh, Kiehls, you evil temptress...I cannot resist you, no matter how I try. They're lip balm IS the bomb! (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
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What a cute boutique, filled with wonderful smelling bath products. They have all kinds of great candles. I like that they carry my favorite line of organic bath products - Alba! They make their own lotion, bubble bath, shampoo with a variety of scents to choose from! They also sell incense sticks, cones and sage. I just got some cute green tea incense today!
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I luv this little store -- you're greeted by fragrance and smiling faces...Their products range from organic oils to kiehls - from soap and candles to shower gels... Best of all you can try anything in the store-- lots of testers :-)
I'm not one of those people who likes to shower. I'm an in and out kinda girl. I'm a busy lady with lots to get done and and ain't nothing happening in the shower...it's only slowing me down, holding me back! Showering might be the reason why I haven't gotten a promotion at work...IT JUST TAKES UP TOO MUCH VALUABLE TIME! Besides, I naturally smell like roses and sunshine and chocolate kisses and daffodils and little girl laughter so there is really no reason for me to shower except for the social pressure and the judgy mc judgensteins of the world. oh and um, bowel movements. In an ideal world, I'd shower once a week. There, I said it. I feel no need to apologize for my would be pig pen ways...I am naturally a nasty, funky, white hot mess. HOWEVER, I have bought into this convention because I like having friends and sex so what can you do? Apparently, a girl's got to shower! Luckily, a girl's got Common Scents mere blocks from her door step! Showering is so much more tolerable when you have delicious smelling potions to rub all over your soft, supple body. Is it getting hot in here? Moving on.
The delightful bath and body selection at Common Scents is vast and carefully selected. They carry Kiehl's, Burt's Bees, Jason, Dr. Hauschka's, Kiss My Face and many others, including their own in-store brand which you can custom mix scents into! I'm a total Easy Bake Oven Chemist so I love this kinda crap. The owner is SUCH a wonderful woman...always willing to go out her way to find the exact product for your temperamental bacne (god ew i can't believe i just typed that. i do NOT have bacne. i have been cursed with many ills in this life but back acne is not one of them, THANK GOD. seriously, if you have bacne, just shoot yourself because that shit is the NAST.) They also always donate to Rocket Dog Rescue for our silent auctions and make the cutest baskets filled with all sorts of goodies. Ooh and one of the employees has a Rocket Dog and dogs are allowed in the shop...they always have treats for them! Feed my foster dog, Ike (ADOPT HIM! he is PERFECT: http://www.rocketdogre... ) a few biscuits and you have my heart and my wallet. Yay, Common Scents!
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the staff is super-friendly, and they have just about every product i use... kiehl's, alba, burt's bees.
i wandered in when i was trying to make a lux toiletries bag for my niece for her birthday. they had just about everything in a travel size! added a cute little ducky and i was all done for under $20.
i got a very nice thank you card... made me feel old, but oh, well.
This is a great little hidden gem in Noe Valley. It's a very small storefront, and you'd easily walk right by it if you weren't specifically looking for it. The space is tiny, but it's jam packed with a surprisingly vast selection of soaps, lotions, and facial products. Every single inch of this place is packed with products, including a variety of Kiehls and comparable "fine" bath/beauty products.
Not only are they Uber-friendly, there is a great selection of beauty products!
(If you are really nice they will let you order Dr. Bronner's by the gallon.)
To the allergy prone and scent sensitive- proceed with caution, your sinuses will thank you later!
So I have been shopping at this little store for years, and it just struck me today how horrified I would be if they ever left this neighborhood. So I am taking a moment to be an evangelist to make sure that everyone else knows how wonderful they are as well. It does not surprise me to see that they have a five-star rating here on Yelp. This is the authentic thing - an understated and integrity-filled neighborhood shop where the people who work at the shop are as helpful and friendly as they come. And the products are top notch and widely varied - there is truly something for everyone here. I made the mistake of buying gifts here for my Montana friends once and now I cannot go back there empty-handed....no oil from Common Scents? No dinner!
Good peeps! Nice selection. Fair prices.
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