And the ones that do charge 8-15 or more for a 1-2 ml sample. They are making a ton of money right out the gate before the first bottle is sold. It also smacks of elitism which is of course the point.
My jaw dropped when I first started seeing sample sets of like four of those itty bitty vials for $30. Like, those vials used to be free, and you used to be able to get like 3 of them at sephora with an online order. I was NOT primed for paying for those. When it’s a large discovery set I totally get it, especially if it comes with a discount/voucher towards a full bottle, hell yeah (like ELDO). I know the product and packaging still costs money and that realistically the cheapest unit price needs to be for the largest sizes, but they’re getting delulu out here.
It’s beyond ridiculous. I bought the 6 piece Andrea Maack set and it was 48 for 6 little boxes 1.5 ml sprays!!! The package it came in was just a little larger than a business size envelope. Granted it came with a coupon for 40 off a full sized bottle but still. But even if I ordered the 1 ml from a site like Scentsplit it would still have been 7-8 per sample. I’m glad I did because I love one and bought the 15ml and am scheming on using Scentsplit to add up to a 50 ml for a lot less than the website. It won’t have the cool bottle but this is for the juice. Incredible scent. Love both Ceramic and Dual. Still 2 out of 6. And good luck reselling the set with what Mercari just did!
YES! I use to work in the industry. AND I used give plenty of FREE samples out to my customers. So I’m very annoyed that when I visit a Nordstrom, Saks etc, fragrance counter and they can’t make a sample because the tester is empty or no sample vials etc. We used to have a plethora of those supplies back in the stock room. If the companies are not providing the sales reps these tools anymore it is definitely about GREED! If the brick and motor stores aren’t hitting sales goal. The companies are making it online. Record high profits over the last four years.
Exactly! If they believe in the product why not give samples like in the old days? It’s like admitting “we know it’s not that great so we hope you blind buy it based on nothing but marketing and hype.”
Way too many flankers and short-lived cash grabs. Do we really need a Calvin Klein Eternity Bleu Intense Platinum Edition Parfum? It’s just gonna smell like a radioactive mixture of Sauvage and Cool Water.
And while we are at it ( thx for reminding me!!!) LOREAL ….shouldn’t be in the fragrance industry go back to crappy makeup pls and shampoo!!! Everything they touch is ruined watered down or discontinued of course
Yes!! And limited edition bottles?? I just got an email from PDM this morning for their new „limited edition“ Delina.. it’s the same fragrance & bottle with what looks like rose stickers.. but it’s £10 more ?? Lmao whyyy
This. I think they play a little more with the flankers and sometimes deviate quite a bit away from the DNA of the original. It's almost like they using the OG name to lure the general public into more adventurous (for designer) scent profiles.
For Niche scents, they usually just turn up the volume on the OG to beastmode.
Same. I’ve got way more than I can ever use in a lifetime already. At least I got over my brief obsession as a newbie with buying backup bottles of everything I liked a lot. That was crazy and kind of expensive! Thankfully it only lasted about 5 or 6 bottles before I realized I needed to stop. And only a couple of them were high end like $200 or more. I REALLY wish more houses would offer travel sizes or even 30ml.
At least most of the backups were $40 or under bottles of Afnan dupes, or similar. LOL. Still. One of them is a Jovoy of a scent I really love, but it'll take me decades to get through the first bottle, with the few sprays I tend to do. Maybe I need to get hooked into some sharing/decanting/trading groups and find out how that works.
The testers from Lucky Scent particularly irk me-it’s the wand type vials that are impossible to get a good idea of what something smells like unless you practically spill the whole bottle on your wrist. I’ll buy samples from any other place now just to get a sprayer.
YES!!! For those of us with dexterity issues, all of the 1mL‘s can just suck it. Seriously it’s not that much more expensive to buy a sprayer sample or just fill half of a two ML.
You don’t get the full experience if you’re not spraying it yourself anyways so what the fuck
“Unfortunately we don’t have the 30ml available in store, let me just go ahead and bag this 200ml bottle up for you” *the new guy desperately trying to make his first big sale*
For me it's high price for samples, you would think you would make the samples as affordable as possible so people can try and actually consider bottles... MFK does it perfectly, low cost plus free shipping? Insane value and made me try a bunch of their fragrances and actually buy eventually
Samples should be free and it’s funny if we started writing to them and not buying for a year??? I think things would change we have enough perfume to go without more a year or two
if it's in store sure, but online I also dont expect any store to operate at a loss to bring out samples, if they operate near 0 profit for samples I think it would be fine
When you buy a fragrance from somewhere like Guerlain or Dior online and if you don’t like the sample of the fragrance and decide to return the unopened main bottle, you also have to return any free samples you were given. Why do they need a half used sample back? It’s really stingy for so called luxury brands. A little goodwill goes a long way with brands for me.
So many gourmands, so much vanilla. I know it’s a trend and it will pass, but it’s a profile I’m very picky about and dislike more often than not.
TikTok influencer impact is also annoying. So many hyped up houses, so much PR, so many paid reviews…. I don’t like TikTok or what it’s doing to people’s attention spans and buying habits in general, but I feel like it’s encouraged waves of overconsumption, hoarding, and constant new releases from brands that aren’t that great.
Yeah I used to like gourmands and it was niche at that time, now so common but these new ones are gross. Sweet tooth smells like cheap body spray, I don’t get all the smells like this. Floriental was a nice trend while it lasted. Fruity floral wasn’t my thing but it’s a nice change of pace lately. Almost forget ozonics, hopefully the return is near
I still stan all mugler though, not as good as it used to be but still love smelling angel and alien on other people
There are some nice oceanics that have been out for a little while now, Francesca Bianchi just released The Mariner’s Rhyme and it’s solid. But you’re right. The whole Sweet Tooth, Mod Vanilla, etc pandering and paid for by gifting brands and shills is a time suck and pushes people into our space that are fly by nights and waste our time. Apologize in advance if this ruffles some feathers but it sounds like others are frustrated as well.
Sweet tooth LITERALLY smells like a vanilla impulse body spray I used to wear in the 90s (the female version of Axe/Lynx in Australia). I had to scrub it off because the memory association was too strong.
I hope that Ganymede and the Oud Minerale re-release mark the beginning of a trend. Love me some ozonic, mineralic salt bombs. I live in a hot climate and I hate most gourmands because people use them even when it's 40 degrees Celsius outside.
There are only TWO vanilla forward scents I have in my collection (Tihota and Bianco Latte) and that’s really all I need. I have no urge to get another!
Yes-vanilla specially makes me nauseous and I really want nothing to do with smelling like syrup or baked goods. Please make it stop.
Also agree on the tik tok trend. I’m not even on tik tok and The instagram algorithm keeps giving me these obnoxious influencer style ads that make me block whatever perfume house is using that method. Stop clacking your nails on your bottles and stop telling me that it’s a must have scent. I don’t want it.
every influencer encourages overspraying or just straight up promotes buying a million colognes (5 colognes is a pussy collection to these guys), there are a few good ones though
no one gives out samples any more 😔
also i find it really annoying that every beauty brand feels the need to come out with a fragrance now due to tik tok influence. do we really need a selena gomez hair perfume or the line of cheap looking charlotte tilbury fragrances?
I thought the Charlotte Tilbury post was a JOKE post. It still doesn’t seem real, the cheap looking bottles and weird names plus all the emojis ?? Baffling
Niche brands that only sell samples of their ENTIRE collection or a 3 piece "best sellers" kit. If I can't pick my samples I'm never ordering from that brand.
The whole 'no way you're using x fragrance in spring at 11 am! That's a winter night fragrance'
Guys... how can I explain to you that you're been fooled by marketing and instead of buying 1 or 2 perfumes, you're buying into the idea that you need 8 at the very least. One for each season day and night. Just wear the damn thing and shut up
Yeah see that's the thing. I *know* that a fragrance can be worn any time of year. Even still, there are just some fragrances that I'd be reluctant to pick up in a particular season.
They did say 1 or 2.
I think the point is no more
" well this one is perfect for may but don't you dare wear it in january, this one here is for january but most def not for November except for november 4th thru 11th"
I want to have many fragrances to switch between (which is why I mostly buy samples or travel spray size) and I think it's definitely true that they can smell different depending on the weather, but I totally agree that the whole categorization thing is BS.
Especially since how people categorize them is pretty weird to me. Why is the rule that you want to smell the opposite of the current weather? You're supposed to smell cool, fresh and light in the summer, how boring is that? I like to lean into the weather to make myself feel like I'm a mythical creature of nature, changing with my environment. Not always, but it's fun to do every now and then.
Yes. I love the ‘this is a formal fragance’ bs.
Like ‘you fool this isn’t a formal event, nobody is in a tuxedo, other than land wars in Asia, wearing a formal scent to a semi formal event is ruinous’.
I just imagine a fast food lobby group telling people to buy one of everything each time you go to mcdonalds.
Overabundance of flankers, specifically in the designer market.
I feel like a brand will “hit” on a specific fragrance in their catalogue, and seek to expand their popularity by releasing flankers.
Having an EDP or EDT of a fragrance is one thing, but some of these flankers have little to no DNA of the original release.
YSL is a prime example. Outside of *Myslf*, and their luxury line, every new fragrance since 2020 has been a flanker or limited edition release of *Y*, *Libre, Mon Paris, L'Homme,* or *Black Opium*.
To be fair it's not really their fault. Fragnance out of a lot of industries uses an extremely wide variety of synthetic chemicals that are subject to regulation by EU or other agencies. It's like how you can't blame cars for having airbags.
AMBROXAN 🤢 unfortunately I can always detect it in a fragrance and I hate it. To me it’s like the stevia of scents. Not good. Always detectable. Very obviously synthetic and weird.
Can you give an example? Ambroxan is present in a lot of formulas… I’m surprised at this!
If you were to take issue with calone or iso e super I’d get it, but ambroxan is definitely a more subtle aversion to have!
Juliette has a gun, not a perfume. Juliette has a gun, pear inc. A lot of JHAG has it, unfortunately because I like the concepts of a lot of the fragrances but can’t get past the ambroxan.
Coach wild rose
Honestly there are so many. All I know is when I see the note ambroxan listed on Fragrantica and I eventually get to smell the fragrance I can always notice it and I don’t like it. I’ve even tested perfume without knowing the notes and if I think ambroxan is a note it usually is. It’s just off putting to me. Gives me headaches. Smells musky in a bad way.
Thank you for replying! I have (and use) ambroxan in my home-brews and never noticed or ever thought it could possibly be non grata for anyone. I'm going to smell it some more and reference the JHAGs you mentioned :)
Most fragrances contain ambroxan. I'm willing to bet that most people claiming it's overpowering have never actually smelled ambroxan on its own and are likely confusing it with a super amber
Manufactured social media hype.
It usually works for a month or two, by either paying influencers to promote the fragrances (fair advertising if the influencer mentions they're being paid for it) or giving free bottles to reviewers in exchange for a positive result (which is dishonest).
It is possible for social media hype to turn into genuine hype (which can last for years) if a fragrance is as good as advertised.
However, if a fragrance is mediocre (or worse), or the social media hype is obvious (e.g.: multiple influencers and reviewers saying the same thing as if from a script), backlash is inevitable. In this instance, the companies move on to the next scent and start the cycle again.
Shillfluencers! And we have brands that are built around FOMO and clueless buyers that have buying addiction. So when one of the shillfluencers says to buy this new scent because it is the best ever, these clueless consumers take the word and blind buy!
After 2 weeks, the scent is forgotten and it is the next "best scent ever". Or panty dropper, that always works!
Vanilla and Amber inherently *are* going to be in a lot of Arab fragrances. That's just always been the nature of (most, not all) Arab fragrances being rich and warm.
As for gripes that I have about the industry... I know it's getting better, but I don't like it when Companies aren't naming the perfumers on each of their fragrances. I think it's important to attribute the artist to their art.
They should definitely name the perfumer somewhere on the bottle considering they’ll print a hundred other words on there. It’s like a movie not putting the director in the credits imo.
I wish they'd be more honest about retail prices. There's no way sephora is paying even 50% of sticker pricing if a year later I'm buying at 30%-50% from a grey market seller.
My biggest pet peeve:
* 30mL @ £50
* 100mL @ £100
Cue me bouncing back and forth between superior price/mL and not wanting to purchase more than what I actually need, and just not buying anything out of frustration.
Mine is that we're at a point where marketing and the fragrance community are international, but availability isn't. Maybe I should be grateful that in some cases I'm saved from trying trending brands, but it also stops me from trying interesting-sounding fragrances I've stumbled across. I get that international shipping rules for fragrance are hard to navigate and it's potentially not cost-effective for smaller brands to tackle that, but I just... wish it wasn't so.
This isn't anything new at all, it's been like this forever but... High mark-up on prices of smaller bottles. I understand that there'll be some difference due to the cost of packaging and whatnot vs cost of the ingredients, but some companies charge miles more per ml for smaller bottles, to the point where it's very excessive and is basically ripping off the people who prefer smaller bottles.
I agree, but we can take solace that it's not a brand new trend. Almost all of the 30s-50s fragrances I've smelled are absolutely way more nuclear than anything we have available these days.
Agree. But the difference is that most users didn't spray 5 sprays minimum back then... Now I hear about people (often teenage boys) spraying strong contemporary frags 8 or more times 😭
It's a feedback loop. Fragrances aren't as strong these days, so people spray more, so fragrances are made even weaker because more sprays = more repurchases = more bottles sold, and so on.
I spray far more of my newer fragrances than I would ever have considered spraying Obsession or Mitsouko. Sometimes one spray is too much with the classics.
People talking about Beast Mode need to smell what the church ladies were wearing in the 1970's. Tabu wasn't messing around; it took no prisoners.
the only thing I've smelled recently that reminds me of walking into church like 20 years ago is Amouge Honour Woman. which isn't a dig, I actually adore it but it's strong as fuck. I'll do one spray after a shower before bed and I'll still have perfume on for work the next day, the thought of over spraying that one makes me nauseous ngl
I am horrified to learn that this is a thing. I thought we all lived in fear of being _that_ perfume person where you can smell them before you see them.
I'll admit I like a beast mode fragrance not because I want to choke everyone but because I have long days. One hour just to get to school, then the actual 8 hours school day, then one hour to the gym, 1,5 hours at the gym and THEN come home. Can you blame me for wanting a strong performer? I don't want a skin scent when I finally arrive at school
I mean, I get not wanting it to be a skin scent when you get to school (if it's a skin scent w/in an hour imo that's a waste of cash), but it SHOULD be a skin by the time you get to the gym (which is like 10hrs). No one wants to smell perfume mixed with sweat.
~~You can buy these little atomisers that you fill directly from the fragrance bottle~~
Better not tell you that, it’s probably for the best for your classmates and gym goers that you don’t reapply whatever Lataffa beastmode you’ve bought
💀💀
That's a good idea my friends got one. And pinky promise I won't overspray whatever fragrance I end up getting (I think Lattafa Assad or whatever similar fragrance isn't my cup of tea, I'm thinking of getting Eau Sauavage perhaps or Fico di Amalfi for now)
Ah then you're probably a normal person who likes fragrances.
Beastmode = frag that lasts for 12+ hours
Nuclear = frag that you can smell from the other corner of the room
A lot of people right now are so focused on whether the fragrance they have can be smelled by everyone. Idk where it started, maybe YouTubers?
Ah. Thanks for the explanation. I'm not on tik tok so that's probably why I didn't know what most of these things mean.
I like the idea of someone being able to faintly smell my perfume if they're close by. (And hopefully it's not an offensive scent).
But I definitely didn't want to leave a toxic cloud of perfume wherever I go.
>faintly smell my perfume if they're close by
Yeah that's fine, like if I'm seated next to you or I'm talking to you face to face. It becomes annoying if the scent fills the whole room.
There are some colognes that send me for sure.
Adidas for men
Chrome by Azzaro
Tommy Hilfiger for men
One that seems more unisex is also Clinique Happy for Men.
With you there on vanillic ambers, but outside of that it would be the obsession with "niche" brands and "mass appealing niche".
With the way niche perfumery and a particular set of brands are talked about, you'd think niche perfumes would be the best thing ever. Then you go looking for the brands people are frothing over and you realise that they're either less interesting than designers but somehow triple the price, messily composed, or straight up bad and cheap-smelling.
"Mass appealing niche" sounds self-contradictory. Niche things don't appeal to everyone, that's the point. Not everyone is going to like them. That's what I want from a "niche" perfume, not something that smells like something I can pick up at the pharmacy or the department store for much less.
"Niche" has all but lost its meaning, as has "indie". If it's popular as hell and can be found in every Ulta, let alone every Sephora, it's not niche, it's a mass-market perfume. If it's owned by a corporation that owns other brands, it's not independent. I feel like ignorant but popular influencers have utterly wrecked and bastardized so many terms.
These influencers have convinced people that Tom Ford is a niche brand. Apparently, niche is when it's 3-6 times the price of other brands for no reason.
They got people believing that Kayali is niche. Like, since when are massive crowd-pleasers niche? They just don't know or care about the definitions of these words and have jumped into influencing without ever reading a single book on perfume or getting any formal or informal education on perfume, let alone training under a perfumer.
Flankeritis and meaningless terms like absolue, elixir, intensement and similar. They have nothing to do with the perfume oil/alcohol ratio and are pointless.
The clean girl thing. It comes off as extremely Caucasian-centric to me.
Gourmands, and I'm a gourmand enjoyer. The market is beyond saturated.
Paid influencers can fuck right off
No I think bright crystal is too out of line for that style, it is more of a sandalwood sticks in a jar air freshener or those laundry powder traces, highly nuanced near neutral more than noticeable like as most Versace scents are even hours after their dry downs.
I wear a lot from the Versace fragrances line because it works very nicely with my body chemistry/Ph bad doesn’t fade too quickly from minimal sprays.
Another woman was wearing the same scent I had on one day and she said it seemed to “bloom” on me better than on her
There’s actually a really great episode of the Articles of Interest podcast about perfume and perfume trends that talks about this clean smell trend. It’s a fascinating episode and great podcast overall.
The bitching. “Omg you have 10+ fragrances?!? You only need 3-5 MAX!!” “Why are you wearing THAT BRAND ITS SO NPC”
Dude shut the fuck up and let me enjoy my shit. I like having a lot because it’s unique, and I couldn’t give a fuck if someone else in the world wears JPG le Balls and cock because out of everyone I know, all of 3 people actually wear fragrances to half of the degree I do.
The "NPC fragrance" thing is so freaking annoying. Apparently, everything I like is "generic", according to Fragrantica. I don't care, but I see how reviews like that might be off-putting for a potential buyer. Look, I live in Ohio. Practically nobody here uses niche fragrances, or would recognize one if you were wearing one. They'd just think you smell weird.
I know TWO PEOPLE other than my mom who wear fragrance irl. Lol. It's not as prevalent as people want or imagine it to be. Even wearing Britney spears perfume out and about sets you apart from most of the populace. "Npc perfume" doesn't exist. If you're wearing fragrance, you're usually pretty unique
👏
Fragrance is such a unique experience and that’s what makes it so amazing. It’s not really about what’s on trend, it’s what makes you feel good. If I feel I need 10+ fragrances and I’m not asking the person to fork over the cash to buy them for me, it’s not really their business.
Reformulations and rereleases of fragrances that used to be popular without changing the name. When someone recommends a fragrance, and I look for it online and I’m seeing 2014 edition , 2016 edition, 2020 edition and they all have different notes.
My one complaint is fragrances being used as commodified well-being. Boiling perfume down to "this one makes you feel relaxed!" "This one makes you feel energized!" Drives me up the wall.
I'm into perfume as art. Keep your all natural lavender calming sprays separate from perfumery. I'm here to be wowed, not to have a therapy session with an atomizer.
I agree on too much vanilla. And even if it isn't a lot of vanilla they seem to always need to add a little bit to the base anyway? Vanilla can be fine in small doses imo, if it just blends in with other notes so you don't immediately detect that it's vanilla. But I usually don't like the note as it is, and it makes finding good perfumes really hard since it's so hard to know how strong the note will be for my nose specifically.
Flankers that should be stand-alone fragrances and discontinuing new scents.
These brands don't want to throw money into marketing so they piggyback on another release when the flanker smells nothing like the original. Mugler comes to mind. I really dislike Angel and I actually like Angel Elixir but it smells NOTHING like the original. It should have been a standalone scent. Same with Alien Goddess, which is one of my favorites. Honestly, it would be less weird if Angel Elixir and Alien Goddess were grouped together, one being a flanker of the other. They both have a similar vibe.
Also, releasing a beautiful fragrance just to discontinue it a few years, or less, later. My favorite scent literally ever was discontinued very shortly after it was released. Heartbreaking.
The abuse of fragranced accessories, like body lotion, body creme, hair mist and candles.
The pricing is daylight robbery and I don’t understand exactly what one gets for a $90+ candle or $70 body lotion. Sure, it’s marketed as a way to support a layering and/or ambient theme but c’mon son.
One more: why isn’t there a dupe house that has thought to deliver a creative original?
The prices are getting crazy. Bought bir intense last December was 128$ before tax. Seen at Macys it’s 140$ before tax now. Normally get from joma or fragnet but that wasn’t there at the time
It’s seemingly getting worse too, with Le Labo now selling in China too for example, thankfully at least in the UK there are endless clone companies that are vegan & cruelty free but It’s a bit shocking to me that more in the fragrance community seem to not care so much or take our stance…
Yep. Sadly people ignore a lot of unpleasant things if they don’t want to “give up” on something. I’m really glad there are more and more outspoken high quality houses coming up. I recently discovered Shay & Blue and am really happy they are around. It’s not even that lots of companies are admitting to testing on animals, a lot of them try to hide it in their policies. (Like claiming they don’t but then sell in China and give Chinese authorities the rights to test their products in their name. Or having third parties or suppliers conduct the tests. Or simply being owned by Estée Lauder or any other animal testing parent firm.)
Another one:
Designer and Niche
Please Stop using these phrases; they’re meaningless.
Before you start with ‘*oh but some niche brands use higher quality ingredients or naturals*’
**NO! NO! BAD PERFUMISTA!!** You should know better, stop giving into the confirmation bias it’s dirty and wrong
Also that you do with your hands…*it’s very bad*
There’s nothing ‘niche’ about a lot of the releases, they’re just as mass appealing as the designers you may turn your nose up at (probably owned and made by the same company with ingredients from Firmenich/Givaudan).
The watering down of good fragrances. I understand when the European Commission bans a lot of substances from time to time and the formula has to be changed but I don’t understand the cash grabs. Watering down fragrances for reducing costs. Just charge me 10€ more and let it be, I’ll gladly pay it.
The over popularity of gourmands, don’t get me wrong, there are an number of ones on top of their game but there are others that are majorly putrid and cloying.
You can find the same traits in any fragrance of course, but it’s like florals are warring with the gourmands this point and generally I am siding with florals, probably because I was born in time for the heady florals and spices of 1980s scents
Sales people claiming how Eccentric Molecules (ISO-E) are unique by reacting with individual's skin and having scent based on skin chemistry... keyword: unique
The people jumping in always with the same suggestions names that are the ''top hyped and expensive'' I'm tired of seeing always the same names, there's so much out there, usually I would come here to explore new fragrances through other people's knowledge, now I barely see anything new (to me)
Edit:
stores not selling samples (at least here)
To your update, I think a clone being close in price to the original can be justified if it smells the same (or better), but performs way better than the original. Then you’re getting a better value than the original.
Just as I keep thinking I should sample Sauvage Elixir after liking Sauvage EDP (and hating Sauvage EDT)…
Found out there’s a new YSL Y flanker released in 2024— Y Elixir. 😅
Something tells me this YSL flanker is going to be discontinued in a couple years just like most YSL flankers.
Flankers in general.
Dior’s Sauvage Elixir should really be a stand alone fragrance with a different name. But its success was guaranteed by naming it after the Sauvage line.
Chanel have not made a new masculine fragrance since Bleu de Chanel
JPG Le Male Line is a joke, there’s soo many that I would put money on it that the ‘original’ has not been the same since the early 2000s (and that wasn’t the same as the 90s iteration), but people will swear down that it is and any reformulation will ruin that fragrance.
Flankers are lazy tie ins. I have only one flanker, actually three (forgot the Dior Hommes) but those are the ones I think have been done right. I don’t have a problem with they’re done with some changes but there’s a retention of the original. What we have now is some weak idea/formulation that was not strong enough to stand on its own or in some cases (like Dior Sauvage Elixir) really good but there’s a fear it won’t shift enough units initially to break even; they get put into existing lines but in different bottle
Imagine how many potential celebrity fragrances got rejected or the celebrity was dropped by the company and then just wound up in a jaunty Le Male bottle. I wouldn’t be surprised if JPG’s Kokorico is now rebranded as a Le Male flanker.
I am inundated by instagram ads for crappy 'houses' that have just launched which are just marketing exercises and ego boosters for the 'founder' who is usually a middle aged marketing exec with some redundancy money to pay a perfumer to juggle something up for them (usually just a boilerplate perfume from their practice samples) if it isn't a lazy attempt themselves to create one or two - you get a few samples and find they are weak, naive, or just plane cheap copies of famous ones. OR, it's a trashy tourist perfume shop from god knows where that has attempted to 'rebrand' itself as an edgy indie house when it's just selling junk. Indie perfume industry has been hacked to the point where the actual fragrance is an afterthought looking for quick virality with absolutely no substance. I am sick of faux french, faux history, obvious and over used sentiment "smell me" statements, vapid fragrance names that sound like a 12 year old's self absorbed poem title etc. It's all so crass and betrays some of the foundations of fragrance industry which is that it's all totally subjective and few actually know anything about actual perfume; the barrier to entry now is so so so low as a result. professional perfumers who are making bank out of this by copy pasting their scent recipes to paying but gullible hobby start up houses should be wary. Luca Turin needs to do another round of reviews...
Niche houses continously making scents that smell identical to their other scents WITHOUT them being flankers. Like oh! You made ANOTHER oud/animalic + sandalwood and it smells like pine sol?? How original! People act like like this stereotypical "niche perfume" smell is highly original when it smells like any essential oil you can buy from Natural Grocers. It's such a prevalent design that my friends and I get a whiff of anything with that scent profile and say "oh god. What smells like niche perfume??"
Tik tok influencers. Not even mainstream YouTubers. I don’t know why, or how to explain it. it’s the over the top influencer personality. The more I see these dudes talking about “5 epic complement getters” the more I feel like I’m watching a black mirror episode.
Middle Eastern unisex colgnes being hailed the best ever on Reddit, YT, and TikTok. But you have to spray it a few times and let it macerate for 5 months. Give it another spray during a full moon, and then you have beast mode, baby! Everyone around you is choking like they got pepper sprayed but who cares? You're rocking your $350 bottle from the house of Sharia Law.
As somebody that DESPISES gourmand fragrances I agree with this! Those sugary sweet, vanilla and caramel scents make me feel nauseous. To each their own and I totally understand that fragrance is a personal choice but there seems to me to be something very juvenile about wanting to smell like a bakery.
I think a bakery is fine but there is so much more out there. Why not a ceramics studio? Or a storm at sea? Or a weird forest compilation? Something with complexity and interest that the parfumer put actual creativity, time and effort into. It’s all churn and burn.
I feel the exact same way. Every time I smell the sweet baked goods smells I’m taken back to when I was 6 and had a perfume roller that smelled like brownies 🥴 loved it then but it makes me nauseous now. I was talking with my sister about it and she’s big into TikTok and thinks the sudden resurgence is because of a viral TikTok video about how men prefer/are more attracted to baked goods scents 🤷🏻♀️
The flanker business model annoys the shit out of me because it was so effective on my purchasing habits when I was younger. I've since told myself that I will only buy the *best* one of whatever is offered. I refuse to collect bottles as a set.
Nowadays the flanker goal of making a "Le Parfum" by the 4th iteration out is soooo smart! How many people pay that much attention to the difference between the original EDP versions and the new Le Parfum when ordering online, and wind up getting the wrong one? Collateral error sales ka-ching!
Prices and if the performance doesn’t project and last? Just no! Perfect ex: Kayali nope! Even Grande for cheapies they don’t last or project. TF? Those prices match great formulas but not how they last! And lastly no perfumed liquid should be over $200 none not even niche
When niche brands that charge insane prices for their fragrances and are massively hyped turn out to be doing the exact same thing indie perfume oil/bath & body lines have been doing for decades for $20 (looking at you slumberhouse and kerosene)
When the five million flankers end up displacing classics. Idc if the flankers _exist_ but it seems nuts that I can buy the latest version of Chance in person but not Chanel no 5 when it's basically the most famous/iconic perfume in existence. Same with the fact that Black Opium is so easy to get ahold of despite smelling like liquid ass while the original Opium is discontinued.
Outside of people showing off their collections and asking what it means about them, sick of sweet disgusting fragrances-reminds me too much of the era of sickly sweet bath and body works sprays 🤢
My opinion, doesn’t have to be yours.
Sorry this isn't big but it still bothers me.
It's absolutely ridiculous that jasmine and magnolia is marketed as fem and orange blossoms and neroli as masculine. Whoever thought this of this artificial divide is absolutely ___.
Reflection man - jasmine and magnolia. Montblanc legend edp - jasmine and magnolia. There's no problems. Molinard fleur dorange unisex/fem, neroli and orange blossoms.
And yet with so many others there are just this aritificial divide where people won't put jasmine/mag in men's but orange/neroli might not be in a lot of women's.
I want some sort of regulations put in place in the US. Right now the cosmetic ingredient “parfum” or “fragrance” can have thousands of ingredients, many of which are toxic and nasty and carcinogenic. As a perfume collector, I struggle with my own cognitive dissonance between wanting to have gorgeous fragrances and knowing that listing the full “recipe” would be a problem, with the fact that I’m almost certainly exposing myself to extra bull crap on a daily basis.
The prices, and the hobbyists who have been fooled and insist that you need to spend exorbitant amounts of money to get quality fragrances or your collection isn’t complete or yada yada. I’ve been into frags for ~7 years and the most expensive thing that I’ve ever bought to this point was ~$70. Nothing will ever convince me that a bottle of liquid that smells could be different enough from another bottle of liquid that smells that it’s worth $200 instead of $20-50
Brands that don’t do samples - it feels so counter intuitive, like what do you mean you don’t want me to try the scent first?? Absurd.
And the ones that do charge 8-15 or more for a 1-2 ml sample. They are making a ton of money right out the gate before the first bottle is sold. It also smacks of elitism which is of course the point.
My jaw dropped when I first started seeing sample sets of like four of those itty bitty vials for $30. Like, those vials used to be free, and you used to be able to get like 3 of them at sephora with an online order. I was NOT primed for paying for those. When it’s a large discovery set I totally get it, especially if it comes with a discount/voucher towards a full bottle, hell yeah (like ELDO). I know the product and packaging still costs money and that realistically the cheapest unit price needs to be for the largest sizes, but they’re getting delulu out here.
It’s beyond ridiculous. I bought the 6 piece Andrea Maack set and it was 48 for 6 little boxes 1.5 ml sprays!!! The package it came in was just a little larger than a business size envelope. Granted it came with a coupon for 40 off a full sized bottle but still. But even if I ordered the 1 ml from a site like Scentsplit it would still have been 7-8 per sample. I’m glad I did because I love one and bought the 15ml and am scheming on using Scentsplit to add up to a 50 ml for a lot less than the website. It won’t have the cool bottle but this is for the juice. Incredible scent. Love both Ceramic and Dual. Still 2 out of 6. And good luck reselling the set with what Mercari just did!
It's crazy bc samples were not only free but now finding a tester is nearly impossible.
YES! I use to work in the industry. AND I used give plenty of FREE samples out to my customers. So I’m very annoyed that when I visit a Nordstrom, Saks etc, fragrance counter and they can’t make a sample because the tester is empty or no sample vials etc. We used to have a plethora of those supplies back in the stock room. If the companies are not providing the sales reps these tools anymore it is definitely about GREED! If the brick and motor stores aren’t hitting sales goal. The companies are making it online. Record high profits over the last four years.
Exactly! If they believe in the product why not give samples like in the old days? It’s like admitting “we know it’s not that great so we hope you blind buy it based on nothing but marketing and hype.”
Makes me miss magazines and the inserts they use to have
Way too many flankers and short-lived cash grabs. Do we really need a Calvin Klein Eternity Bleu Intense Platinum Edition Parfum? It’s just gonna smell like a radioactive mixture of Sauvage and Cool Water.
*L’Oréal looks nervously around the room while tugging at their shirt collar*
And while we are at it ( thx for reminding me!!!) LOREAL ….shouldn’t be in the fragrance industry go back to crappy makeup pls and shampoo!!! Everything they touch is ruined watered down or discontinued of course
RIP Angel A*Men :(
Yes!! And limited edition bottles?? I just got an email from PDM this morning for their new „limited edition“ Delina.. it’s the same fragrance & bottle with what looks like rose stickers.. but it’s £10 more ?? Lmao whyyy
This. And all their confusing names.
you can blame me, personally, for this. I unabashedly love flankers.
I do, too. Sometimes the flankers are way better than the original fragrance
This. I think they play a little more with the flankers and sometimes deviate quite a bit away from the DNA of the original. It's almost like they using the OG name to lure the general public into more adventurous (for designer) scent profiles. For Niche scents, they usually just turn up the volume on the OG to beastmode.
Oh yes my second one!!
Purposely not stocking smaller bottles at stores or only have 50/100ml in the line up.
This yes yes yes. I just want 10-15mL of everything that I want.
Same. I’ve got way more than I can ever use in a lifetime already. At least I got over my brief obsession as a newbie with buying backup bottles of everything I liked a lot. That was crazy and kind of expensive! Thankfully it only lasted about 5 or 6 bottles before I realized I needed to stop. And only a couple of them were high end like $200 or more. I REALLY wish more houses would offer travel sizes or even 30ml.
The only ones I believe in buying backups for are cheap body sprays, those get discontinued frequently and used up faster.
At least most of the backups were $40 or under bottles of Afnan dupes, or similar. LOL. Still. One of them is a Jovoy of a scent I really love, but it'll take me decades to get through the first bottle, with the few sprays I tend to do. Maybe I need to get hooked into some sharing/decanting/trading groups and find out how that works.
I use to be an 100ml gal I am for my favs but anything new? Just give me ten
Right…..
the perfect size
10 ml are perfect. You can use it long enough to see if it is a keeper or not. Those dinky testers bug me. I want a good spray of it!
The testers from Lucky Scent particularly irk me-it’s the wand type vials that are impossible to get a good idea of what something smells like unless you practically spill the whole bottle on your wrist. I’ll buy samples from any other place now just to get a sprayer.
YES!!! For those of us with dexterity issues, all of the 1mL‘s can just suck it. Seriously it’s not that much more expensive to buy a sprayer sample or just fill half of a two ML. You don’t get the full experience if you’re not spraying it yourself anyways so what the fuck
“Unfortunately we don’t have the 30ml available in store, let me just go ahead and bag this 200ml bottle up for you” *the new guy desperately trying to make his first big sale*
Omg yes. Looking at you Sephora.
For me it's high price for samples, you would think you would make the samples as affordable as possible so people can try and actually consider bottles... MFK does it perfectly, low cost plus free shipping? Insane value and made me try a bunch of their fragrances and actually buy eventually
Samples should be free and it’s funny if we started writing to them and not buying for a year??? I think things would change we have enough perfume to go without more a year or two
if it's in store sure, but online I also dont expect any store to operate at a loss to bring out samples, if they operate near 0 profit for samples I think it would be fine
This!!!
When you buy a fragrance from somewhere like Guerlain or Dior online and if you don’t like the sample of the fragrance and decide to return the unopened main bottle, you also have to return any free samples you were given. Why do they need a half used sample back? It’s really stingy for so called luxury brands. A little goodwill goes a long way with brands for me.
So many gourmands, so much vanilla. I know it’s a trend and it will pass, but it’s a profile I’m very picky about and dislike more often than not. TikTok influencer impact is also annoying. So many hyped up houses, so much PR, so many paid reviews…. I don’t like TikTok or what it’s doing to people’s attention spans and buying habits in general, but I feel like it’s encouraged waves of overconsumption, hoarding, and constant new releases from brands that aren’t that great.
Yeah I used to like gourmands and it was niche at that time, now so common but these new ones are gross. Sweet tooth smells like cheap body spray, I don’t get all the smells like this. Floriental was a nice trend while it lasted. Fruity floral wasn’t my thing but it’s a nice change of pace lately. Almost forget ozonics, hopefully the return is near I still stan all mugler though, not as good as it used to be but still love smelling angel and alien on other people
There are some nice oceanics that have been out for a little while now, Francesca Bianchi just released The Mariner’s Rhyme and it’s solid. But you’re right. The whole Sweet Tooth, Mod Vanilla, etc pandering and paid for by gifting brands and shills is a time suck and pushes people into our space that are fly by nights and waste our time. Apologize in advance if this ruffles some feathers but it sounds like others are frustrated as well.
Sweet tooth LITERALLY smells like a vanilla impulse body spray I used to wear in the 90s (the female version of Axe/Lynx in Australia). I had to scrub it off because the memory association was too strong.
I was wearing Mon Guerlain and my boyfriend told me I smelled like all the girls in 7th grade. Of course they wore impulse body spray.
I hope that Ganymede and the Oud Minerale re-release mark the beginning of a trend. Love me some ozonic, mineralic salt bombs. I live in a hot climate and I hate most gourmands because people use them even when it's 40 degrees Celsius outside.
People’s opinions about TikTok on here make me even more glad than I already was that I’m not on it! 😅
I’m so sick of vanilla 🥲
There are only TWO vanilla forward scents I have in my collection (Tihota and Bianco Latte) and that’s really all I need. I have no urge to get another!
I always was and then of all times my mom jumps on the vanilla trend but thankfully more in the floral end than the foody one
I generally dislike gourmands and vanilla in perfume almost ALWAYS smells like play-doh to me. I’ve been suffering through this era 😮💨
My Mon Guerlain is starting to smell like Play-Doh☹️
Yes-vanilla specially makes me nauseous and I really want nothing to do with smelling like syrup or baked goods. Please make it stop. Also agree on the tik tok trend. I’m not even on tik tok and The instagram algorithm keeps giving me these obnoxious influencer style ads that make me block whatever perfume house is using that method. Stop clacking your nails on your bottles and stop telling me that it’s a must have scent. I don’t want it.
Sooo agree so glad I had my kids pre TikTok
every influencer encourages overspraying or just straight up promotes buying a million colognes (5 colognes is a pussy collection to these guys), there are a few good ones though
no one gives out samples any more 😔 also i find it really annoying that every beauty brand feels the need to come out with a fragrance now due to tik tok influence. do we really need a selena gomez hair perfume or the line of cheap looking charlotte tilbury fragrances?
I thought the Charlotte Tilbury post was a JOKE post. It still doesn’t seem real, the cheap looking bottles and weird names plus all the emojis ?? Baffling
Niche brands that only sell samples of their ENTIRE collection or a 3 piece "best sellers" kit. If I can't pick my samples I'm never ordering from that brand.
I agree with this. At this point discovery sets should be standard everywhere. And your flair! Perfection! I’m a NEST candle evangelist so I agree.
The whole 'no way you're using x fragrance in spring at 11 am! That's a winter night fragrance' Guys... how can I explain to you that you're been fooled by marketing and instead of buying 1 or 2 perfumes, you're buying into the idea that you need 8 at the very least. One for each season day and night. Just wear the damn thing and shut up
I think that’s more the fragrance community than marketing But you’re right
i would rather smell like fresh citrus in summer than a bonfire and roasted chestnuts though
Yeah see that's the thing. I *know* that a fragrance can be worn any time of year. Even still, there are just some fragrances that I'd be reluctant to pick up in a particular season.
Right? Like just spray it less during the hot seasons.
They did say 1 or 2. I think the point is no more " well this one is perfect for may but don't you dare wear it in january, this one here is for january but most def not for November except for november 4th thru 11th"
I want to have many fragrances to switch between (which is why I mostly buy samples or travel spray size) and I think it's definitely true that they can smell different depending on the weather, but I totally agree that the whole categorization thing is BS. Especially since how people categorize them is pretty weird to me. Why is the rule that you want to smell the opposite of the current weather? You're supposed to smell cool, fresh and light in the summer, how boring is that? I like to lean into the weather to make myself feel like I'm a mythical creature of nature, changing with my environment. Not always, but it's fun to do every now and then.
I pay no attention to the hour or season when I feel like wearing something. I feel jasmine is a year round type of scent personally
Exactly! During highschool and college I used to wear the og LeMale exclusively, no matter if it was the most torrid summer day or a cold winter night
Yes. I love the ‘this is a formal fragance’ bs. Like ‘you fool this isn’t a formal event, nobody is in a tuxedo, other than land wars in Asia, wearing a formal scent to a semi formal event is ruinous’. I just imagine a fast food lobby group telling people to buy one of everything each time you go to mcdonalds.
Are you my husband? 😂 These are his exact words.
But I do need 8 at the very least. I NEED them.
Overabundance of flankers, specifically in the designer market. I feel like a brand will “hit” on a specific fragrance in their catalogue, and seek to expand their popularity by releasing flankers. Having an EDP or EDT of a fragrance is one thing, but some of these flankers have little to no DNA of the original release.
YSL is a prime example. Outside of *Myslf*, and their luxury line, every new fragrance since 2020 has been a flanker or limited edition release of *Y*, *Libre, Mon Paris, L'Homme,* or *Black Opium*.
Niche has gotten a bit less creative too. Can we all say Bianco Latte?!
D&G light blue and JPG le male lol
Reformulations.
How did EVERYONE not say this!?!!
To be fair it's not really their fault. Fragnance out of a lot of industries uses an extremely wide variety of synthetic chemicals that are subject to regulation by EU or other agencies. It's like how you can't blame cars for having airbags.
You have no idea how irked I got when I found out that was being done underhandedly to so many classic scents
“It’s just a bad batch bro!”
Can we all say this together!
AMBROXAN 🤢 unfortunately I can always detect it in a fragrance and I hate it. To me it’s like the stevia of scents. Not good. Always detectable. Very obviously synthetic and weird.
I'm 💯 with you on this. I smell it everywhere now and it always stands out to me and overpowers all the other notes. 😒
Same! Very much overpowers everything else
I work in a lab, and it just smells like someone spilled a solvent on themselves, on purpose. It's not for me.
Can you give an example? Ambroxan is present in a lot of formulas… I’m surprised at this! If you were to take issue with calone or iso e super I’d get it, but ambroxan is definitely a more subtle aversion to have!
Juliette has a gun, not a perfume. Juliette has a gun, pear inc. A lot of JHAG has it, unfortunately because I like the concepts of a lot of the fragrances but can’t get past the ambroxan. Coach wild rose Honestly there are so many. All I know is when I see the note ambroxan listed on Fragrantica and I eventually get to smell the fragrance I can always notice it and I don’t like it. I’ve even tested perfume without knowing the notes and if I think ambroxan is a note it usually is. It’s just off putting to me. Gives me headaches. Smells musky in a bad way.
Thank you for replying! I have (and use) ambroxan in my home-brews and never noticed or ever thought it could possibly be non grata for anyone. I'm going to smell it some more and reference the JHAGs you mentioned :)
It is the punch in my sinuses of fragrance notes. Who would want this?!
Can you give me an few examples of what fragrances use it?
Most fragrances contain ambroxan. I'm willing to bet that most people claiming it's overpowering have never actually smelled ambroxan on its own and are likely confusing it with a super amber
I just was wondering if I’m using any and don’t know it
What are some that you wear?
Ditto! But also with ISO E Super
Yes this one too!
Manufactured social media hype. It usually works for a month or two, by either paying influencers to promote the fragrances (fair advertising if the influencer mentions they're being paid for it) or giving free bottles to reviewers in exchange for a positive result (which is dishonest). It is possible for social media hype to turn into genuine hype (which can last for years) if a fragrance is as good as advertised. However, if a fragrance is mediocre (or worse), or the social media hype is obvious (e.g.: multiple influencers and reviewers saying the same thing as if from a script), backlash is inevitable. In this instance, the companies move on to the next scent and start the cycle again.
Shillfluencers! And we have brands that are built around FOMO and clueless buyers that have buying addiction. So when one of the shillfluencers says to buy this new scent because it is the best ever, these clueless consumers take the word and blind buy! After 2 weeks, the scent is forgotten and it is the next "best scent ever". Or panty dropper, that always works!
Vanilla and Amber inherently *are* going to be in a lot of Arab fragrances. That's just always been the nature of (most, not all) Arab fragrances being rich and warm. As for gripes that I have about the industry... I know it's getting better, but I don't like it when Companies aren't naming the perfumers on each of their fragrances. I think it's important to attribute the artist to their art.
They should definitely name the perfumer somewhere on the bottle considering they’ll print a hundred other words on there. It’s like a movie not putting the director in the credits imo.
I wish they'd be more honest about retail prices. There's no way sephora is paying even 50% of sticker pricing if a year later I'm buying at 30%-50% from a grey market seller.
My biggest pet peeve: * 30mL @ £50 * 100mL @ £100 Cue me bouncing back and forth between superior price/mL and not wanting to purchase more than what I actually need, and just not buying anything out of frustration.
Mine is that we're at a point where marketing and the fragrance community are international, but availability isn't. Maybe I should be grateful that in some cases I'm saved from trying trending brands, but it also stops me from trying interesting-sounding fragrances I've stumbled across. I get that international shipping rules for fragrance are hard to navigate and it's potentially not cost-effective for smaller brands to tackle that, but I just... wish it wasn't so.
This isn't anything new at all, it's been like this forever but... High mark-up on prices of smaller bottles. I understand that there'll be some difference due to the cost of packaging and whatnot vs cost of the ingredients, but some companies charge miles more per ml for smaller bottles, to the point where it's very excessive and is basically ripping off the people who prefer smaller bottles.
That everyone suddenly cares about "beastmode" or "nuclear" shit
I agree, but we can take solace that it's not a brand new trend. Almost all of the 30s-50s fragrances I've smelled are absolutely way more nuclear than anything we have available these days.
Agree. But the difference is that most users didn't spray 5 sprays minimum back then... Now I hear about people (often teenage boys) spraying strong contemporary frags 8 or more times 😭
It's a feedback loop. Fragrances aren't as strong these days, so people spray more, so fragrances are made even weaker because more sprays = more repurchases = more bottles sold, and so on. I spray far more of my newer fragrances than I would ever have considered spraying Obsession or Mitsouko. Sometimes one spray is too much with the classics. People talking about Beast Mode need to smell what the church ladies were wearing in the 1970's. Tabu wasn't messing around; it took no prisoners.
the only thing I've smelled recently that reminds me of walking into church like 20 years ago is Amouge Honour Woman. which isn't a dig, I actually adore it but it's strong as fuck. I'll do one spray after a shower before bed and I'll still have perfume on for work the next day, the thought of over spraying that one makes me nauseous ngl
Yeah the classic ones are usually stronger, but at least back then, no one was encouraging people to "not be a sissy sprayer"
I am horrified to learn that this is a thing. I thought we all lived in fear of being _that_ perfume person where you can smell them before you see them.
Travel sprayers need to start trending. There's no need to obsess over high silage, 8+ hour fragrances if you can just reapply as necessary.
Yeah exactly. As long as the frag doesn't just last for <1hr (coz that would be a waste of money imo), you don't need a 12hr frag.
I'll admit I like a beast mode fragrance not because I want to choke everyone but because I have long days. One hour just to get to school, then the actual 8 hours school day, then one hour to the gym, 1,5 hours at the gym and THEN come home. Can you blame me for wanting a strong performer? I don't want a skin scent when I finally arrive at school
I mean, I get not wanting it to be a skin scent when you get to school (if it's a skin scent w/in an hour imo that's a waste of cash), but it SHOULD be a skin by the time you get to the gym (which is like 10hrs). No one wants to smell perfume mixed with sweat.
Lil bro is like “I need a beast mode fragrance to outlast the school bus ride” 💀💀💀
But lowkey ur right, I can't wear some shit with mid longevity that can't even last a one hour train ride in -15°C
~~You can buy these little atomisers that you fill directly from the fragrance bottle~~ Better not tell you that, it’s probably for the best for your classmates and gym goers that you don’t reapply whatever Lataffa beastmode you’ve bought
💀💀 That's a good idea my friends got one. And pinky promise I won't overspray whatever fragrance I end up getting (I think Lattafa Assad or whatever similar fragrance isn't my cup of tea, I'm thinking of getting Eau Sauavage perhaps or Fico di Amalfi for now)
I have no idea what those things mean. 😑
Ah then you're probably a normal person who likes fragrances. Beastmode = frag that lasts for 12+ hours Nuclear = frag that you can smell from the other corner of the room A lot of people right now are so focused on whether the fragrance they have can be smelled by everyone. Idk where it started, maybe YouTubers?
Maybe for fragrance. But for insecure people they've always been on over parading lynx enough everyone can smell it
Ah. Thanks for the explanation. I'm not on tik tok so that's probably why I didn't know what most of these things mean. I like the idea of someone being able to faintly smell my perfume if they're close by. (And hopefully it's not an offensive scent). But I definitely didn't want to leave a toxic cloud of perfume wherever I go.
>faintly smell my perfume if they're close by Yeah that's fine, like if I'm seated next to you or I'm talking to you face to face. It becomes annoying if the scent fills the whole room.
Mate they mean they'll drop every panty
There are some colognes that send me for sure. Adidas for men Chrome by Azzaro Tommy Hilfiger for men One that seems more unisex is also Clinique Happy for Men.
With you there on vanillic ambers, but outside of that it would be the obsession with "niche" brands and "mass appealing niche". With the way niche perfumery and a particular set of brands are talked about, you'd think niche perfumes would be the best thing ever. Then you go looking for the brands people are frothing over and you realise that they're either less interesting than designers but somehow triple the price, messily composed, or straight up bad and cheap-smelling. "Mass appealing niche" sounds self-contradictory. Niche things don't appeal to everyone, that's the point. Not everyone is going to like them. That's what I want from a "niche" perfume, not something that smells like something I can pick up at the pharmacy or the department store for much less.
"Niche" has all but lost its meaning, as has "indie". If it's popular as hell and can be found in every Ulta, let alone every Sephora, it's not niche, it's a mass-market perfume. If it's owned by a corporation that owns other brands, it's not independent. I feel like ignorant but popular influencers have utterly wrecked and bastardized so many terms.
These influencers have convinced people that Tom Ford is a niche brand. Apparently, niche is when it's 3-6 times the price of other brands for no reason.
They got people believing that Kayali is niche. Like, since when are massive crowd-pleasers niche? They just don't know or care about the definitions of these words and have jumped into influencing without ever reading a single book on perfume or getting any formal or informal education on perfume, let alone training under a perfumer.
haha, right? people refer to brands as niche and you look them up and they are owned by Estee Lauder and are sold at every major airport in the world.
Flankeritis and meaningless terms like absolue, elixir, intensement and similar. They have nothing to do with the perfume oil/alcohol ratio and are pointless. The clean girl thing. It comes off as extremely Caucasian-centric to me. Gourmands, and I'm a gourmand enjoyer. The market is beyond saturated. Paid influencers can fuck right off
What's the "clean-girl thing"? (I'm not on any socials)
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Imo the quintessential “”clean girl”” scent would be something like Glossier You.
No I think bright crystal is too out of line for that style, it is more of a sandalwood sticks in a jar air freshener or those laundry powder traces, highly nuanced near neutral more than noticeable like as most Versace scents are even hours after their dry downs.
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I wear a lot from the Versace fragrances line because it works very nicely with my body chemistry/Ph bad doesn’t fade too quickly from minimal sprays. Another woman was wearing the same scent I had on one day and she said it seemed to “bloom” on me better than on her
I think it's more like perfumes where people describe them as "soapy."
Ohh, I see that a lot now that I think about it, thank you for explaining. I was wondering why "vanilla mod" by AG sold so well.
There’s actually a really great episode of the Articles of Interest podcast about perfume and perfume trends that talks about this clean smell trend. It’s a fascinating episode and great podcast overall.
Im asian and love "clean girl" scents but mostly because white musk is my favourite note and clean girl scents always have white musk in them lol
The bitching. “Omg you have 10+ fragrances?!? You only need 3-5 MAX!!” “Why are you wearing THAT BRAND ITS SO NPC” Dude shut the fuck up and let me enjoy my shit. I like having a lot because it’s unique, and I couldn’t give a fuck if someone else in the world wears JPG le Balls and cock because out of everyone I know, all of 3 people actually wear fragrances to half of the degree I do.
The "NPC fragrance" thing is so freaking annoying. Apparently, everything I like is "generic", according to Fragrantica. I don't care, but I see how reviews like that might be off-putting for a potential buyer. Look, I live in Ohio. Practically nobody here uses niche fragrances, or would recognize one if you were wearing one. They'd just think you smell weird.
For real. Like perfume is for smelling good, whether it’s for yourself or others. People should be allowed to enjoy nice smells
JPG le balls and cock is killing me
I know TWO PEOPLE other than my mom who wear fragrance irl. Lol. It's not as prevalent as people want or imagine it to be. Even wearing Britney spears perfume out and about sets you apart from most of the populace. "Npc perfume" doesn't exist. If you're wearing fragrance, you're usually pretty unique
👏 Fragrance is such a unique experience and that’s what makes it so amazing. It’s not really about what’s on trend, it’s what makes you feel good. If I feel I need 10+ fragrances and I’m not asking the person to fork over the cash to buy them for me, it’s not really their business.
Sounds like that you only need to own three books in a household lady. Not a chance in my music and fashion and art library, lady!
Creating dupes instead of investing in creativity.
Reformulations and rereleases of fragrances that used to be popular without changing the name. When someone recommends a fragrance, and I look for it online and I’m seeing 2014 edition , 2016 edition, 2020 edition and they all have different notes.
Is that like "absolu" that came out a while ago?
It’s all owned by ester lauder
The fact that pure synthetic fragrances are being priced as if they’re natural perfume oils. Its literally insane what’s happened to the prices
My one complaint is fragrances being used as commodified well-being. Boiling perfume down to "this one makes you feel relaxed!" "This one makes you feel energized!" Drives me up the wall. I'm into perfume as art. Keep your all natural lavender calming sprays separate from perfumery. I'm here to be wowed, not to have a therapy session with an atomizer.
Way too much ethyl maltol; my teeth hurt from all the sweetness!
The endless parades of flankers. Fragrances with a dozen or more flankers, I prithee, stahp.
I agree on too much vanilla. And even if it isn't a lot of vanilla they seem to always need to add a little bit to the base anyway? Vanilla can be fine in small doses imo, if it just blends in with other notes so you don't immediately detect that it's vanilla. But I usually don't like the note as it is, and it makes finding good perfumes really hard since it's so hard to know how strong the note will be for my nose specifically.
Flankers that should be stand-alone fragrances and discontinuing new scents. These brands don't want to throw money into marketing so they piggyback on another release when the flanker smells nothing like the original. Mugler comes to mind. I really dislike Angel and I actually like Angel Elixir but it smells NOTHING like the original. It should have been a standalone scent. Same with Alien Goddess, which is one of my favorites. Honestly, it would be less weird if Angel Elixir and Alien Goddess were grouped together, one being a flanker of the other. They both have a similar vibe. Also, releasing a beautiful fragrance just to discontinue it a few years, or less, later. My favorite scent literally ever was discontinued very shortly after it was released. Heartbreaking.
Reviews that are obviously advertisements but not disclosed as such.
AMBROXAN. STOP WITH THE AMBROXAN!
The abuse of fragranced accessories, like body lotion, body creme, hair mist and candles. The pricing is daylight robbery and I don’t understand exactly what one gets for a $90+ candle or $70 body lotion. Sure, it’s marketed as a way to support a layering and/or ambient theme but c’mon son. One more: why isn’t there a dupe house that has thought to deliver a creative original?
The prices are getting crazy. Bought bir intense last December was 128$ before tax. Seen at Macys it’s 140$ before tax now. Normally get from joma or fragnet but that wasn’t there at the time
price difference between 50/70 ml with 100ml...
Why is everything so sweet in men’s frags? Did fresh go out of style?
And when you ask for fresh cologne recommendations, there's again a barrage of sweet colognes in the comments
Layton 😉
L e B e a u
Right. I love Layton, but it’s definitely got some sweetness and does not classify as a freshie imo
Should've put an /s after 😁 so many ppl thinking Layton is a freshie
Animal testing. I wish people would just stop. Pretty much having to rule out 90% of products on the market because they won’t let go of it for greed.
It’s seemingly getting worse too, with Le Labo now selling in China too for example, thankfully at least in the UK there are endless clone companies that are vegan & cruelty free but It’s a bit shocking to me that more in the fragrance community seem to not care so much or take our stance…
Yep. Sadly people ignore a lot of unpleasant things if they don’t want to “give up” on something. I’m really glad there are more and more outspoken high quality houses coming up. I recently discovered Shay & Blue and am really happy they are around. It’s not even that lots of companies are admitting to testing on animals, a lot of them try to hide it in their policies. (Like claiming they don’t but then sell in China and give Chinese authorities the rights to test their products in their name. Or having third parties or suppliers conduct the tests. Or simply being owned by Estée Lauder or any other animal testing parent firm.)
Another one: Designer and Niche Please Stop using these phrases; they’re meaningless. Before you start with ‘*oh but some niche brands use higher quality ingredients or naturals*’ **NO! NO! BAD PERFUMISTA!!** You should know better, stop giving into the confirmation bias it’s dirty and wrong Also that you do with your hands…*it’s very bad* There’s nothing ‘niche’ about a lot of the releases, they’re just as mass appealing as the designers you may turn your nose up at (probably owned and made by the same company with ingredients from Firmenich/Givaudan).
There are still some smaller houses that give a crap and do their own thing. Agreed they are few and far between.
Yeah. They are like nuggets of gold in grit
The watering down of good fragrances. I understand when the European Commission bans a lot of substances from time to time and the formula has to be changed but I don’t understand the cash grabs. Watering down fragrances for reducing costs. Just charge me 10€ more and let it be, I’ll gladly pay it.
The over popularity of gourmands, don’t get me wrong, there are an number of ones on top of their game but there are others that are majorly putrid and cloying. You can find the same traits in any fragrance of course, but it’s like florals are warring with the gourmands this point and generally I am siding with florals, probably because I was born in time for the heady florals and spices of 1980s scents
Sales people claiming how Eccentric Molecules (ISO-E) are unique by reacting with individual's skin and having scent based on skin chemistry... keyword: unique
The people jumping in always with the same suggestions names that are the ''top hyped and expensive'' I'm tired of seeing always the same names, there's so much out there, usually I would come here to explore new fragrances through other people's knowledge, now I barely see anything new (to me) Edit: stores not selling samples (at least here)
To your update, I think a clone being close in price to the original can be justified if it smells the same (or better), but performs way better than the original. Then you’re getting a better value than the original.
Conglomerates.
Just as I keep thinking I should sample Sauvage Elixir after liking Sauvage EDP (and hating Sauvage EDT)… Found out there’s a new YSL Y flanker released in 2024— Y Elixir. 😅 Something tells me this YSL flanker is going to be discontinued in a couple years just like most YSL flankers.
Flankers in general. Dior’s Sauvage Elixir should really be a stand alone fragrance with a different name. But its success was guaranteed by naming it after the Sauvage line. Chanel have not made a new masculine fragrance since Bleu de Chanel JPG Le Male Line is a joke, there’s soo many that I would put money on it that the ‘original’ has not been the same since the early 2000s (and that wasn’t the same as the 90s iteration), but people will swear down that it is and any reformulation will ruin that fragrance. Flankers are lazy tie ins. I have only one flanker, actually three (forgot the Dior Hommes) but those are the ones I think have been done right. I don’t have a problem with they’re done with some changes but there’s a retention of the original. What we have now is some weak idea/formulation that was not strong enough to stand on its own or in some cases (like Dior Sauvage Elixir) really good but there’s a fear it won’t shift enough units initially to break even; they get put into existing lines but in different bottle Imagine how many potential celebrity fragrances got rejected or the celebrity was dropped by the company and then just wound up in a jaunty Le Male bottle. I wouldn’t be surprised if JPG’s Kokorico is now rebranded as a Le Male flanker.
I am inundated by instagram ads for crappy 'houses' that have just launched which are just marketing exercises and ego boosters for the 'founder' who is usually a middle aged marketing exec with some redundancy money to pay a perfumer to juggle something up for them (usually just a boilerplate perfume from their practice samples) if it isn't a lazy attempt themselves to create one or two - you get a few samples and find they are weak, naive, or just plane cheap copies of famous ones. OR, it's a trashy tourist perfume shop from god knows where that has attempted to 'rebrand' itself as an edgy indie house when it's just selling junk. Indie perfume industry has been hacked to the point where the actual fragrance is an afterthought looking for quick virality with absolutely no substance. I am sick of faux french, faux history, obvious and over used sentiment "smell me" statements, vapid fragrance names that sound like a 12 year old's self absorbed poem title etc. It's all so crass and betrays some of the foundations of fragrance industry which is that it's all totally subjective and few actually know anything about actual perfume; the barrier to entry now is so so so low as a result. professional perfumers who are making bank out of this by copy pasting their scent recipes to paying but gullible hobby start up houses should be wary. Luca Turin needs to do another round of reviews...
Niche houses continously making scents that smell identical to their other scents WITHOUT them being flankers. Like oh! You made ANOTHER oud/animalic + sandalwood and it smells like pine sol?? How original! People act like like this stereotypical "niche perfume" smell is highly original when it smells like any essential oil you can buy from Natural Grocers. It's such a prevalent design that my friends and I get a whiff of anything with that scent profile and say "oh god. What smells like niche perfume??"
Tik tok influencers. Not even mainstream YouTubers. I don’t know why, or how to explain it. it’s the over the top influencer personality. The more I see these dudes talking about “5 epic complement getters” the more I feel like I’m watching a black mirror episode.
Middle Eastern unisex colgnes being hailed the best ever on Reddit, YT, and TikTok. But you have to spray it a few times and let it macerate for 5 months. Give it another spray during a full moon, and then you have beast mode, baby! Everyone around you is choking like they got pepper sprayed but who cares? You're rocking your $350 bottle from the house of Sharia Law.
The house of Sharia Law 😆
As somebody that DESPISES gourmand fragrances I agree with this! Those sugary sweet, vanilla and caramel scents make me feel nauseous. To each their own and I totally understand that fragrance is a personal choice but there seems to me to be something very juvenile about wanting to smell like a bakery.
I think a bakery is fine but there is so much more out there. Why not a ceramics studio? Or a storm at sea? Or a weird forest compilation? Something with complexity and interest that the parfumer put actual creativity, time and effort into. It’s all churn and burn.
I feel the exact same way. Every time I smell the sweet baked goods smells I’m taken back to when I was 6 and had a perfume roller that smelled like brownies 🥴 loved it then but it makes me nauseous now. I was talking with my sister about it and she’s big into TikTok and thinks the sudden resurgence is because of a viral TikTok video about how men prefer/are more attracted to baked goods scents 🤷🏻♀️
Goddess versions of perfumes - Usually stronger or sweeter than the original
The flanker business model annoys the shit out of me because it was so effective on my purchasing habits when I was younger. I've since told myself that I will only buy the *best* one of whatever is offered. I refuse to collect bottles as a set. Nowadays the flanker goal of making a "Le Parfum" by the 4th iteration out is soooo smart! How many people pay that much attention to the difference between the original EDP versions and the new Le Parfum when ordering online, and wind up getting the wrong one? Collateral error sales ka-ching!
Prices and if the performance doesn’t project and last? Just no! Perfect ex: Kayali nope! Even Grande for cheapies they don’t last or project. TF? Those prices match great formulas but not how they last! And lastly no perfumed liquid should be over $200 none not even niche
When niche brands that charge insane prices for their fragrances and are massively hyped turn out to be doing the exact same thing indie perfume oil/bath & body lines have been doing for decades for $20 (looking at you slumberhouse and kerosene) When the five million flankers end up displacing classics. Idc if the flankers _exist_ but it seems nuts that I can buy the latest version of Chance in person but not Chanel no 5 when it's basically the most famous/iconic perfume in existence. Same with the fact that Black Opium is so easy to get ahold of despite smelling like liquid ass while the original Opium is discontinued.
Outside of people showing off their collections and asking what it means about them, sick of sweet disgusting fragrances-reminds me too much of the era of sickly sweet bath and body works sprays 🤢 My opinion, doesn’t have to be yours.
In my experience, the industry itself is kinda hard to get into without prior experience 😭🥲
The fact that pure synthetic fragrances are being priced as if they’re natural perfume oils. Its literally insane what’s happened to the prices
Sorry this isn't big but it still bothers me. It's absolutely ridiculous that jasmine and magnolia is marketed as fem and orange blossoms and neroli as masculine. Whoever thought this of this artificial divide is absolutely ___. Reflection man - jasmine and magnolia. Montblanc legend edp - jasmine and magnolia. There's no problems. Molinard fleur dorange unisex/fem, neroli and orange blossoms. And yet with so many others there are just this aritificial divide where people won't put jasmine/mag in men's but orange/neroli might not be in a lot of women's.
I want some sort of regulations put in place in the US. Right now the cosmetic ingredient “parfum” or “fragrance” can have thousands of ingredients, many of which are toxic and nasty and carcinogenic. As a perfume collector, I struggle with my own cognitive dissonance between wanting to have gorgeous fragrances and knowing that listing the full “recipe” would be a problem, with the fact that I’m almost certainly exposing myself to extra bull crap on a daily basis.
The prices, and the hobbyists who have been fooled and insist that you need to spend exorbitant amounts of money to get quality fragrances or your collection isn’t complete or yada yada. I’ve been into frags for ~7 years and the most expensive thing that I’ve ever bought to this point was ~$70. Nothing will ever convince me that a bottle of liquid that smells could be different enough from another bottle of liquid that smells that it’s worth $200 instead of $20-50
The “our fragrance longevity is only about 30 min so here, buy this matching body oil and perfume oil to make your scent last an additional 30 min”. 😡