New at beautyhabit: Serge Lutens Jeax de Peau.
New at escentual (UK): Burberry Sport Ice.
New at neimanmarcus: Burberry Summer.
New at nordstrom: the Saffron James line.
New at selfridges (UK): Shiseido Zen White Heat.
New at senteursdailleurs (Brussels): Diptyque 34 Boulevard Saint Germain.
New at sephora: Gucci Flora Eau Fraiche
After we launched the first Garden perfume, other companies came up with the same approach. We wanted the fourth perfume to be a surprise. Also, no one could come up with a perfume like Un Jardin sur le Toit because we drew inspiration from our very own garden. This reflects why we don't really need to find another world when happiness can be very close to us.
— Perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena, quoted in Familiar scents close to home at the Bangkok Post.
First there were too many mainstream perfumes, and too many of them smelled like each other. Niche, of course, was the answer for many perfumistas: find a smaller perfume house that wasn’t after the worldwide domination of the prestige (department store) fragrance market, and perhaps they’d be making something a little more unusual, and perhaps they’d even be making a reasonable investment in the raw materials since they didn’t need to spend millions on advertising. When I started getting interested in perfume in late 2003, being a “niche snob” was a viable option if you were tired of the same old thing.
Then the niche market exploded, and eventually there were too many niche perfumes and too many of them smelled like each other — or worse, smelled pretty much like the generic fragrances you could already find in the prestige market. And of course, the niche fragrances cost more, and it was harder to try them without spending money on samples. By 2007, when I wrote a little rant about the 800 perfumes that were expected to launch that year, the world of niche was already getting a little out of hand. Today, in 2011, at times it seems downright absurd.
Anyone hoping that the world financial crisis would provide a corrective can, I think, pretty much give up hope on that score by now…
Indie niche line Tauer Perfumes will launch Zeta, the first fragrance in a proposed series of vintage (specific harvest) fragrances built around fine or rare natural materials, next month. The series will be called the Collectibles. Zeta will feature linden blossom and is described as a “bright ode to summer”…
New at dillards: Shiseido Zen White Heat, True Religion Hippie Chic.
Deal at dshperfumes: spring cleaning sale, plus take 10% off with coupon code CLEAN, expiration date unknown.
New at luckyscent: Hilde Soliani Conaffetto.
New at macys: Jean Paul Gaultier Classique Summer.
New at nordstrom: Harajuku Lovers G of the Sea, Marc Jacobs Splash Cranberry, Curacao & Ginger.
Deal at rich-hippie: take 20% off with coupon code ILOVERICHHIPPIE, good through 3/29.