Undeniably, their perfumes are made and sold in a manner far different from a fragrance you might pick out at a department store or at Sephora.
Ffern, which Mr. Mears started in 2016, is a subscription service. A space on the ledger, as it’s called, costs $129 per season and signifies that you want a bottle from the next batch. From then on, you’ll get a new scent four times a year, as the seasons change.
— Read more in Would You Buy a Perfume You Had Never Smelled? at The New York Times.
Way back in January 2021, Kevin wrote that 2020 had been the year of overpriced, overhyped scents: “Never have I smelled so many $250, $350, $450 perfumes that reminded me of $10 scented candles.” Based on various online “gift guides” that have scrolled past my eyes lately, I can’t say that late 2024 is looking any different. I’m less and less impressed by arbitrarily high prices. Here at NST we’ve been saying “under $100 is the new ‘free'” since 2009; in that spirit, here are three fragrances I’ve encountered over the past year or so that live up to their descriptions, feel accessible to scent-curious shoppers and sell for less than $100 for a full-sized bottle.
First: I initially came across the Cra-yon fragrance line at the Liberty department store in London and made a mental note to find out more later. Cray-on started showing up in the United States soon after that trip, and I picked up a bottle of Art Life at a perfume swap event in New York. (Swap meet-ups are the Gen Z version of the early-2000s message-board swaps!) Cra-yon was “founded by Christine and Niclas Lydeen, French/Swedish fragrance pioneers” and comes across as a welcoming, upbeat brand that doesn’t take its own cool-kid vibes too seriously…
Prada Ambassador Karina makes gingerbread cookies, then below the jump, Maya Hawke makes hot chocolate, Kelvin Harrison Jr. makes mince pies, and Louis Partridge makes Panettone with custard cream.
Fzotic's Sunlight Discovery Set, with six samples (Room 237, Soft Focus, Unsettled, Monserrat, Lilac Brûlée and Five Squared) is $42, but if you buy today, you can get it bundled with a Perfumed Patterns Card Set (5 greeting cards featuring Bruno Fazzolari's artwork, intended to represent the fragrances Soft Focus, Lilac Brûlée, Lampblack, Five Squared and Black Suede) and a 200g Toasted Lilac bar soap ("scent of lilacs in bloom float on a breeze of subtle gourmand notes, including toast and sweet cream") for $67.
Note that you can also get the Moonlight Discovery Set (Lampblack, Vetiverissimo, Corpse Reviver, Ummagumma, Au Delà and Feu Secret) for $42, or for $45 you can build your own Discovery Set. Any of the sets gets you a $21 discount towards a full bottle of your choice. At Fzotic.
Ralph Lauren has launched Romance Elixir, a new flanker to 1998’s Romance…