With rare exceptions (most recently, the Arquiste collection), I’m almost always underwhelmed when a company releases a barrage of perfumes all at once (Keiko Mecheri, Robert Piguet, By Kilian, M Micallef — I’m looking at you…though you are far from being the only culprits). I think: Was the perfumer overwhelmed by too many simultaneous projects? Were the perfumes made to fill banal “slots”: citrus cologne slot, oud perfume slot, fruity-floral slot, oriental amber slot, white floral slot. Were the resulting fragrances “old” ideas that were just hanging around waiting for a bottle to fill, a desperate buyer to placate? I’ve been burned so many times after going to great trouble and expense getting samples, I’ve started ignoring these “group shows” of fragrances. I don’t have the time, or energy, to find and try so many perfumes all at once from a single house. I think we’d all prefer the release of one interesting, well-thought-out perfume to a cartload of forgettable offerings arriving in one ‘lump’.

The Different Company (sigh) just released four fragrances in their new L’Esprit Cologne collection, all by perfumer Émilie Coppermann…

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