The premise of power perfumes in the eighties was intertwined with that of power dressing—they were a way for women to claim their space, portray their monetary success and show those around them they meant business. [...] But in 2024, the very definition of power has changed for a huge number of women—many are wanting to embrace the power of understated brilliance.

The power perfumes of 2024 aren't Armani power shoulders, they are beautifully cut Calvin Klein suits. They are clean-smelling, crisp and fresh, but they are also complex, commanding of attention and ooze expense.

— Read more in The power perfumes of 2024 don't scream, they whisper—these 7 scents know how to command a room at Marie Claire UK.

They do, though, get very close. It’s thanks to Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS), an unsexily named method also used for food and drugs to identify the different molecules in a chemical sample. “They work by obtaining some of the liquid you are trying to replicate, even tiny amounts are sufficient,” explains David-Lev Jipa-Slivinschi, perfumer and founder of cult fragrance brand Toskovat. “It’s then analysed in a lab via a GCMS machine. This doesn’t give you the full ‘picture’ necessarily, but it gives you sufficient information that if you know how to interpret the results you can make something very, very, very similar,” he says.

— Read more in Inside the sudden rise of perfume dupe labs at DazedDigital.