I posted my perfume wishes for the coming year in 2006 and 2007, and looking back, I'm surprised at how many have come true. Of course, many of them haven't. My first wish for the coming year is simple but wildly unlikely: less product. Way less product.
The world doesn't need several new perfumes to launch every day, that much is obvious. Multi-scent luxury collections aren't special when a new one appears every few months. New "niche" lines whose fragrances don't offer any meaningful alternative to what is already on the market are just plain annoying.
Of course, like any perfumista, I have my own wishlist of dream fragrances. I'd still like to see an incense fragrance from Ormonde Jayne, and the wait for something new from Parfums Delrae is getting agonizingly long. But my respect for the smaller brands that don't feel the need to flood the market with a handful of new scents every other month is increasing by the minute.
My biggest pipe dream: the return of the Gobin Daudé line. The niche house launched in 2002 with five truly gorgeous and unusual fragrances. When I reviewed Sous Le Buis and Sève Exquise back in 2005, the line was just starting to disappear from stores. I loved the scents but balked at the prices ($140 for 50 ml), and didn't succumb to a purchase until Takashimaya had placed the fragrances on clearance for around $20 each. Given what has happened in the world of niche fragrance since then, it is an understatement to say I've reconsidered. $140 no longer seems so outrageous now that we've seen a kajillion drop-dead-boring niche fragrances launch at much higher prices. At the time the line folded, it was rumored that two new fragrances were in the works. I can't think of a single niche line that launched in 2007 that I wouldn't trade away for for those two new Gobin Daudé scents without a moment's hesistation.
Your perfume dreams for 2008?
Note: the lovely drawing of flowers and a bottle of Guerlain's Guet-Apens is via Laurelines.
For Shiseido to wake up and make FdB available at regular cosmetics counters again.
for Chanel to make the perfume strengths of Bois des Iles, No 22, Cuir de Russie available in the USA – the perfume strength is sooooo much nicer!
To not feel overwhelmed when I look at my perfume dresser top…and to find a signature perfume I can live with for longer than a few months.
Yes, and I'll add to that — they ought to make the whole fragrance line available in the US, at least at one flagship or something. I keep hearing wonderful things about other Shiseido scents that I can't get my hands on.
I started off reading your post with the words Gobin Daude in my mind — and there it was. Sigh.
I want Chanel 22 in the old small bottle, and perfumers to put all their effort into one-scent releases, not three (or 12).
Um, yeah, and dewey's comment up there about FdB is so right, why don't they have it everywhere?
BTW happy new year!
Yes, yes, yes! And stronger versions of the Exclusifs, while they're at it — I hear rumors, but no idea if it's really going to happen.
LOL — I know the feeling.
M, a very Happy New Year to you! Hope it is peaceful for both of us
A huge YES on the one-scent releases. Honestly, I'm sick to death of multi-scent releases.
Finally finding a hesperide scent I truely fall in love with…
Oh, I just ordered a sample of this a few days ago, because it sounds so wonderful. Almost hoping I don't like it, since it seems so hard to come by…
Good luck!
Absolutely! 31 Rue Cambon in parfum would be sheer heaven in a bottle!
Don't worry, you can get it online in the US easily enough!
Parfums DelRae does need a new fragrance.
I have a feeling, a very strong one, that we will see the re-launch of the Gobin-Daude line. Let's stay tuned.
I wished that Le Labo would open an LA store, and it looks like it's about to come true!
Hugs!
So true, and special hopes for 28 La Pausa!
Ah, do hope you're right on GD, and lucky you on the Le Labo! Wonder what they'll do for an LA exclusive?
Huge hugs to you R, and all the best in 2008.
To you, too, dear friend!
I want see smaller bottles available as a standard, a parfum strength of most old and new releases, and of course less mass releases.
I also want fashion designer who feel a need for a scent that carries their names to think more about an artistic vision and a way to bottle it up and less of what would compete well with whatever Victoria's Secret is selling this week.
And a last one: I wish that people who spend a hundred or $200 a year on fragrance would realize there's an alternative to Macy's and Sephora and would seek out niche scents.
A worthy list!
Prada, I think, has maybe come closest of the mainstream designers to the “bottling artistic vision”, if you're willing to forget about Prada Tendre. I hope they'll keep it up.
Prada Tendre is a great way to wear the classic Prada in the warmer months. Is there a note in Tendre that you do not like? When I first put it on there is a top note that disappears very quickly and then I am left with a softer version of classic Prada, enough for a summer day.
My wishes have pretty well been covered, but I feel like commenting anyway :). I wish for more interesting scents to be available in much smaller bottles – 30ml is about perfect, imo – at more accessible price points. Instead of so much new, I'd love to see more reissues thoughtfully produced. My most current wish is for Silver Factory to be sold by the ounce, and the ounce sizes available online!
Smaller bottles. Returnable bottles.
Like you can ship your empty bottle back to the perfume house and they refill or recycle it for you.
I have discovered that there is a Chanel Boutique near me — la! And I've spotted Les Exclusifs! My wallet feels lighter already.
You've covered my two primary wishes – less product and the return of the GD line. Praying that Violetnoir's feeling about its return is correct. I'd also *love* to see Caron have sales again.
To find a scent I have been searching for ever since I smelled it! It's from L'Occitane and it's discontinued. My college roommate had a tiny bottle of it–the perfume was yellowish and I believe the sticker was orange colored, but the name had rubbed off. I think it may have been Jasmine or Neroli? Help!
I think everyone's mostly covered it here! Add my vote for smaller sizes. More 30ml bottles, please!!
Another dream I have: That this relatively new obsession of mine will cool down and give my wallet a break. I can't go on like this. I think I've gotten a little less feverish about it, but we'll see.
Oh, Happy New Year, by the way! Your blog was a really great discovery in 2007 and I look forward to more of your and the other writers' insights and humor in 2008.
I don't happen to love it (probably because I found it sweeter and fruitier) but my comment was based more on the fact that it seemed more “commercial” than the others. That doesn't mean it isn't as good, just thought it was inspired more by marketing considerations. IIRC, it was developed for the Asian market.
Agree on smaller bottles, and entirely agree on Silver Factory by the ounce, although need to check — they may already be selling it that way! Not online, though.
Hey, watch out for those Chanels! They'll drain your wallet in no time
We'll both keep our fingers crossed. I do want GD back! And less product from everyone else, LOL…
Didn't even realize that Caron stopped holding sales; that's too bad.
The Neroli juice was orange, IIRC. I can't remember the color of the label. I don't know if L'Occitane ever made a straight Jasmine, but a few years back they did have a Jasmine Mandarin or Mandarin Jasmine or something. Can't remember what color the label was though. I'm not much help!
My advice: try a 6 week no-buy, and after that, set a very strict limit on how many bottles you can buy per month. It really worked for me — the no-buy period forces you to reconsider what you already own, the bottle limit makes you think longer before reaching for your wallet, and hopefully, keeps you from adding things to your collection that you don't really need.
Hey, thanks! A very Happy 2008 to you as well
Great wish list, and I'm with you on the Gobin Daudes and the OJ incense. I'd plead with companies to copy the Hermessence idea of 4 x 15ml in hessian pouches – they're brilliant for handbags and you still get the lovely shaded bottle. I'd also like refillable bottles – it seems criminal to just stuff a perfectly good empty bottle into your lingerie drawer when it's still good for years yet. And I'd like to see some seriously Green scents, (as in wet grass and herbs rather than environmentally friendly!), although that may just be my mid-winter hankering for Spring kicking in…
A very happy 2008 to everyone! R., I am going to follow your 6-week-buying-hiatus starting yesterday, and once that's over I vow to keep to a 2-bottle-per-month restriction for the rest of the year. SO sensible; I only wish I'd done the same favour for my wallet in '07.
My 2008 dreams? For more great niche scents to be available here in Vancouver (although, come to think, that would be excrutiatingly tempting!!!), for — as many posters have suggested — more 30ml bottles, and for more great frags at reasonable prices. Also (we can dream) for ALL Serge Lutens scents (I'm thinking Chergui et al) to be widely available across North America!
Heh, I have like, a 4-bottle-limit at any time. + or – one or two that's on its way to empty. I am commited to using up ALL the juice before getting a new one. That way, I am forced to ask myself, can I stand this fragrance for a long long time, can I continue to use it until it's gone? This principle made me really consider what I can do without. I can't think of anything worse than having to use a fragrance one no longer likes. Even having no fragrance is better than using something that you liked at one time but for whatever reason has turned on you. I know that in this company of perfumistas I am in the minority.
LOL — you know from my standpoint that system sounds outrageously draconian.
N, so agree — many people are wishing for more 30 ml bottles, but I'll take 15 ml any day. “Seriously green” is another reason to wish for Gobin Daude, who does perfect green!
I did 2 a month for a long time, and I do think it eventually cured me. It really does help to have to plan ahead about what you'll buy next. Now I average less than 1 a month. But of course, your plan will work better if your next wish, greater availability, does not come true
Yeah; kind of throws the usual supply/demand theory of economics right out the window, doesn't it? One of life's little ironies for a budding perfumista, Robin!
P.S. With you entirely on the 15m bottles.
P.P.S. Thanks to you, I did limit my '07 purchases significantly, relative to '04, '05 and the insane '06. Happy to follow your lead in several cases, including Kelly Caleche. . .
Happy new year and I love your blog and articles!!I would love an ultra sexy fragrance that is for any season or reason sounds like a dream but everybody has to have a dream so…Look forward to readng more of your comments
Hi and thanks! Hope you'll find your ultra sexy. Don't know if I have just one such thing — I think what I find “ultra sexy” depends on my mood — but it is worth wishing for
Lovely painting of Guet-Apens!
My wishes for the industry are: no more flankers. We want a new name and a new bottle for every new scent. Creativity in scents AND bottles is a must. Please pick some better names. Hire a wordsmith and make the names play well in most tongues. Get over celebrity scents.
Thank you, Robin, for bringing so much joy into the lives of perfumistas on a daily basis with your classy well-written (by everybody) blog. You are certainly deserving of the title of Number One Blog. The very valuable comments and the wit of you and the fellow bloggers is great to wake up to. Look forward to the pleasure of NST in 2008!
15 ml bottles would be just perfect for me, too – but for reasonable prices, please. I love the tiny pocket flacons YSL offers (25 ml), but IMHO they are just too expensive in comparison to the big ones – and could be even smaller.
Another wish: less flankers, limited editions, summer/winter versions etc.
Your wish is my wish- way less product! No more than 2 releases a year per brand (and I am being generous here). I also want a new Delrae to finaly appear. For Guerlain's Gardenia and for Malle's …something to be great.
Thank you for the very kind compliment!
2 releases per brand is perfect — and it ought to include flankers! Ain't gonna happen though, as we know.
LOL — if we're starting on prices, we're really entering dream zone
LOL, true enough.
I wish that they would bring back the original Magie Noire, Mystere by Rochas, and the old Jean Patou perfumes that would be brought into Bloomingdales, once a year. I bought Vacance and L'Heure D'Attendre (at least I think that that's what its name was-I'm not at home :). There were many to chose from. They were packaged in their original boxes and bottles. I still have those two and I still love them.
Is Fendi still around? Another nice one.
Great choices!
I think all the old Fendi scents (pre-Palazzo) are now discontinued, but I'm not positive.
Oh, and another thing…..
Get rid of these celebrity fragrances. They cheapen the product. I mean, really, as nice as a Britney Spears fragrance may be, I would NEVER buy it. Can't stand the girl and wouldn't have anything that is associated with her. Same for the Phat stuff, Jennifer Lopez, Celine Dion. I think that those products should be left to the drug stores with Jean Nate. AND, you are right. TOO many perfumes. Go back to well made, complex fragrances from old perfume houses and designers. Perfume is about class, and individual identity, not about smelling like something. : )
Do you ladies find that (all) the fragrance internet sites are reliable and do sell the actual products and not knock-offs? I'm new at this and just don't know.
No, not quite all. A board search on a store name at MakeupAlley's fragrance board will usually give you a pretty good idea of whether or not the store is reputable.
Happy New Year!
This is my wish too – that the famous and not so famous would take a hiatus from perfumery for a while! That alone would knock back the tidal wave of new frags.
My second wish is to fall in love, really in LOVE with a perfume (or two!) this year. It's like being single again. I'm sampling and sampling until something knocks my socks off!
Getting rid of celebrity fragrances, I'm afraid, is about as likely as less product all around!
Then I hope you will find true love in 2008
A new trend is to create perfumes and sell them for an extra ultra big price. I find it very unethical and unfriendly, something like: Oh girl, this is not for you…(add cold, polite smile).
Definately smaller bottles, who needs 125 ml?
I am very tired of ultra-expensive & ultra-luxury myself
My only wish for this year (other than world peace…) is an international law forbidding companies to ever retire a frag — or to modify it–no matter how little it sells.
I am just sick and tired of finding out that some of my favorite frags have been discontinued or reworked. (and no longer smell like they should)
… I would also love to find a bottle of Bois Noir de Chanel!
My 2008 wishes would be: 1- To find a fragrance that takes my breath away, like the original Fendi or Magie Noire. 2- To find the body creme in Magie Noire, it was really a great product and the company discontinued it last year.
I was at Macy's last night and the woman told me that the Magie Noire has been the same formulation since the 40's. I sprayed it on my wrist and it NEVER smelled nice after that. It was bitter and I don't remember it ever being bitter.
You've about as much hope for world peace as you do with fragrances never being discontinued or reformulated, unfortunately
I don't even know Bois Noir.
SFLizbeth, there is some cream on Ebay right now, if you're inclined to bid!
If it hasn't been reformulated since the 40's, it's the only such fragrance on earth. Not likely.
Bois Noir (for men) was released in 1987 by Chanel.
For some reason, it was pulled by the company after only a few months (rumors is that it was juged as being too feminin).
Bois Noir was reformulated and rereleased as Egoiste. But Bois Noir was much softer-richer than Egoiste with lemon/citrus in the top note and more vanilla in the finish.
It was 20 years ago, but I can still remember that sent…
It was reworked yet again later to create Allure.
Ah, thanks! Am posting a long blurb from WWD (11/6/1987) below. Despite the verbiage, sounds like Bois Noir was a bit of an exercise in test marketing:
To hear Alain Wertheimer tell it, the only reason Chanel came up with its latest men's fragrance is that he wanted something new to wear.
“If it sells, it sells,' said the chairman of Chanel, Inc. “If not, I've at least got something I like.'
The fragrance, called Bois Noir, will not be available anywhere except in the Chanel boutiques…
Wertheimer isn't anxious to expand into department stores, where the market for high-end men's fragrances is minimal and where competitive fragrances are promoted with giveaways, one of his pet peeves. By being his own retailer, he can also put a product onto the market more quickly and without as much overhead.
In addition, Bois Noir's black oak caps are handmade and, according to Wertheimer would be “impossible' to produce in mass quantities…
“I don't care if I sell that many. It's not going to be an expensive project,' Wertheimer said. “I'm really launching it because I like it. I'm not going to lose money by doing that.'
Fantastic! Thanks for the heads up on EBay, I'll look it up. Cheers and happy 2008!