“Before we had twenty new fragrances a year, each with significant retailer backing, and the consumer eagerly awaited the new offering. Now nobody waits anymore,” explained Bloom.
The result is a confused consumer unable to choose between the plethora of perfumes that inhabit the marketplace.
[...] As the scattergun approach to marketing fires increasing numbers of products onto the market, fragrance is losing its luxury feel, according to Bloom.
— From The fragrance industry must focus on the art of perfumery to capture consumers, an interview with Rochelle Bloom of the Fragrance Foundation, at Cosmetics Design.
Too many! way too many!
It also has the effect of taking away the attention from the great classics. Who will remember CKOne to years from now (who does now!!)
Very few, if any, of the new outing will ever know the longevity that some of the classics used to enjoy, Shalimar, l'Heure Bleue, No5, etc. Even those classics are loosing their mystic, being reformulated, designed…
Used to be a time when a fragrance was something that you spent half your life hoping for, and the other half wearing.
Now, fragrance have about the same longevity as a t-shirt
There is no such thing as a signature scent now…. we have outfit scents
I completely agree, we do have outfit scents. I change fragrances nearly every day, and am always searching for new releases. Much like a drug addict, am forever searching for that next new and wonderful 'hit'. It's all very embarrassing. I can't recall the last time I bought a FB, but am spending my $$ on samples or decants. When I find something I truly love, I put it in a separate drawer of the perfume brothel, but the search continues.
Platinum, everyone knows it is so, but sadly, I don't see how it can stop short of a major financial meltdown.
The idea of “outfit scents” doesn't require 1000+ new releases a year though…I see them as separate problems. You could change your scent w/ your mood & your clothes quite easily even if the industry stuck to 500 releases a year. 500 is my dream number — it is enough to keep customers interested, not so many that people can't even keep track without a spreadsheet.
I think I own about 27 full bottles and probably around 200+ samples/decants. About half of the full bottles are frags that I've taken about all my adult life to come to love, and the rest are picked up since I've realized I wanted to “develop” a perfume collection of unusual or very interesting frags. What concerns me about the issue of frags flooding the market are not just longevity and permanence, but also the relative “cheapening” of the olfactory experience for us. There is always the issue of beautiful frags being developed and discontinued — most objects of beauty tend to hold on as time passes (art, music, literature, etc) – because the lesser ones are blown away with the chaff, so to speak. But what concerns me is how the use of so many fleeting frags impacts us in more personal ways — cheapening our sense of smell. Memories of scents and perfumes are very powerful. Sometimes I wonder if my daughter will remember my “signature” scent when she grows up….these days I don't have one anymore. I remember what my mother and both my grandmothers wore. I think there is more at issue than just volume and permanence.
Ahh this is so true. The ladies in my family have “signature” scents, while I can be fickle and need “outfit” scents. I do have special bottles on hand, like Chanel No 5 or l'Heure Bleue, for memories & special occasions…..
On the topic of too many releases and confused consumers. A dear friend of mine, who owns a perfume shop, echoed the same sentiments. He has many customers that come in looking for the latest “IT” scent without knowing what they really want.
This is also compounded, I think, by the fact that now everything is fragranced: laundry detergent, kitty litter, etc. We're surrounded by perfume.
I also have separate drawers in my perfume brothel – indeed we are exchanging some of our girls at the moment to ring the changes a bit…I think I sent you an English rose and a couple of exotic ones : – )
It is disturbing though, the plethora – not only does it cheapen the value of fragrance, but it is a blessed nuisance to keep up with it all, which is a constant source of low level anxiety, tempering the pleasure of the hobby.
There is so much smell around us – just imagine even the first hour you are up in the morning: soap, shampoo, lotion, hair products, toothpaste, makeup, coffee/tea, breafast, laundry, perfume, pets, cars, buildings, on and on…Our poor noses!
The flood of similar perfumes in the market reminds me of the monotonous storefront khaki's conundrum of the late 90s- early 2000s. How many kinds of khaki's do we really need? I wouldn't try to get each pair of pants, so I try not to really want all these different fragrances. It is hard trying to keep a nose out for really extraordinary fragrances in a sea of meh. The internet can bear all these releases by volume, but until they develop smell-o-screen technology, it will be really hard to actually translate all these releases to the masses as a viable luxury. I think this glut is a trend because the sales won't be able to handle the release pressure. People want the sensation of smelling something wonderful – hence the surge of decanters as a guide for all this. LIke a lending library for smells – most of the items are not really purchase worthy and the developers won't make real sales off the decant market. The ones that will make it through are those that have an extraordinary product or those houses that have stood the test of time already.
In all truth, I think the industry would be suffering even more if there *was* smell-o-screen technology — it would make it immediately obvious just how many of these smell like all the rest.
Exactly. I don't know if you've seen the PBS show 1900 house? It's a show in which a family is transported back in time almost 100 years, to spend three months in a townhouse restored to reproduce life in middle-class, Victorian-era London?
In the show, the mom noted that when she went to the “outside world” how highly-fragranced everyone and everything was.
I think you are right! It would all be so disappointing!
I had a friend who worked in the peace corps in Africa and she said when she came back to the US, she was overwhelmed with perfumey smells and got a lot of headaches. We are all just very used to it.
With all this swapping and fragrance orgies going on, does this qualify us as scent-pimps? (such trashy language for such a sophisticated hobby)
Vanessa, that is exactly right about the “low level anxiety”. I don't want to miss experiencing a fragrance that I might love. And this at a time when I *really* want to simplify my life!!! I know I'm not alone here.
Blogs and forums like NST do us a great service, because they do the tough research that helps us pare down our lists of “must try” scents. (Thanks, Robin and associates!)
Interesting! Only saw a couple episodes, but great idea for a show. I wonder what else was hard after they went back to “real life”.
4 bottles is very exclusive!
I dunno, but I'll tell you cleaning the house back in the day was much harder than it is now! Those ladies worked their fingers to the bone, I guess I take good ol' Comet for granted
I prefer fragrance slut
When I first started out, I really did want to smell everything. I don't try anymore — there are just too many, and I have to accept that if I smell even 1/4 of the new releases, I probably won't really end up missing anything fabulous.
Boy, didn't they though! I'll stick w/ the 21st century.