Bloom says that for the past 10 years, seven out of the 10 top-selling luxury fragrances in the U.S. have remained the same. For example, Donna Karan's flowery Cashmere Mist, which first launched in 1994, and the truly timeless Chanel No. 5, which has adorned women since 1921.
— That's Rochelle Bloom of the Fragrance Foundation, quoted in Smelling Out Sales In Perfume at Forbes.
Cashmere Mist is flowery?
Hah… that was my first reaction, too.
There are flowers in there. But it’s not classified as a floral, yeah.
Sometimes I feel like saying to people, as my father used to say when we kids had turned up our noses at some unfamiliar food, like rare steak, “You just don’t know what’s good.” He was right, we didn’t.
Gosh, I love a rare steak. And some scotch too please.
There are a lot of people in the world who only want vanilla ice cream and baloney sandwiches on white break. Not me. But hey – it is what it is – to each his or her own. Fragrance is a mind and body adventure and not everyone wants that.
I guess so.
I think I’m just whiney because I *hate* Cashmere Mist.
Just pretend like you can’t smell it — there is no there there to hate!
Ugh, Cashmere Mist = headache maker. I still associate it with a whizz-bang (emphasis “bang”) headache I got almost two years ago.
That is so funny- I hate cashmere mist too! In fact, it almost makes me aggro! I keep resniffing every 3 or 4 years, just in case, but it never fails to insult.
I’ve got to pop in here and defend my Cashmere Mist. 🙂 I totally missed it when it launched in the early 90’s (I was way too interested in early teenage pursuits and couldn’t afford to shop at the high end frag counter anyway), so when I discovered it last year or the year before, it was a pretty, easy to wear break from all the orientals/gourmands I’d been into at the time. It isn’t complex, but it is pretty in a flowers and powder sort of way. And Cashmere Mist Luxe is quite nice with the addition of tuberose, and is just a warm snuggly scent that’s also lovely sprayed on sheets. I put it in my ‘comfortable and just want to smell good’ category and look forward to trying the newest flanker as the addition of wood and vanilla sounds good.
Yes, but do you really want to smell like everybody else? I thought the whole growth and appeal of niche perfumery depended on its distinctiveness and exclusivity. So in a way, isn’t the “bottom” not only a roomier but also a more enticing place to be?
Depends on what you’re after, right? If you’re after the big $, you’re not going to find it in niche.
This always stumps me – why people stick with one fragrance. Isn’t variety the spice of life? I suppose it’s similar to keeping the same hairstyle from high school, wearing the same makeup, not changing fashion style. I suppose I can understand the disinterest in personal care – there are so many more important things in life. Most people just don’t want to bother spending time on this stuff. The rest of us, though…are we bored? Vain? Frivolous? I prefer to call it fun. Trying new things, new experiences, traveling to new places, eating weird foods. It’s fun. Perhaps we’re all explorers – seekers – loving the experience of play and discovery. Hmmm…
I would bet we all have at least one perfume that we cannot do without owning a FB of at all times, but that doesn’t mean wearing it every day. I have come to love variety and acquire a whole scent wardrobe, but there are definite cornerstones of my collection.
I think most people don’t see perfume as a means of self-expression. I don’t really understand why they wear it then, though… status, maybe? I recently saw a woman walk into Saks and buy a bottle of Bond High Line (which I personally think is heinous) without even trying it on her skin, so I suspect that it was more about the brand.
Perhaps she was distracted by the cute bottle?
I’ll bet you’re right about the brand, though.
No doubt it was the gorgeous bottle that did it. When the perfume itself doesn’t even matter, spending that much money does seem kind of silly to me. It would be like me spending $150 on war memorabilia (not to say that war memorabilia can’t be a fascinating subject!)
Maybe it was a gift for a friend or sister who’d said she wanted it- that would explain the lack of sniff.
Karin, while I have a cabinet full of about 25 fragrances, there’s one above all, that I feel is my signature. Yes, I flirt with many, and wear them out from time to time, but this is the one I always return to – when I inhale it, it just feels more like me than any other. With the others scents, regardless of how wonderful they are, when I have them on, I always feel like an imposter or that I’m wearing someone else’s clothes. While I won’t spill the beans on which scent it is, I will tell you that I always buy two 3.4 ounce bottles at a time – for fear of it being discontinued! Actually right now, I have 4 “in stock” (1 edp and 3 edts)!
Cruel tease!
Oh look, I’m dying to know! Even if it’s a ‘guilty pleasure’, we all ‘fessed up to ours the other day. I wish you’d tell!
Oh, there are people who can’t fathom why you’d stick with the same mascara for years, right? Whereas I don’t care much about mascara….but I do wear it, so I can see why someone who doesn’t really care that much about perfume would wear it. Everybody cares about different things.
True!
And appreciating the nuances of perfume is pleasure to be cultivated, like gardening or taste in music. I, personally, have *awful* taste in music (according to my friends)… but I have fabulous taste in perfume (according to me).
For many long ignorant years I only wore one or maybe 2 perfumes over and over again. Hence the name, “Fuddy Duddy” stuck in my ways…lol…anyways it was simply due to a lack of time and committment to take care of myself. DH, 2 kids and a carreer can take its toll and the easiest thing to let go for me was being good to myself. But I have the seen the light after really seeing the mirror one day and now I am on a learning curve…hence the “101”.
And I am totally enjoying all my sniffing! I will never be bound to one fragrance ever again but I do have my HG and always will too…
Yes, I’ve been in that situation, and perfume was one of that ways I dug myself out of it.
Thanks annemarie, glad we were both able dig out ! yay for us!
I find it interesting esp. about Cashmere Mist. I can’t smell it at all – must be my musk anosmia. Maybe a lot of people like it b/c they can’t smell it, lol. I think there are probably a lot of people who want to wear an elegant fragrance for a variety of reasons, but don’t really like perfume at all. Something that appears elegant and beautifully packaged, like Cashmere Mist, probably appeals to people who don’t really want to smell like much.
For as much as I love fragrances, honestly, I don’t really care for when my husband wears fragrance, unless it is a miniscule dab of SSS Tabac Aurea only once in a while. I prefer the way he smells without fragrance – his skin smells great to me! I am sure that is a common feeling for a lot of people. But come holiday time and with all the marketing, well, it is a thing to buy someone perfume for a gift or buy it for yourself. Hence I think the popularity of rather plain fragrances, except the No 5 of course. People buy No 5 for a whole variety of reasons that have nothing to do with whether or not they like it – notice all the super deals on ebay for unused No 5? People buy Champagne to drink whether they like it or not b/c it is the thing to do. If No 5 when flat in a few hours after it’s opened, people would dump that down the drain too. And I LIKE No 5… just saying.
So people buy No 5 because it symbolises luxury, regardless of how it smells? I think you are right. But I’m thinking also of Tania Sanchez’s remark in The Guide that marketing will get people to buy something once, but not repeatedly unless we really like it.
I’ve certainly benefited from the dumped No 5 on eBay. Got my No 5 parfum that way. In fact, given the amount of faking that apparently goes on, buying an unwanted gift is probably the safest way to buy No 5.
I saw a woman buying out the stock of a fragrance (can’t remember now what it was) that had been discontinued, and she was so so sad. I mentioned that maybe it was time to find something new but she just shot me a look that seemed to suggest I was asking her to replace one of her children, so I let it go. She bought 6 bottles, which she said would last her a couple of years.
Tama-
Wasn’t it Jacquelline Perfumery on Geary? I think the scent was Calandre by Paco Rabanne? The couple had the cutest little dog with them too…
Tama, I have a very close friend who is beside herself when she can’t find her beloved shower gel or shampoo because it’s been discontinued, or hard to find or whatever … it drives me absolutely insane. I have my preferences as much as anyone else, but if I can’t find my “favorite” after trying a couple shops for a couple of weeks maybe, I move on and consider it an opportunity to try something new and potentially better. It’s a whole world view. I actually spend a lot of time thinking about this issue due to this friend’s OCD-like obsession with favorite items (and I’m serious, with her it can be things like crackers and a particular flavor of Pop-Tarts!). It teaches me tolerance and compassion, that’s for sure.
While I’m more flexible when it comes to shower gel and lotion, I can sort of understand how your friend feels, especially when fragrance is involved. I just stocked up on Shiseido Zen Pearl not just because the perfume’s beautiful, but also because it has some wonderful scent memories attached to it and I can’t find any other perfume that even comes close.
As far as staple beauty products are concerned, being the mother of three young children, I have a beauty routine that’s quick, not too expensive and works. While I might stray when I have the time to do so as far as other bath/body products go, I stick with the same facial care, variety of gels etc. out of convenience most days and actually finding something that works. I’d be crushed if my basic but lovely Caress Moroccan shower cream was discontinued or Olay stopped making my favorite exfoliating system just because for the price and availability, they’re some of the best everyday items I’ve found, and the Caress layers so well with a lot of my lotions and perfumes. 🙂
Wait — Rochelle BLOOM?
I suppose if she ever quits working for perfume she’ll transfer over to the floral industry…
harummmfph….well! they can keep their silly top ten list because I like MY top ten list MUCH BETTER….and there’s NO overlap!
I don’t have a problem with Cashmere Mist…it just doesn’t seem like anything special to me. oh well….I’ll sit here and enjoy my SOTD: Montale Boise Vanille…..mmmmm, ahhhhhh (hey, that’s kind of like “oooh–ahhhh!” at fireworks.)
WELL then… you must share your list, sweet one.
Mals is right, the Daisy Top 10 must be quite a list!
oh you know I’d completely CHEAT …who amongst us can stick to 10? That should really be a poll…I know, it’s been done….but I love to see it every single time!
Did anyone else pick out that comment at the end of the article–“it’s all about the juice”? Maybe that is why the top 10 list doesn’t change much–most of the mainstream offerings smell a lot like other mainstream offerings. I would add that the overall quality has generally been trending downwards.
If you are a typical perfume liker (not a perfumista), and you have found something you like well enough, why change to something else that smells just like it (or even not as good)? Especially if your nose (like most people’s noses) isn’t educated well enough to detect and appreciate some of the subtle differences. And you are not going to buy a niche fragrance because you do not even know that niche fragrances exist. Confronted with dozens of seemingly indistinguishable products, most consumers will stay with the one they have bought before.
It is probably only a pipe dream, but I can only hope that this might help serve as a wake-up call to the industry to do what many of us have been wishing they would do for years–drastically reduce the number of new releases (since most of them are going to fail anyway) and put some effort and budget into those they do release. Don’t sell a pretty (or tacky) bottle with some generic, uninspired juice inside–give the buyer something worthwhile inside the bottle, and maybe get some repeat customers.
Totally agree – that SHOULD be the message: Don’t deluge us with 1,000 fruity floral clones – give us the Chanel No. 5 of the 21st century!
Totally agree!!!
But do you think that your logic could work completely the other way? People do get bored with products and brands, and confronted with so much choice, consumers may happily change brands just because they are bored. If they can’t really tell the differences between fragrances, they have nothing to lose. The latest celebrity endorsement, the latest lovely bottle, or free sample, or scent strip in a magazine, might be enough to tip them towards the latest release? And so on and so on.
Very well stated and I completely agree. However, didn’t I read here recently that almost 70% of the total budget for a new perfume usually goes to marketing? If that is true, I doubt we will see an increase in quality over quantity.
A friend of mine told me once that she had a friend who, year after year, wore the same shade of bright red lipstick from Chanel. She didn’t wear other makeup and didn’t go in for other luxury stuff. (Hope it suited her!) This one lipstick was her special thing. I sort of admire that confidence – although is it confidence? Maybe it was fear of change …