This is our 13th annual “Perfume: the best of” post. The industry has changed over those years, and so have my sampling efforts: as I noted last year, the more fragrances they make, the less I try. We’re sticking with the usual title for the sake of tradition, but it would be more accurately called “random things we liked among the random things we managed to try”, and this year, I personally outdid myself to the point where I had to delete a number of my usual categories due to the lack of viable contenders. If you tried most of the 2017 fragrance releases, do comment and tell us what was best — this blog has always been a community venture, and so I will also take this opportunity to thank all of our readers for sticking with us for another year, and for being so kind to us, and each other, in the comments section.

My picks are just below, and then Angela, Erin, Jessica and Kevin weigh in. After that, do click over to Bois de Jasmin and Grain de Musc to see what they appreciated in 2017.

My favorite niche fragrance of 2017: A tie between Ineke Idyllwild and Arielle Shoshana Eau de Parfum…

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Every year the fragrance industry’s output grows more prodigious, and every year, I try fewer new fragrances. In 2016, I outdid myself (and so, presumably, did they, although I have not yet seen any official numbers for the year’s releases). I could not tell you if it was a good year, or a bad year, or a so-so year, for perfume. It seems like I found fewer fantastic new scents than usual, but maybe I just directed my sampling poorly (and quite a few of the fragrances chosen as this year’s best by Now Smell This contributors are fragrances I missed entirely).

My choices are just below. Scroll down to see what Angela, Erin, Jessica and Kevin thought was noteworthy in 2016, or click over to Bois de Jasmin, Grain de Musc, Perfume Posse or The Non-Blonde for more opinions. And of course, do add your own thoughts in the comments…

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My usual disclaimer: I managed to smell only a small portion of the fragrance industry’s prodigious output this year. If it was a fantastic year for fragrance, perhaps I tried the wrong perfumes — I thought it was generally a so-so year, and most of the Now Smell This contributors seemed to agree with me.

My choices are just below. Scroll down to see what Angela, Erin, Jessica and Kevin thought was noteworthy in 2015, or click over to Bois de Jasmin, Grain de Musc, Perfume Posse or The Non-Blonde for more opinions. And of course, do add your own thoughts in the comments…

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My choices for the best fragrances of 2014, or at least, the best of what I managed to smell — which, as usual, was a mere fraction of the industry’s prolific output. It wasn’t a spectacular year, perhaps, but it was a reasonably good year, and I had plenty of favorites to choose from.

Scroll down to see what Angela, Erin, Jessica and Kevin thought was noteworthy in 2014, or click over to Bois de Jasmin, Grain de Musc, Perfume Posse or The Non-Blonde for more opinions. And of course, do add your own thoughts in the comments…

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