FYI: After having a collection of more "niche" than designers with more than 140 bottles I sold almost all of my collection and I generally hunt vintage.

Generally I cannot fathom how people like overdosing amberwood formulas and especially akigalawood..
Akigalawood is an upcycled material, it basically made from the leftover materials after extracting natural patchouli oil.
Both Amberwoods & Akigalawood are so dense as raw materials and rude to say the least but they are so "everywhere" nowadays that both these materials basically tamed the noses of people that don't have to do anything with fragrances and naturally became the new "normal".

Also..
There are no coincidences.. the fact that Givaudan was actually one of the key co-founders that helped build and finance IFRA in 1973 to self-regulate fragrance "safety" across the industry eventually has to ring some bells.

It's a stretch but something tells me that at this point they just ban things to push out Givaudan's synthetic substitutes, while this happens Givaudan is actively increasing their synthetic substitutes for the thing that IFRA is banning.

also people need to understand that creation can only take place with synthetic molecules, and that also applies with perfumes from the nineteen-hundreds till now.. sure synthetic/chemical is a pejorative label, but imagine Shalimar or Fougere Royale 1882 without it's coumarin, Jicky without ethylvanillin, Cool Water without calone, or No 5 without it's aldehydes.

It's hubris that people compare Bleu L'Exclusif to Le Lion.

Imo niche has stopped being niche many years ago.. at this point the "niche/exclusive" market is nothing less than a tomfoolery.. both in quality wise and release wise, if someone disagrees I advise to checkout the new formulation of Portrait of a Lady.

The industry has became a fast fashion scheme telling fake stories with bad quality and unoriginal releases, and it stopped being an art form.
A recent example is that Hermes (which imo is maybe the last designer besides Cartier that actually cares about their fragrances, legacy and their customers) turned down Nagel to sign Vasnier which of course is part of Givaudan and i'm pretty sure he will destroy the whole brand's look and legacy.
The reason that I say that Hermes was one of the last designers to actually care is that after Roudnitska they had his apprentice Ellena, and after Ellena, they got Ellena's apprentice (Nagel), if that doesn't speak volumes of how a house is trying to keep it's olfactory legacy I don't know what does.

Vintage fragances are the real niche!

love the beginning the video AMBERWOOD 😂😂😂😂, 100% AGREE .

I can feel your frustration through the screen

I agree 100% with everything you said

Those are all valid points. Vintage and artisanal/indie really do feel like the only way to go at this point.

This is the result of the hyper-corporatizing of the perfume industry.

Jesus Christ, this is so spot on! Coincidentally I talked about some of your points in a video I shot today, which is coming next week I think. We need more and more people discussing this very topic I believe, now more than ever

1:27 i feel like coumarin is the one to blame too i should search about coumarin moore

If it weren't for niche, I wouldn't get high quality powdery fragrances. That clean, stark white dna from Designer? Maybe in the past.

Great video actually super valid takes!

A refreshing voice in fragland.  I'm subscribing, gonna check out your previous video"s and am curious about your future content!

Something like D&G The One, if created today, would be stuffed with amberwoods instead of the softer amber they had to use back then.

Areej my beloved

I think most people within the space is being alil hyperbolic with their fragrance outlooks… most people don’t wear fragrances let alone understand how to wear them properly and layer them even within the space. I personally say that fragrance is  just one part of your style and if you max out just one part of the whole, pick an another part of whole to dive into to level up your style all around. People just need to balance their perspective l suppose

Thank you for the video! I fully agree. I would add to the list the persistent pestering by synthetic ouds, musks and sandal woods. And definitely - as noted below - the IFRA regulations!

That's why I'm all-in vintages.

I agree unfortunately. I also blame LVMH, private equity, and Akigalawood.  For me, since Covid there are fewer and fewer ACCESSIBLE diamonds in the rough to test.

I would agree with pretty much everything you said. Also love to see that you get the recognition you deserve for your wonderful content :)

One trend that i noticed in the last 2-3 years are houses that call themselves "Indie" ( not necessarily Artisan) that come with "crazy" ideas, edgy marketing and very special bottles that try to trick you into buying the perfume and think you get something really special and different. But the juice inside the bottle is the exact same thing you would get from a random niche house, same amount of annoying synthetics, same DNAs, just packaged and marketed differently. Adi Ale Van is the big offender for me in this category, but also Toskovat is doing mostly perfumes that i would categorize as boring juice with a different marketing strategy.

Vintage Paco Rabanne pour Homme Oakmoss enjoyer

Согласен на все 100. Парфюмерия превратилась в химическую гонку а не в исскуство