There are times when fate can take a bigger hand in the exposure of your company than any amount of carefully placed articles or reviews. You are always at the mercy of the reader engaging with the piece in order for them to learn more about the brand and the fragrances, and by that I mean actually clicking through to the website at the end of the final paragraph. This is completely out of the hands of the writer, or even the company, but sometimes something else can take over. One person that has experienced this first-hand is Kamila Aubre with her wonderfully named perfume entitled Villanelle.
The advertising slogan that started a revolution, and is lodged in most people’s minds, must surely be “not perfumed, not coloured, just kind.” Those famous words are credited to Alex Pearl, the copywriter on the 1986 advert for Simple, and it made a generation begin to question what was actually in their skincare. The reason for adding fragrance back then was to simply make it smell better but, over time, the beauty industry started to revert to ingredients that were naturally perfumed. One such company is Cocorosa Beauty and their Sandalwood Soothe & Restore Face Oil continues to harness the power of scent.
In the constant rush for “newness” we often forget about companies that are confidently, and successfully, continuing to walk that niche road. These brands become whispered favourites rather than trumpeted crowd-pleasers, and often find themselves relying on loyal fan bases. These fantastic companies start to disappear from the magazine editorials in favour of the “new young thing.” This is the case with Memoize London, a fragrance brand that deserves much more exposure. Now in their fourth year, it’s time to revisit this memory based collection and rediscover one of their original fragrances, the wonderfully exciting Gula.
You often hear the word “exclusive” applied to perfumes within a company’s range but, more often than not, they tend to be a discontinued fragrance that’s been rereleased under a new name. This is wonderful news for fans of the original but it can smack of a laziness on the part of the company. What is always exciting though is when an “exclusive” is released from a young niche brand because, as they don’t have a huge archive, the fragrance is likely to be a new creation. This is the case with Tabac Rose from bdk Parfums, the Harrods exclusive that has definitely set temperatures racing.
Anybody that was brought up in the seventies or eighties will probably have a bittersweet memory of the various subscription services that were available. There was one for everybody from records right through to that new-fangled medium of VHS, and don’t even start me on Radio Rentals. However, it was often quite tricky to get out of them once you had joined and, forty years ago, these items carried a hefty price tag. It was therefore with some trepidation that I approached Bare & Bond, a perfume subscription service, but I needn’t have worried. Offering a carefully curated selection, it’s every fragrance lover’s dream.
The great thing about the current variety of fragrances that are available is that the selection really is a worldwide affair because the days of perfume production being the sole domain of France, and closely followed by America and the United Kingdom, are long gone. It’s this wonderful chocolate box selection of scents that truly gives the customer such an eclectic mix to choose from, and at a wide range of prices. Romella International are based in Stockholm and their SG79 range has proved to be a big hit with fragrance fans, and this looks set to continue with the release of the new N°7.
One of the most common questions that I get asked by perfume companies that I work with is, “What do we do with our end of line products?” By this they usually mean last year’s limited edition or a fragrance that has been discontinued. Many end up in discount stores, or heavily reduced during those regular online sales, but this wasn’t the route that Le Jardin Retrouvé decided to go down. With many fragrance fans now despite to get their hands on vintage perfumes, the company started a “by request” service called La Collection Historique and, because of that, Vetyver Vanille is just waiting to be rediscovered.
Fragrances that are labelled as “classic” are generally well respected by the perfume industry but there's often a difference of opinion when we talk about “famous” scents. A perfume can become well known for a variety of reasons but, whilst popular with the public, it isn’t always held in the greatest esteem by the higher echelons. It’s worth remembering that there is often a divide between perfume customers and scented scholars, but both views are equally as important. One fragrance that sits squarely between “classic” and “famous” is N’aimez que Moi by Parfums Caron, and this year is the perfect time to revisit it.
The reasons why someone launches their own perfume company are always so varied and that can also be said for the background of the founder. Some may have been inspired by a lifelong interest in fragrance whilst others may have already worked within the industry for many years. Both have their advantages and disadvantages but, because the nuts and bolts of releasing a fragrance are so much more than just creating the scent, a little bit of inside knowledge can be helpful. This can certainly be said of Ulrich Lang whose most recent fragrance, 17 Nandan Road, definitely hits the right note in both scent and styling.
