Niche perfumes

 

What is "niche perfumery"?-also called "perfumery of Author", "rare perfumery" or "artistic perfumery"-?

 

What is a niche perfume?

The term "niche" refers to a restricted market that targets an audience of insiders. Confidential perfumes, rare and exclusive by definition, have long been a space of expression for enthusiasts in search of uniqueness who dream of having a unique and different perfume.

 

The origin of the so-called "niche" perfumery

From the 1980's, the expression "perfume industry" takes its full meaning with the launch of new perfumes with advertisements in which celebrities appear.
In order to make these huge investments profitable, perfumes are echoed by marketing studies to please the greatest number of people.
Thus, little by little, perfumes became less and less daring and a decade later, a quarter of the world's population was wearing the same 25 perfumes!

Moreover, the compositions of perfumes are regularly reviewed to decrease its manufacturing cost and thus improve its profitability. The natural raw materials are sometimes replaced by less expensive synthetic materials and the juices become less concentrated.
Perfumes become objects of mass consumption, a kind of "quantitative perfumery".

But in the 2000's, there is a weariness in front of all these industrial and uniform perfumes which convey an impression of "Déjà-vu" in the shelves of stereotyped distributors like Séphora and other aseptic chains and it is not rare to cross in the same day three people wearing the same perfume.

Consumers disappointed by the "big brands" that offer them all the "same products" are turning to more discreet, more daring, more inventive and simply different creators; they are looking for more personal perfumes that resemble them.

Perfumery is becoming more personal and qualitative again and priority is given to the olfactory creativity of independent perfume designers who create their own perfume houses, with the mission of reenchanting the major art of perfumery with a capital P.

 

 

The DNA of Niche Fragrances

The main characteristic of niche brands is that the starting point of their perfumes is no longer marketing (with a test that should validate that the new perfume will appeal to the greatest number of people and an excessive budget for the muse of the advertising campaign) but the creation and the perfume itself.  
Priority is given to the "juice", privileging noble raw materials - natural or synthetic - and complex, audacious and inventive compositions.

The construction of the perfume is based on the artistic quality of the juice, rarity, absolute luxury and the relationship between the perfumer and the "artistic director", who both bring their vision to the compositions.

Niche perfumes break free from convention with original olfactory accords and, in the era of "No gender", the boundaries between masculine and feminine are erased to let the personality of each person express itself.
It should be noted that gendered perfumes are a recent creation and even that some great perfumes that were created for one gender have made their success with the other, such as Jicky by Guerlain, created in 1889 by Aimé Guerlain in homage to a woman that the dandies adopted with frenzy.

The quest for emotion thus takes precedence over gender, as well as any other convention, to make way for a liberated and creative perfumery.