This video discusses the evolution and current state of perfumery, contrasting designer, niche, and artisanal categories, with a particular focus on the balance between material quality and blending skill, and the rising, often exorbitant, prices in the artisanal sector.
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Hello everyone. I hope you're doing
well. Today's video is like most of my
recent videos inspired by discussing
fragrances with you guys, with the viewers.
viewers.
Some topics, some questions we touch in
these discussions inspired me to talk
about them more broadly, to introduce
the YouTube community to our, let's say,
findings or conclusions. And in this
video I would like to
talk about a little bit of a hot topic
and in general lately I've been a little bit
bit
feisty, so I don't know, maybe a few
people might dislike this video, but I
have to say what I have to say. And I
will talk about few things, I will talk
about niche perfumery, I will talk about
designer perfumery, and I will talk
about artisanal perfumery. I try to
incorporate all all three of these
pillars into my videos these days. And
the main topic, let's say, of this video
is discussing the importance of a blend
to make a great perfume, with importance
of excellent materials, and how these
things can
affect one another and and what kind of
extremums from one side to another we
can find in perfumery. So, maybe I will
start with designers and maybe I will
start with niche. Let's begin with designers.
designers.
I have a good example of an excellent
designer here, Kouros.
What is the goal of a designer
fragrance? Well, pretty simple, to make
a mass appealing, commercially
successful, liked by everybody fragrance
for as cheap as possible. That's the
main brief.
Back in the day,
when this vintage Kouros was released, um
um
to make a perfume that would sell good,
sell well, would be as famous as in fact
Kouros is,
you needed to have um uniqueness.
uniqueness.
Um because everybody was kind of
everybody wanted to smell different and
to stand out. New notes, new ingredients
were always in demand. If someone
someone has discovered some new
synthetic who would smell differently or
maybe some new flower was popularized by
one fragrance or another,
everybody wanted to stand out, everybody
wanted to be different. In today's world,
world,
that has a little bit changed. Now
people kind of want to smell the same.
Like if somebody likes Sauvage and next
guy smells Sauvage. Now look, everybody
is smelling like Sauvage or and any
other blue type of fragrance.
Point being very simple.
We need to create an
formula that would be very cheap to
reproduce but would
provide amazing results.
In this case, in this scenario,
uh nowadays, materials kind of do not
play that high of a role. I mean, they
do but they play it in an opposite way.
They don't have to be the best. They
have to be
the cheapest and maybe the best for the
price. Just just good enough for you to
tolerate them
but as cheap as possible. And in this
case, in this circumstance, the most
importance to create such a creation is
the blend. The perfumer. That's why we
have in-house perfumers for Chanel. We
have in-house perfumer now um my
my
Francis Kurkdjian for Dior.
These are the people that are getting
paid the most because their world their
work is what sells. So this is like the
extreme side of one part where blending
is king.
Some of these designers, they are made
to be like $1, $2 price juice per
bottle. It doesn't matter. As long as
it's well blended, extremely well
blended actually, as as well as so as
well as it should sell, it should be
likable, it should wow you, that has
some structure, they need to sell you
the bottle like in the first 15 minutes
of the scent. That's why the most budget
goes into opening. It's a very
now worked out formula how to make a
successful designer. Obviously,
everybody knows the formula, everybody
tries to do that, and that's how we end
up at this slop of very similarly
smelling designers for various price
points, and at the end of the day, the
corporate greed and stuff, they are
still insanely expensive. Even though
the production cost itself is cheap, the
marketing is expensive, hiring famous
people to promote your perfume is
expensive, like uh
everything around the bottle
except the juice is expensive. It was a
little bit different back in the day,
although quite similar, but back in the
day, materials in this are amazing. They
are good because there was no such thing
as niche per se just yet.
Then, I can go and proceed to niche.
Niche is a little bit different. It's
kind of they have very similar type of
idea nowadays. Back in the day, when
something like Wood Wood was released, uh
uh
they were still kind of no rules. Uh
Uh
they took the mantle from previously
designers trying to create something
new, trying to create something to pop,
trying to do something niche.
That has sadly changed in recent years.
They came some bomb of a fragrance that
exploded in the market like Baccarat
Rouge 540, which popularized the
molecule type synthetic or perfumery,
and now we have Baccarat Rouge, but in
different code from every house, any house.
house.
Then uh came amber wood synthetic musks,
uh the focus on projection and longevity
and strength and power. So, now niche
house is kind of
focus on the same and true tested
formula. Just pump full of amber
woods, make sure it
uh performs, make sure it's strong, and
the blend itself, uh yeah, it's
important. It is important, but it is
not maybe as important as in designers
in a way that with niche um
the size of a batch is still quite
smaller, the expectance of sales is a
little bit smaller, then they do not
expect to sell 20 million bottles like
any Dior or Chanel or Armani release. So,
So,
they have a little bit more room to
wiggle, the materials are a little bit
more expensive, uh
uh
prices of the bottles are a little bit
more expensive. >> [snorts]
>> [snorts]
>> So, the perfumer is still kind of
important, very important, but it is not
as important as it was in designers.
Therefore, if we look at something as
old niche like um Oud Wood for example I
have here or Creed, not this Creed, but
House of Creed in general.
Especially in the past it was like this
um soft medium between importance of
blending and importance of ingredients.
They had to have better ingredients than
designers to demand a higher price and
thus to differentiate themselves from
the designers, but they also had to have
like decent enough perfumers and for
example the same Francis Kurkdjian, he
went from being a niche independent
perfumer to now being a perfumer of
Dior. So, obviously the skill is there.
He he he did his job, right? He managed
to create a house. He We have all-star
perfumers nowadays from Frederic Malle
like Dominique Ropion and others like
with time, perfumers became like a rock
stars. When Kouros was released, when
Creed was established, nobody cared
about perfumers. They wouldn't even
state the perfumers. Olivier Creed lied
that he is a perfumer for decades and
nobody beat an eye. But nowadays in 2006,
2006,
perfumers in some cases all-star
perfumers like Dominique Ropion as I
mentioned, Cécile Zarokian,
Francis Kurkdjian, they kind of became
bigger than the brands.
And here we have this like middle of the
all the best, we have
best of the best or good enough
perfumers, and we have better
ingredients than we had ingredients in
designer. So, it's like a medium. Now, I
will go to artisanal. As you know,
artisanal is the bread and butter of my
channel. So, this is where the
meat and potatoes of of this discussion
happened and where I got inspired.
We have quite few different type of
artisanal perfumes. We have something
like this, Oud Imperial by Feel Oud. I
use this perfume as an example
for a
excellent fragrance created with not
much of complexity,
quite little but very knowledgeable
input by the perfumer, and the main goal
of it is to let the ingredients shine.
This is one of the most beautiful
jasmines in artisanal perfumery to me.
It is very well composed together with um
um
I think Adam said Thailand oud. It's
kind of sweet, not an animalic type of
oud, and a touch of pink pepper. So,
just everything would like put together
well. This is a simple composition. It
You need to be talented perfumer to come
up with this because
when they say simplicity perfection
isn't a simplicity, you still need to be
able to create something noticeable and
something worth a while from these
simple materials and simple tactics. The
the main like hole that a lot of
artisanal perfumers fall into when they
first start, they try to do things over
complicated and the skill is just not
there and they just fail. That's the
main problem with artisanal perfumery,
like it's not the materials, it's the
one who's blending them. So, we have
this very good example of a perfume that
is well blended, but the blend is not
the main star here. The materials are.
You still need to have a competent
blender, competent perfumer to do it
because he needs to realize what needs
to be done here because a rookie
artisanal perfumer might put 15 more
things here and the perfection and
simplicity that we find here will no
longer be here.
There's different type of artisanal
perfumery we also have here like this
Vasif Reza Pour Homme the Oris Gold
Edition. Uh
Now we have a perfumer that looked into
the French perfumery. He looked into the
world of vintage. He tried to learn. He
spent time learning the craft and now
he's trying to implement what he learned
and combine the artisanal level materials
materials
with his knowledge of French classical
perfumery. Uh Areej Le Doré Bortnikoff,
they also tried to do that in the past
years prior, but to my nose, Vasif Reza
nowadays is the best. He's the best at
executing this type of concept where
he's trying to make materials, artisanal
level materials,
to be as important but not more
important than his own blending skill
and work. Like here, the materials are
speaking higher than the blend. Here,
that's why I'm a huge fan of Wes If and
that's why you hear his name on my
channel more than anywhere else on the
internet. I'm a fan. I'm not hiding
that. I'm fan. I'm sending him money. I
am ordering bottles.
Just simple as that. As a frag head, he
got my heart.
Because here is the closest to a medium
where we can find quality blending with
understanding of classical French
perfumery with quality ingredients.
With many artisanal houses, what happens
with every release, we have a laundry
list of ingredients that are there to
justify the price.
With many of those houses, I read the
laundry list of ingredients and I
I'm guilty of that. I'm looking okay,
it's the oud, it's musk, ambergris,
musk. Uh iris.
iris.
I'm just doing like a checklist. And I
try to justify in my mind why I am
paying this type of money for this
concoction. And I'm not actually
taking into account the work or the
price that the perfumer is valuing him
his work.
That's the the fall of artisanal
perfumery. Fault, I mean. Uh because
when I am doing that, I am doing that
for many brands and I did this for many
years. Wes If Reza became the first uh
house, the first blend, first perfumer where
where
I must admit, I don't really care what
is in the laundry on the laundry list of ingredients.
ingredients.
I ordered this upcoming release. Uh
Osmanthus one.
I told you about it in my few previous
videos. It's still not even announced. Uh
Uh
he sent me the list of notes,
ingredients I mean, what what he was
using, what he wants to highlight.
I must admit, I didn't even read it till
the end.
I don't care. With his work, with Wasif
work, I don't care what he's putting in
it. I have a sample, I smell the smell
that said sample.
I was content. I don't care.
And for now, I must admit
Wasif Raza is the only house where I
feel this way.
Where I trust his blending skill, my
nose detects the skill, the knowledge
there. I don't really care what he puts
into his perfumes. It's obvious he's
putting probably the best thing ever.
The the the oils are extremely thick.
They're long-lasting, they are not
overpowering, they're excellent. The
blend there is excellent. So, if you
want to ask me what is the artisanal
house where the two meets in the perfect
middle, blending and quality, I present
to you Wasif Raza.
Uh Now, the the the controversial part
of the video and the main spike of the
discussion we had with this
channel enjoyer, let's put it that way. Uh
Uh
In some cases, and I don't want to
mention any brands because, well, every
everyone has fans and I mean, let's say
I'm just talking out of air thin air.
It's just a concept brand. Let's call it
brand X. Um
Um
In some cases, when I
spectate the the artisanal theme, artisanal
artisanal
uh space right now, what I started to notice.
notice.
And it's not something new, but it's
like more
aggressive these days, I guess.
Fragrances in artisanal space started to
be promoted not like a fragrance, not
like a perfume,
but like a laundry list of ingredients.
The prices became astronomical even for
artisanal. Some of these fragrances,
they cost two, three, four thousand,
five thousand euros or dollars,
whatever, for 30 mil, for 50 mil.
And when you read the write-up, it's
most of the time just like a
list of things that should justify the price.
price.
Maybe some AI-written on the
top, like, I don't know, some sort of
story about how this is the second best
thing since Jesus Christ, that has
nothing to do with the perfume itself.
And then we have a list of ingredients
with fancy names, SQ this, SQ that.
Ooh, this wood that, this wood is this
old, this wood is this old. This
ambergris is special because of this,
this ambergris is special because of
that. And yeah, I I I admit I I admit I agree.
agree.
This this information is extremely
useful as for a fragrance one know what
kind of wood is used, what kind of
ambergris is used, what that material
does to the composition. But
at the end of the day, these are just
the materials.
They are not the composition itself. You
can take the best materials in the world
from whatever SQ
world you want. You can bring it them to
me, and I what I create, I promise you,
would be a totally unwearable piece of
garbage worth 5 cents, and nobody would
buy it at that.
It's simple. I have no knowledge, I have
no skill, I have no understanding.
No matter how good the ingredients I
use, it won't turn to anything good. And
And
in general, why I'm saying all these
things? Well, there's very good saying,
if you can do something,
that doesn't mean you should.
And with some of these fragrances with
some of these houses, uh
what I started to notice,
sometimes they release things so
insanely expensive
with such a laundry list of ingredients,
of amazing ingredients, of if if true,
and I don't think they're lying, but if true,
true,
using up insane quality of wood for them.
But if
it's your like
12th perfume
ever blended,
should you really do that?
Should your 12th ever blended perfume
be priced at 2,000 euros?
Should it?
In my opinion, maybe not.
Like let's let's have an example of
Areej La Dor, very
simple example. The man has been doing
this for
10 years now.
The most expensive perfume he has ever released
released
is probably by the Kabaa or maybe
Paradise Soil, probably Paradise Soil.
It's like 500 or something dollars. I
don't remember now, maybe 400 something.
And plenty of perfumes for 200 or 250
and and and below. I know the most
expensive probably would be the Kynam
one, but that's that's Kynam. What do
you expect? But my point being,
the guy he's been doing this for 10 years,
years,
has produced many gems.
I don't see $2,000 perfumes from him.
He could do it.
I am sure he has access to the materials.
materials.
I could say even the same good word with Bortnikoff.
Bortnikoff.
Like he's been doing this for almost the
same amount of time and you see
the prices they're not $1,000. I can say
the same about Massoud.
You can find $1,000 priced ouds wood
oils he distilled. The material itself
it cost $1,000. Yeah, it's expensive
it's insanely expensive. I don't know
why it's so expensive.
But his perfumes they're priced like in $160.
$160.
Why is that?
Very simply.
These people in my opinion how I see it
they realized pretty soon in their
perfuming journey
that at some point
the material in itself is so perfect
it's so excellent it's so good there is
no way to improve it.
I have I may I am of belief that if we
are talking like something about wild
kinam let's say
there is no need to make a perfume out
of wild kinam. You cannot improve it.
It is a perfume composition on itself.
And if you're trying to improve kinam
I think you're just making it worse.
That's my personal opinion. I feeling
that for example
anyone who made a real kinam fragrance
just made the oil worse.
It's a hot take you can dislike me for
that but that's what I feel. So here we
have this another extremum where
where
ingredients are
like so much
in the lead of a perfumer
it no longer even makes sense to do
that. So
that's how I believe it. So I always say
to my viewers and and some people
write me message me to advise maybe if
this fragrance is worth it maybe this
fragrance is worth it.
I have a very
simple opinion on that question.
No fragrance should be priced above 1,000
1,000
euros for 30 mil. If
If
you make a perfume more expensive than that,
that,
in my opinion, you shouldn't have made it.
it.
And I understand there are people,
billionaires, millionaires, out there who
who
want to spend 2,000, 3,000, 5,000 euros
on a perfume. That's fine.
That's what we call a bespoke fragrance.
You like the perfumer, you want to make
an insane, I don't know, over-the-top
five kilograms of kinam perfume. Yeah.
Yeah.
He should do it for you.
5,000, 10,000, how much money you have,
give it all to him if you trust
But when we get like
six releases in a row from house you love,
love,
and all of them are priced like from
$800 to $3,000
in a row. 800, 1,000, 2,000, 2,000, 3,000.
3,000.
If you're just a regular person, regular
fan of the house,
how can you afford that? How can you
participate in that? And I understand
this is a luxury hobby, it's not so for
everyone, blah blah blah, yeah. True. Sure.
Sure.
Yet, most of artisanal heads that I know,
know,
they are not that rich people. I mean,
they are not poor, obviously, if you
have financial problems, you do not buy
smelly water, you buy
food and water.
But I mean, they are at best case middle-class
middle-class
citizens. Let's put it that way.
But we are curious. We are the sheep of
FOMO. We want to have everything, We
want to buy everything.
And this machine, it pulls us in. It
pulls us in. We want to buy the new
creation of our favorite house.
And to me, it seems that
Areej La Doree is basically from the old
guys, is one of the only few who
realized that
there are people, fans, loves lovers of
artisanal perfumery, of perfumery in
general, who cannot afford to pay 600,
500 thousand. And
And
this market of ours, it's quite small.
And that's the main reason why it's
small. Because even if I would do these
videos, I try to introduce niche people
into artisanal perfumery, they come in,
they see a $2,000 bottle for 30 mil.
There is no explanation for that.
There's no convincing of that. Even if
that bottle for 3,000 has the tears of
Jesus in them.
You won't convince a sane person
to buy that bottle. It's only for the
crazy ones. And in some way, you can
say, "Okay, it's free market. Don't want
it, don't buy it." But given that my
goal of this channel is to praise the
natural perfumery, introduce new people
into it,
it's getting harder and harder. Because
the price point of entry
is now insane.
Like insane.
I find something like mass oud, I scream
about it.
I mean his sprays, because you can get
something for $160 that is immense
quality. That to me proves that it is
possible to do so.
You don't need to use Sultan Qaboos'
personal stash ambergris
to create something. You can use regular
level ambergris. They will smell quite
close. I'm sure of it.
So, we get this marketing like it's a designer
designer type
type
thing in artisanal. Like ask you this,
ask you that. We have this over the top,
the most expensive materials you can get
for no reason.
And sure, do that if you want. But
please don't forget the the the small
man. Don't forget the middle class guy.
If you release seven perfumes in a row
for 800, 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 euros,
maybe it's time. Maybe it's time to do
that one release for 200. Maybe.
Maybe that would bring more people into
your brand. Like it's it's so
simple concept to me.
To catch a big fish, you need to lure
them in with a small fish.
It's simple marketing.
And if all of your fragrances are
thousands and thousands and thousands of
dollars, I mean, you're not
bringing in new people.
And the old people you have, they will
run away. There are just not that much
crazy rich people out there.
I think I at least I think so.
And when now I have a channel, and
people come to me and they're like, "Oh,
you need to try this fragrance, that
fragrance. This is amazing, that is
amazing." And I get like these messages
all the time and I'm I'm thankful.
Uh without you, I would have never
discovered Massoud, I would have never
discovered Wasif Raza.
But keep in mind that if you send me a
link to a fragrance that you think is
excellent, and I see a price tag of $2.5
thousand for 30 mil,
there's 0% chance I will ever try that fragrance.
fragrance.
I simply cannot afford it.
And that's how I feel about many people
in this hobby. Many people who are who I
am trying to bring to this hobby from
niche, from designers. I try to say them
that yeah, you pay a little bit more,
but you get a lot a lot more value. >> [snorts]
>> [snorts]
>> And that's true. I truly believe this.
For this, this, not this anymore. But
when this was released, this was $790
for a 50 mil of a top quality fragrance.
But this argument loses value when they
come into the space, they scroll down
the Facebook group or whatever store
page of a brand that interests them, and
they see 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 800, 700,
800, 700, and like nothing cheaper. Why?
Why?
To me, I will say this shortly, and this
will probably be the end of the video.
The emotion I feel
in the realm of this artisanal perfumer
right now,
to me, it feels like some of these
perfumers, and maybe they are right. I
hope they're not because they know
things I don't. But I have this feeling
in the air
that this artisanal perfumery thing is
about to collapse.
And some of the houses are trying to
make a bank
as fast as they can while they still can.
can.
I hope it's not true.
I am really really
deep into the hole. I love these
fragrances. I love artisanal perfumery.
But to me,
it starts to look like
rats running
out of a sinking ship and trying to grab
as much gold coins as they can while
they still can.
I hope that's not true.
I hope we can recover. I hope there is
still room for reasonably priced
artisanal perfumery in this world.
And that's a thing I would love to see
more in the future.
Hopefully, hopefully Areej La Doré new
collection won't be a thousand dollars
per bottle. Adam, we trust in you.
So, yeah, that's the end of the video.
Thank you for watching. Don't forget to
subscribe. Have a good evening, and goodbye.
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