Fragrance Introduction - Niche Perfumery
Jan Frans van Dael
Fragrance has the ability to trigger a wide range of emotions. It can remind you of a life you used to live. People you used to know. Treasured memories. Memories you forgot you had. It can transport you to places you've been. Places you want to go. Times long past. A specific memory. A day. A time. A moment . . .
Imagine:
. . . reclining on silk cushions in a royal middle-eastern palace. Frankincense, myrrh, opopponax. Clouds of incense. Quiet drum beats. Golden riches strewn about, pouring out of black wooden chests. Basking amidst this opulence in the languor of a hot Summer's day, the warmth banished with softly beating palm leaves being fanned.
. . . being transported to the splendour of Versailles amidst 17th-century French aristocracy. Long curly hair. Perfumed handkerchiefs. Silk Stockings. Long silk dresses. Ballroom dances. The Hall of Mirrors. Chandeliers. Candlelit dinners. Fireworks in the gardens on a moonlit night, accompanied by live performances of Handel’s respective Suites.
. . . being transported to a remote island in the south pacific. The soft rays of the pacific sun beat down gently, and envelop you in their warmth. The clearest sea water reflects the cloudless azure of the summer sky. Your feet press into the soft, perfect sand as the fresh, cool water laps at your ankles. Palm Trees. An abundance of exotic fruit: pineapple, coconut, passion-fruit, dragonfruit, jackfruit, kiwi, acai, lychee, mango, melon . . .
Niche Perfumery
Begin delving a little deeper into the world of fragrance, and you may see the terms Niche & Designer thrown about. Below is a short discussion, informed entirely by my own experience.
Hear the word "fragrance" and you most likely think: Armani, Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Chanel, Hermès &c. What do all those companies have in common? They are all brands whose primary products are not perfume. They sell jewellery, clothing, accessories &c., but they make some fragrances to expand their brand, and as another source of revenue.
But there are some problems with this:
The fragrances are low quality
This is the main reason you should stay away from designer fragrances. Most people can't afford to spend £100+ on a bottle of perfume, so the designers must use low quality ingredients, more synthetics, cheap aroma chemicals, and other cost-saving measures, which leads to the below.
The fragrances smell generic, and do not impart feeling
In my experience, most designer fragrances I smell have a "generic-ness" about them. The most important result of this, is that the fragrance is simply a smell, and you do not connect with it on a deeper level.
Enter Niche Perfumery
Niche companies focus solely on fragrances. They have free reign to create whatever they want, not limited by price; not restricted by mass tastes or trends. They can utilise every note under the Sun, resulting in an extraordinarily large range of scents which have the capacity to trigger very powerful feelings and emotions, to conjure vivid scenes and fantasies before your eyes, and which lead you to actually feel something, instead of simply thinking "this woody, citrus blend smells rather pleasant".
In contrast to Designer scents, Niche fragrances:
Are high quality
This is where words are no help; you can only realise this fact for yourself. In a Niche fragrance, you don't have a note that smells like a rose, you smell the rose itself: the drops of dew on the petals, the greenness of the leaves and the stem, it could smell fresh and pink, or deep and red. Because money is (to an extent) not a factor, companies can invest in more expensive methods of distillation and extraction, along with other production procedures, as well as gathering ingredients of the highest quality: Ambergris, Rose de Mai, Sandalwood from Mysore, Florentine Iris. Synthetics and cheap alternatives pale in comparison.
Smell unique, and impart feeling and emotion
This is the reason to explore the world of Niche perfumery. You'll be exposed to a world of notes and ingredients you never knew existed; your nose delighting and revelling in rich, multifaceted floral bouquets; fresh, ripe fruits; deep, heavy woods and resins; raw, primal animalics. There are no limits to what you will experience; memories and fantasies vividly conjured up before your very eyes, your imagination set alight, and given complete and total free-reign.
If you want to simply smell pleasant, buy a designer fragrance and rest content. But if you want something more; a memory, a place, a time, a dream, a fantasy; start to explore the world of Niche perfumery, and, somewhere, you will not only find what you're looking for, but experience smells, feelings, and emotions you never imagined could be conjured up with a small bottle of liquid.
