Well you did it again, girl. You successfully made me read this aloud to my eldest son who smells like Gillette deodorant and Bounce fabric softener. And he laughed aloud at your paragraph about them tricking you into thinking it smells expensive by being expensive. Now I wanna do a Perfume Crawl downtown with blotters to tuck away for strategic placement among my underdrawers. Free smells! 🤩
Brilliantly written! Hard agree with the sentiment too, so utterly bored with Private Equity types selling heritage they don’t understand to the kids of other PE whores who understand only how much of daddy’s money they spent on the experience so it must be good.
I’ll keep buying fragrances from my favourite Bermudian and Somerset sources thanks.
PS this makes me super happy that I am dipping my toes into the fragrance world with a sample pack from Paraphrase for $54 CAD. Obviously I found you via Jane and Jeff Xx 😘
I completely agree with you on the exorbitant pricing of perfume today. I’ve witnessed the same trajectory that you’ve described. Back in 2012-2013 $250 for a bottle was viewed as extravagant in the perfume sphere. There is simply no way that I would personally spend over $500 on a fragrance. Nor would I encourage anyone else to do so. Every bottle in my collection has been purchased by me or a gift from a friend. Interestingly enough, one of the most expensive bottles in my collection is a Guerlain Angelique Noire in the original bottle style that I purchased after that packaging was discontinued. The other being Voodoo Chile by DVN that was gifted to me.
Oh dear. I do wonder if the perfume industry is attempting to find out just what the limit is on how much someone is willing to pay for a bottle of hype!
Also, thanks for channelling my immediate thought on the gushy purple "hand pollinated, hand harvested" etc - "Isn't basically ALL vanilla hand pollinated...??" 😁
As always, your writing is fantastic and like @SmallThingsBabs below, I often share chunks of these letters with (non perfumista) friends who are very amused :)
Not going to complain too hard if the old school chypres and PROPER ambers (not despicable ambrox) come back into fashion ;)
I agree with every word of this!! I’m a vanilla lover and I do not get the hype for this particular fragrance. I’d love to see how it would perform in a blind sniff test vs some of the greats. It’s gotta be the price, right? People think it’s good for that reason?
Well you did it again, girl. You successfully made me read this aloud to my eldest son who smells like Gillette deodorant and Bounce fabric softener. And he laughed aloud at your paragraph about them tricking you into thinking it smells expensive by being expensive. Now I wanna do a Perfume Crawl downtown with blotters to tuck away for strategic placement among my underdrawers. Free smells! 🤩
My Nov 2025 Maison Crivelli blotters are still alive and well!
Thats how you screw The Man. The...Perfume...Man. 🤔
Brilliantly written! Hard agree with the sentiment too, so utterly bored with Private Equity types selling heritage they don’t understand to the kids of other PE whores who understand only how much of daddy’s money they spent on the experience so it must be good.
I’ll keep buying fragrances from my favourite Bermudian and Somerset sources thanks.
This is the best gddamn thing I’ve read all week. Thank you!!!
PS this makes me super happy that I am dipping my toes into the fragrance world with a sample pack from Paraphrase for $54 CAD. Obviously I found you via Jane and Jeff Xx 😘
I completely agree with you on the exorbitant pricing of perfume today. I’ve witnessed the same trajectory that you’ve described. Back in 2012-2013 $250 for a bottle was viewed as extravagant in the perfume sphere. There is simply no way that I would personally spend over $500 on a fragrance. Nor would I encourage anyone else to do so. Every bottle in my collection has been purchased by me or a gift from a friend. Interestingly enough, one of the most expensive bottles in my collection is a Guerlain Angelique Noire in the original bottle style that I purchased after that packaging was discontinued. The other being Voodoo Chile by DVN that was gifted to me.
Oh dear. I do wonder if the perfume industry is attempting to find out just what the limit is on how much someone is willing to pay for a bottle of hype!
Also, thanks for channelling my immediate thought on the gushy purple "hand pollinated, hand harvested" etc - "Isn't basically ALL vanilla hand pollinated...??" 😁
As always, your writing is fantastic and like @SmallThingsBabs below, I often share chunks of these letters with (non perfumista) friends who are very amused :)
Not going to complain too hard if the old school chypres and PROPER ambers (not despicable ambrox) come back into fashion ;)
🥰
Wonderful read, and I absolutely agree that $960 AUD is a genuinely ridiculous price.
What do you tube about Tihota Indult as a vanilla? :)
…and not to mention vanilla is so over-done anyway. Loved this. Thank you for the thoughtful commentary.
I agree with every word of this!! I’m a vanilla lover and I do not get the hype for this particular fragrance. I’d love to see how it would perform in a blind sniff test vs some of the greats. It’s gotta be the price, right? People think it’s good for that reason?
Great essay, analysis and cri de cœur. Two slight suggested emendations:
from the days when you only [could] find fragrance voices
following of the fragrance le[a]d Guerlain to