Niche Perfumery

What is Niche Perfumery?

12/03/07 13:40:49

By: Elena Knezhevich

Thinking about the notion of niche perfumery, we have done some research on that branch of perfume production.

Niche perfumery is an alternative to mass perfume production. Niche is limited by the clientele and therefore with a limited sale range, thus the goal of niche houses is not to sell as much as possible.

Art and creativity is in first place in niche perfumery, and as it applies to any other kind of arts, there is a possibility that a niche perfume creation will not be recognized and accepted. However, regardless of the risk, niche houses are appearing just like mushrooms after the rain because people, tired of mass perfume production, wish to have an uncommon and, if possible, personal fragrance. And so it seems that the trend today is to oppose the trend. And one more thing: we should bear in mind that the creation impetus of the artists-perfumers is one of the main reasons for establishment of their own perfume houses.

Some niche houses are more popular than the others and have no need to balance between the art and profit. Some of those are the houses of Annick Goutal, L'Artisan Parfumeur, Serge Lutens, Jo Malone, Acqua di Parma, etc. Some houses stand out even more and create their own niche within the niche perfumery. They differ from others by:

Using exclusively natural essences, including alcohol (Aftelier, Ayala Moriel, JoAnne Bassett, Florascent)
Fragrances of particular places—cities (the New York fragrances of Bond No 9, Aqaba), islands (Profumi di Pantelleria), countries (Eau d'Italie) or empires no longer in existence (Parfum d'Empire)
Using synthetic materials (Escentric Molecules, Comme des Garcons)
Focusing on a single note, such as Rose scents (Les Parfums de Rosine) or Vanilla scents (La Maison de la Vanille)
Capturing the scents of exotic locales (Comptoir Sud Pacifique).

Niche houses are so diverse and it is very hard to categorize them and sometimes even to define the olfactive groups of their creations. However, there are several basic principles that the niche houses adhere to in order to resist mass (luxury) perfumery:

Niche houses tend to have their own perfumer in charge of the fragrances of the house, just like it was in former days.
Niche houses have a selective approach to the distribution of their products. The fragrances of niche houses can almost never be seen in shops that sell mass fragrance production products, or in big department store chains.
Niche houses do not recognize advertising, apart from, perhaps, magazine articles and interviews in prominent media. For them, the best ad is their good reputation.

See news and stories on niche perfumery
See interviews with founders of niche houses

Author: Elena Knežević (jeca)
Fragrantica Member

mehrdad

با سلام
عطرهـای نیچ یا به تعبیری خاص و خاص الخاص اگرچه طرفداران خود را هـمیشه داشته و دارد و اختصاص به عطر نداشته و از ماشین گرفته تا لباس را در بر میگیرد اما این خود دلیل بر آن نیست که آنچه که تولید شده است هـمه گونه سلیقه را در بین خواص پوشش دهـد و حتی بهـتر از نوع معمولی آن باشد هـمانطور که بعضی اطلاع دارند کارهـایی خیلی ارزان هـمانند بوگارت و دیگر محصولات این برند از رایحه و دوام بسیار بالایی برخوردارند که در ادکلنهـایی بیست برابر قیمت آن این رایحه و دوام وجود ندارد
پس نتیجه آن است که در ارزش و منزلت کار هـایی که برندهـای نیچ انجام میدهـند شکی نیست اعم از استفاده از روایح طبیعی و گران قیمت و مایه گذاشتن از نت و اسانساهـای واقعی در حد بالا و عدم استفاده از روایح شیمیایی و مصنوعی و کیفیت آمبولانژ و شیشه عطر و بسته بندی آن اما هـمانطور که گفته شد آنچه هـست وحی منزل نیست و نباید با تعصب و یکسو نگریستن فقط به یک برند دلداده شد و از کارهـای دیگر دوری گزید
من بشخصه در اصالت و استوار بودن برندهـایی هـمچون : گرلن - کرید - وای اس ال - دیور - ایوروشه و بسیاری انیک گوتل و غیره شکی ندارم اما اعتقاد دارم شیدایی و نفرت بدون دلیل و تحقیق کار خوبی نیست
با تقدیم احترام
مهـرداد

Oct
22
2011

nttkit

Thank you for sharing. I am learning about perfume and from this article, I have gained a lot of helpful information. Thanks Elena & others.

Jul
01
2011

alexandra.07

Thanks for the article. It's wonderful and useful information!

Jun
02
2011

zoka

Number of 'doors' is an interesting measure that tells you something about a brand. This article is from 2007 and at that time the Fragrance Foundation awarded NOUVEAU NICHE WOMEN’S: Kenzo KenzoAmour. Obviously at that time they did not count 'doors' and also they had a little bit of a different perception of niche then today. Another thing: How do they count doors? Is Nordstrom 1 or 118 doors? What about Macy's, Neiman Marcus - to how many doors do they and all the other other infinite chains of beauty stores add up?

The other approach is something what guys from Esxence did. They have a 5 members committee to judge all submissions; are they acceptable as a 'niche perfume house' or as they would like to say 'fine artistic perfumery'. Personally, I love Esxence but no jury is perfect. And not everybody applied to be present at Esxence so you can't say that it's not niche perfumery when it was not present at Esxence.

With all due respect to Fragrance Foundation and Esxence, I think that we cannot ask them what is and what is not 'niche perfumery' but as Elena pointed out in this article it is something we can conclude based on many different facts and it is still a subjective perception. For me, for example, Guerlain, Acqua di Parma will always be 'niche' even if they are not owned by owner and they sell it behind thousands of doors...

Apr
25
2011

memechose

niche nicher nichest. now with so many its measured by the amount of doors... as per the Fragranace foundation :0)

Apr
24
2011

naheed

This is very informative. Before I only knew the term niche houses but they actually differ from one another on the basis of the ingredients.

Thank you Jeca!

Apr
24
2011

Angel10

I had no idea that so many 'criteria' were involved in the classification of Niche Perfumery.

I grow more and more each day, and understand more and more the art, passion, sensory perception, and even morals and standards involved in this fine art & craft.

Thank you so much Elena for sharing this with us!

The goal is always to sell, but many niche perfumeries differ in that they will NEVER sacrifice quality materials (or perfumers!) for profit.

Great stuff.

Apr
24
2011

Tigerlillian

Nice! Thank you so much.

Apr
23
2011

systeme_d

Well done.

Apr
23
2011

icicle

great article!i just can add that the primecost of niche fragrances is much higher than the mass perfume's primecost.so,niche houses can afford using of expensive and rare notes in their fragrances instead of spending the same money on ads and bottle design.

Apr
06
2011

Marlies

Thanx for the article, i thought niche was knock off, i'm from holland and didn't know the word.
So now i've learned it's quite the opposite!

Apr
05
2011

Juliette has a gun

Brilliant - you said it all in a nutshell. Very useful when it comes to defining the notion of "niche" vs "mainstream".
Just one thought: I am afraid that even niche-houses are (amongst many other noble aims) out there in order to make money. So I wouldn't agree with the idea that their goal is "NOT to sell as much as possible" (citing from your article).
The commercial aspect is present in the structure of any perfume company, no matter if they are "niche" or not.

Apr
05
2011

JazzBirdSinger

informative article. not sure what niche was and now i have a much better
understanding. i will like to look more into this type of perfumery...i have not smelled anything from these houses listed....thank you elena!

Apr
04
2011

icontreras

Very useful article! Today I asked in a post about niche perfumery since I didn't understand the concept...
I have not seen this article. Much more clear now!

Apr
04
2011

stoian claudia

Thank you for this useful information .

Apr
04
2011

ducktuck

Thank you so much! This was really helpful. I have been in the dark and now have the full spectrum of niche.

Apr
03
2011

Shalimar

Elena,

Thank you for a very interesting and informative article about niche perfumes.
It sounds like something that I would like to explore in more depth now that you have sparked my interest.

I learn something new on this site everyday!

CB

Sep
03
2009

mariotgomez

Elena,

This article was brought into reference in a group "What is "Niche Perfumery"

It is always nice to refresh yourself with why a fragrance house may be niche.

Thank you for the article.
Mario

Aug
30
2009