What is Niche Perfumery?

12/03/07 13:40:49

Thinking about the notion of niche perfumery, we have made a small research on that branch of perfume production.

Niche perfumery is 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 on the 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 Bond No 9, Aqaba), islands (Profumi di Pantelleria), country (Eau d'Italie) or no longer existing empires (Parfum d'Empire);
Using synthetic materials (Escentric Molecules, Comme des Garcons);
Rose scents (Les Parfums de Rosine);
Vanilla scents (La Maison de la Vanille);
Exotic islands scents (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 the 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 selective approach to distribution of their products. The fragrances of the 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