Open Microphone
November 21st, 2006
A bit unusual post today but I just had this idea last night I had to lay it out here. What if I got a chance to stand in front of an open microphone and say whatever I want to say to all the perfume companies, perfumers, and just people involved in perfume making today or in days past? What would I say? Here’re a few things I’d get off my chest:
- As unrealistic as it might seem, please stop appealing to the masses! Put the art back in perfume, give me some complexity, give me masterfully balanced scents. Give me something to swoon over and be haunted by for days!
- Stop reformulating the classics! The difference between vintage Shalimar parfum and the modern day version is too vast to capture in words.
- Give up pretentious pomposity and take on graceful audacity instead!
- And in the words of the charming Tim Gunn, make it work! Perhaps it is indeed time to have Project Perfume TV show, a simply ingenious idea by Madame Colombina, laid out in detail here.
What would you get off your chest?
Image source: www.corbis.com
Entry Filed under: This and That
16 Comments Add your own
1. Elle | November 21st, 2006 at 7:54 am
For this I can shake off all my deep seated fears of public speaking.
Hello! Perfume makers of the world, please make leather and smoke the new fruity floral! And please elevate skank to the place of respect it deserves!
Do *not - repeat, do *not* - take the name of a sacred, gorgeous perfume (yes, I’m talking to your Lanvin and you know I mean Rumeur) and reuse it for a completely new and infinitely less interesting remake.
And, to repeat what Ina said, reformulations need to be banned. Please rerelease the classics, but let them retain their former glorious compositions.
Dior - I specifically want to beg for Diorling to be released to the US market. Why not take a page from politicians who realize that you don’t always have to get the masses out to vote? It’s enough to get an avid group w/ special interests - they *will* get their derrieres out on election day. Same w/ vintage fans. The Diorlingites will come out to buy. I promise.
OK…handing mike to next person now.
Oh, one last thing - please nothing from P*r*s Hilton, ever again. Ever. Ever.
2. Patty | November 21st, 2006 at 8:09 am
Ahem. Is this thing on?
Okay. Stop designing perfumes for 18-year-old girls that you intend to sell to women above the age of 25. Women want to smell like women, not bubble gum and a cheap floral nosegay.
Vote for me as Evil Empress of the World, and there will be skank in *every* perfume bottle and no…more…fruity…florals!!!!
Oh, sorry, got carried away, sorry, sorry (makes way off platform)
3. March | November 21st, 2006 at 8:15 am
1. If you’d release fragrances in smaller bottles, I’d buy a lot more from you directly, and you’d be losing a lot less money to eBay decanters. I’m willing to pay more for something in an actual company bottle — that would be nice. But I don’t need 100ml (or even 50ml, frankly).
2. Coffrets in 10 - 20ml sizes. See #1.
3. I think 97% of your reformulations are driven by a search for cheaper ingredients. Stop it this instant. There is a special circle of hell reserved for the suits who’ve given us, say, the current iteration of L’Origan and Emeraude. You can earn a get-into-heaven card by re-releasing them as they were originally.
4. You may do one (maybe two) flankers — a summer version and homme, or whatever. By the time you’re on your fourth flanker, you’re just taking up shelf space. Again, stop it. The world will be a better place without another Incanto.
4. greeneyes | November 21st, 2006 at 9:26 am
1) I second March’s comment: sell perfume in smaller bottles, please! I would rather repurchase if needed, than have to buy a giant vat of perfume.
2) Stop with the celebrity fragrances, or the fragrances influenced by TV shows. While a few of them have been quite nice, it’s just a sad concept in general.
5. Marina | November 21st, 2006 at 9:45 am
I am going to stand up and second your first demand. But I want to add, dear perfumes, don’t do art for the sake of art, please!Remember that it still has to be wearable as a personal scent. No anti-smells, please.
Thank you.
6. benvenuta | November 21st, 2006 at 10:46 am
Ladies, you said it all for me.
I`ll add: NO MORE PINK! Stop the madness! No more pink fruity florals, pink sugary gourmands, Pink Sugar, pink bottles, pink juice, pink grapefruit, pink pepper, pink musk!
7. Elle | November 21st, 2006 at 12:05 pm
I need to third March’s comments about small bottles. I can *never* finish bottles. A 30 ml bottle could last a decade or more for me. Enough w/ these whopper 100 ml sizes!
8. violetnoir | November 21st, 2006 at 12:21 pm
How about this?
I agree with March: Put the juice in smaller bottles!
One more thing: Stop with all of these perfume releases! As much as I love and adore the stuff, I feel that I am on perfume-overload, not giving each new release enough testing time because I’m trying to keep up.
Hugs!
9. Jennifer | November 21st, 2006 at 12:31 pm
Quit underestimating women below 25 appreciation of scent. We do not all want to smell of fruit salads and cupcakes. And please bring back the original formulation of the classics so that we too can learn how to appreciate them.
10. Teri | November 21st, 2006 at 2:39 pm
To put it simply….if I can eat it, I’d rather not wear it as a fragrance.
Give me something interesting. I don’t wish to smell like every other female on the commuter train. I want my scent to be so interesting, so different, that heads turn when I pass. I will pay more for interesting, if need be. And I can. I’ve spent 40 years shaping and crafting the unique and special individual that I am. I want my scent to reflect it. I don’t want it to be a ‘one size fits all’ fragrance.
And as far as reformulations…no matter what your reasoning is behind them….JUST SAY NO. If you can’t bring back a classic in it’s original form, move on to something new. Case closed.
11. Tom | November 21st, 2006 at 6:22 pm
(taps microphone)
I am the indulgent (sometimes) godparent of a 14 year old god-daughter. She is in every way a normal girl-on-the-verge; as of alte I can see the woman she is going to become. She lives to shop at American Apparel, has her iPod, MySpace page and desire to denude Sephora of all the lip gloss and sparkly eyeshadow she can herniate out of the place. What perfume did she ask for last year for her birthday? Acqua di Parma. What did she poach off her Mom’s dressing table the other day? Gris Clair by Serge Lutens. You perfumers are criminally underestimating these kids.
In short, the only person who wants to smell like Paris Hilton is Paris Hilton. And I’ll bet she wears Clive Christian.
12. MonkeyPosh | November 22nd, 2006 at 8:59 am
PLEASE for the love of God get rid of the cluless teenage sales associates who know NOTHING about fragrance, who have NO passion about fragrance, who are no help AT ALL TO ANYONE who is seeking fragrance.
When someone with chipped nails and a bad attitude who is “representing” a fragrance line cannot answer any questions and I know more than they do it just pisses me off. TRAIN YOUIR EMPLOYEE! Plus 9 times out of 10, I will have a query about something specific and they will have no clue, but they will say something very intelligent like “Have you tried the New Juicy? It’s really awesome”
BLECH. It cheapens the art of fragrance and totally turns me off.
I believe whomever sales the fragrance is a direct reflection of the fragrance and the line.
Who wants the mike next?
13. Judith | November 22nd, 2006 at 9:17 am
OK–since I’m late to the mike, I will simply reinforce some of the previous brilliant points:
–Bring back some (as many as possible) wonderful classics (Guerlain has the right idea here) and DON”T reformulate.
Making specific requests for
Diorling
Scandal
Djedi
–More leather, smoke, skank. No fruit or chocolate, please; keep food and perfume separate. And to quote BrooklynTbone, “Noir is the new black.”
–More small bottles! Yeah!
–vote for Patty for Evil Empress. Marina and Ina for heads of Ministery of Lemmings. And create a special department for Elle.
14. Dylan | November 22nd, 2006 at 1:25 pm
You are SO RIGHT about the classics! –STOP reformulating!! You are right about the differences being Vast as far as the Vintage Shalimar and Today’s Shalimar goes. The reformulated Shalimar is simply awful, it is unwearable.
I cannot believe a perfume house like Guerlain would purposely RUIN a classic the way they have done. They could have just tweaked it, but no, they had to make it repulsive. I never could wear the EDT form, but they have now destroyed the parfum versions too. P.U. Shame on Guerlain.
yeah and the teeny bopper scents–most teenys I know don’t even want them–my 15 yr.old babysitter wears Chanel No. 5.
15. SniffQ | November 22nd, 2006 at 4:40 pm
I’m raising my hand to vote for smaller bottles. Excellent idea.
And I’ll join in the chorus for a ten-year ban on fruity florals.
Please make a few perfumes that are complex, interesting, and make a person smell good.
I don’t want to smell like metal, rubber, any celebrity, no matter how privileged, or unwashed body parts.
Please quit making perfumes that smell the same in the bottle, on a piece of paper, my arm, my clothes, the woman next to me in the Metro and retain the same potency for 12 hours. Perfume is like film photography–let it develop over time.
Please do not put perfume in a bottle of such artistry that I can’t afford the perfume in the bottle. I know there are bottle collectors. Sell them exquisite bottles of your perfume. But for the rest of us in the common ruck, put your perfume in a bottle that I can open, that stands upright, that won’t slip through my hands, and with a top that has heft. And a spray that works.
Thank you. Next.
16. Tigs | November 22nd, 2006 at 6:25 pm
Please, no more ridiculous note lists: no iced lichen martini or carmelized indigo plumeria accords, no tears of only very sensitive sumac plants, no triple-distilled vodka notes.
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