Niche Perfumery - The natural perfumery trend (part two)

Not many years ago there were just 3 official types of perfumery, Vintage, mainstream, and Niche perfumery, such as Creed or Lutens.

The last 20 years have witnessed not only the birth and growth of independent natural perfumers but also the of “New Niche” perfumers, like Ormonde Jane, Andy Tauer, Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, etc…, who steadily won recognition and reached a level of success superior to that of natural perfumers by proposing a return to the origins of modern perfumery, where the artistry of fragrance resided into the clash or complementarity of synthetics with naturals.
Their success in the niche market has been due to the fact that they were offering what had totally disappeared from mainstream perfumery and was disappearing from “Old Niche”, creativity, experimentation, new ideas…

All this was happening while mainstream and old niche perfumery were eliminating naturals not only from their new products but also from their famous classics, reformulating them.

Originally, the public of “New Niche Perfumery” was a small market of demanding consumers who had been already educated about artistic perfumery by the Old Niche products, the perfumistas: fans of perfume. Their market is now rapidly extending to usual consumers of mainstream fragrances for 2 reasons, disappointment from mainstream products and new ethical consumerism.

The relationship of the “New Niche” perfumers with their customers became lately very similar to that of performers with their fans. The physical scene contact that performers have with their public is substituted by the web contact on a web scene consisting of personal blogs and personal FB pages.

The “New Niche” perfumers interact personally with the public and unveil their personal life, emotions, and even business in a sometimes embarrassing manner for a non-American person.

The “New Niche” perfumers have opened the door of recognition to natural perfumers, it is the “New Niche” trend that came first and it carried the Natural Perfumery trend.

– First of all by reintroducing naturals in a much more consistent manner than “Old niche” perfumery did, therefore educating the nose of “perfumistas” to a higher standard of quality with which they could appreciate perfumes fully Natural and also re-evaluate Old Niche and mainstream products.

– Secondly by demonstrating that a person without any previous experience or link in the perfume industry could pop up, set up a small one-man business, succeed in producing real good products and obtain international recognition through the web. This is a revolution in the mind of the public; real perfumes are not necessarily produced by famous brand fragrances.
This was also a strong encouragement for striving natural perfumers who were lagging behind stuck in the very small “alternative ecological” market.

– Thirdly, some of them like DSH and Andy Tauer, by participating in fragrance projects with natural perfumers and bloggers promoted natural perfumery in a big way. New Niche perfumers allowed natural perfumers to share their own fame and recognition among perfumistas.

These are the other 3 protagonists that have contributed to the making of the trend of natural perfumes started by Mandy Aftel, Anya McCoy, and the bloggers: Old niche perfumers, “New Niche” perfumers, and the perfumistas.

They participated in making natural perfumers become recognized protagonists of modern perfumery.

However, the birth of the trend has been possible only because of 2 external factors, the particular situation of mainstream perfumery at this point of its evolution and the new consumer trends towards ethical and ecological consumerism.

This is for next time …