Please Excuse Me While I Rant
I love any number of perfumes, noses and houses, but on the whole, I don't have much respect for the collective perfume industry. In the last few years we've seen draconian restrictions on "allergenic" notes, wholesale bans on fragrance in certain settings and recently, a series of new/newly enforced postal regulations that do not bode well for the future of perfume. Meanwhile, to all appearances the fragrance industry sat on its collective ass and passively allowed lawmakers to whittle away at its artistic tools and financial livelihood. Occasionally a Serge Lutens or a Frédéric Malle will step forward and make a statement about the damage resulting from the IFRA regs, but I've seen nothing in the way of action, proactive or even reactive, from this ineffectual group of people who create the substance that we love.