Cultural influence on perfume taste
12 years ago
Hi, I'd like to discuss the impact that culture has on perfume taste. From reading international blogs and forums I got the notion that e.g. people from US are more into 'fresh and clean' than Europeans are. In some reviews I sometimes got the impression that they tend to say clean when they like the juice and just don't find a more suitable descriptor. They use 'clean' for scents that in my opinion don't really stand out due to their cleanliness. They generally seem to worry a lot about their natural body odours, that's why 'clean' is virtually one of the best things one can say about a frag.
Another 'prejudice' would be that Arabs like rose+oud frags and that Asians tend to like subtle fragrances.
On the other hand I observe that there are fragrances that virtually everybody from all over the world loves.
I got the theory that those regional preferences are especially true for the 'normal' buyer who is not a perfumista. Last weekend I went to the dressmaker - she's Persian or something like that - she smelled of rose-oud - fulfilling the cliché. But when people dive into the world of perfume, their taste seems to internationalise. Sensuality and aesthetic ideals become more important. We discover that a given scent typical of one region works just as well in a totally different context. Nowadays many people from everywhere discover the beauty in rose-oud fragrances for example. Perfumistas from all over the world praise the skankyness in certain scents (Jicky just to name one) regardless their cultural background. Certainly perfume communities on the internet push this globalisation, which is great, because it is a huge enrichment for everyone. In the long run it helps small niche firms to survive and maybe bigger designer houses to take them as an example in terms of innovation.
What do you think?
Another 'prejudice' would be that Arabs like rose+oud frags and that Asians tend to like subtle fragrances.
On the other hand I observe that there are fragrances that virtually everybody from all over the world loves.
I got the theory that those regional preferences are especially true for the 'normal' buyer who is not a perfumista. Last weekend I went to the dressmaker - she's Persian or something like that - she smelled of rose-oud - fulfilling the cliché. But when people dive into the world of perfume, their taste seems to internationalise. Sensuality and aesthetic ideals become more important. We discover that a given scent typical of one region works just as well in a totally different context. Nowadays many people from everywhere discover the beauty in rose-oud fragrances for example. Perfumistas from all over the world praise the skankyness in certain scents (Jicky just to name one) regardless their cultural background. Certainly perfume communities on the internet push this globalisation, which is great, because it is a huge enrichment for everyone. In the long run it helps small niche firms to survive and maybe bigger designer houses to take them as an example in terms of innovation.
What do you think?