The messy of Mainstream/Niche and the Retro of Vintage frags

In this 2020s, more and more perfumes are made, upto 5k frags every years. How can consumer/audience pick good scents in this mess, or they just follow the brand marketing to rule their sense of nose. 

People are innocent, their noses are fresh. It's really hard to distinguish good scent from the bad, because they all smell "have a smell" in different state of minds. People do not have enough exp to have a good trip on scent journey. 

Designers frag is cheapen in quality and idea.

Niche is developed in massy to messy. Too many Niche houses are established with no-name perfumers. The frags are in productions like industry computers - just copy and paste. They create a new scent, make a big-inspired introduction/story to allure the marketing, but no soul. Perfumers are no more taking their time as years for a creation. The financial-orient seems to rule all the frag games. 

The restrictions from IFRA destroyed the freedom of Perfumers. Frederic Malle editions was established in 2000 to against the developing of mainstream frag, to hold the OG value of perfumery. Let's see now in 2023, after 23 years Frederic Malle seems to lost their fate, and become mainstream-ism right in their play-round. The reformulations happened more frequently in these years, make their creations losing their OG soul. Now, they are just living on the old fame of the past. 

The rising of vintage communities - Due to the fact that mainstream and niche are in the chaos, people keep their interest in great scent in the past. Thanks to the internet, Youtuber/website are sharing more and more about the hidden vintage frags that are crazy great in terms of perfume. Thanks to the auction/flea-market from a local European/Japan, people can find a treasure/ gold in their heart. 

I found that many creations today are greatly inspired by the vintages, put a modern mind in, but it still lacks something...

Something maybe....

- A good designer - Chanel Coco, Karl Lagerfeld, Frederic Malle... are great designers. They know exactly what to create and fit their brand style in every periods.

- A talented perfumer - Of Course

- and quality ingredients with less-restrictions from mother-rules 

Maybe things change in the future...and another golden era of perfumery will shine...again.

I think what you call "messy" is a good problem to have. I'd rather have too many perfumes to choose from than too few. I'd much rather be a perfume hobbyist now than, for example, in the 70s or 80s, when the internet didn't exist and the entire universe of fragrances to choose from was restricted to what they had in stock at your local department store. We are IN the golden age of perfumery.

This is such a great statement.  I am so glad I'm a perfume enthusiast now, where any type of perfume is at my fingertips.  I remember a time when all that was available was whatever was being sold locally.  If I was lucky, a friend or family member would bring a perfume souvenir back from their travels, but that was rare.

Also, @ChillScent, your observations would be best suited in a blog post.  You bring up many good points, but I don't know if you are looking to start a conversation or simply make a statement.

@ChillScent you call them vintages and they are! In those days perfumes had 21 - 16 notes and the pyramid (top notes- heart notes- base notes ) did apply in reality. Nowadays fragrances shrunk down to 3-11 notes and in their majority they are linear with a fading dry down swift towards the end of their sillage. The vintages you mention perhaps had not as many INFRA regulations to comply with but they had a virtual pyramid of notes. Now the pyramid of notes is mentioned, but the fragrances are linear. i don't see the crowdpleasing design fragrances being in a mess. What I see clearlly is the comeback of vintage ,say so, in classic formulas with good quality essences. Par example: Chanel Chance, Hermes elixir des merveilles, YSL Libre etc  So what you call "the vintages" is the tendecy now. As for the auctions with the crazy prices, when money talks we reach extremities.

The IFRA regulations have become a kind of conspiracy theory of the fragrance community. "They" want to destroy "us". Why would they want to do that? "Just because they're evil."

Regulations are necessary in our modern and highly developed world. Of course regulations are constraining to an extent, but we want to achieve a healthy balance between the creator's freedom, the businessman's profit, and the benefit and safety of the consumer. Would you want a car manufacturer to have unlimited creative freedoms? Or would you rather that he followed the rules of health and safety? 

Perfumers are already exempt from full disclosure of ingredients, which I'm not comfortable with. Without regulations, creative freedom quickly gets swallowed by the freedom to make as much money as possible.

Love me some voice of reason! My thoughts exactly. The IFRA thing is imho kinda overblown. I get the sadness or even being upset over vintage formulations quickly dissapearing from marketplaces and perfumeries but come on. Come oooon. Our paint is also unleaded and we got rid of wonderful asbestos roofs... Also, "The frags are in productions like industry computers - just copy and paste": this could've been said about every 80's fougere powerhouse. Things will get copied/stolen and imitated poorly or improved upon because it just sells. We just happen to live in an era of massive fashion conglomerates that just throw money at R&D and Marketing departments until something sticks. Nonetheless I agree that it seems that they are running out of options and often end up doing very derivative work. That's just my two, little offtopic cents, cheers!

I just love all the awesome comments in this thread, totally agree with you guys! 😁👍