What makes a niche scent smell 'niche' to you???

Ofcourse I haven't tried them all, but, out of the 'niche' scents I've tried so far, only two or three of them are scents I perceive as 'niche' maybe. The rest could just as well be mainstream designer perfumes to my nose.. (talking to you Meant to be Seen and Musc K and to Pacific Rock Moss without wanting to offend people that love these ofcourse)

I do get the 'niche' quality of Fleur de Peau Eau de Parfum though I do have some issues with it, like not liking the remains of it on clothes, but I do smell how it is authentic. Same goes for the house of Santa Maria Novella. I don"t like them all, but find them all unique.

But as for many 'niche' floral scents, I find my L'Air du Temps Eau de Parfum more 'niche' than those actually and where it concerns Iris, I find Infusion d'Iris (2015) Eau de Parfum more niche than Molecule 01 + Iris (again: without wanting to offend anyone).

Therefore my question: what makes a niche scent smell 'niche' to you and why?

Couldn't agree more. Usually when I'm testing niche, everything just smells either very designer-like or similar to something else that I have already tested before, so I just can't understand the hype nor the price. Of all the hundreds of niche fragrances that I have tested, only a few of them had smelled so unique or amazing that I have wanted to add them to my collection. But usually if I want something super unique and great quality for the price, I choose indie.

So to answer the actual question, I would expect 'niche' to be something daring, artistic and so unique that I have never smelled anything like it before. Most of the time when testing the actual expensive niches I get very disappointed, and more often I get this 'niche' feeling from indie fragrances.

Great question. Fragrances that smell niche should be more unusual and creative than their designer brethren. However, this isn’t always the case and some of the most pedestrian of frags end up being considered “niche” while a designer frag like Mon Guerlain Eau de Parfum Intense is seen as “boring and mainstream” while I think it is truly creative and sublime

The problem is that at some point someone decided to declare that all brands that didn't produce anything other than perfume were henceforth to be considered "niche." That is not the definition of that word. And having products other than perfume has absolutely no bearing on quality, uniqueness, availability, or anything else for that matter. 

"Niche" to me has nothing to do with the scent of a fragrance. A fragrance can't smell "niche" just because it doesn't mean anything at all. The most objective definition of "niche" is not about smells is about ways of production, marketing and distribution. So you can define at least four different ways to produce and distribute perfumes:

1) Designers: producers that orders their fragrances to "houses" and than resell them with their logo, brand whatever and their business is not only or mainly about perfumery.

2) Brands: producers that orders their fragrances to "houses" and than resell them with their logo but all their business is just or mainly perfumery.

3) Houses: big corps that produce fragrances but do not sell them on the retail markets.

4) Small indie artisanal or semiartisanal houses that sell their products directly on retail markets.

"Niche" is mostly the number four. Differences between 1 and 2 are often very small if existent at all, and I cannot call "niche" by any mean the number 2.

To me is absolutely stupid for example to call niche Amouage and designer JPG, they use the same materials, the same perfumers, and do the same thing on the market: buying something and reselling at an higher price. Just because your prices are incredibly stupid that doesn't mean you are "niche", you are just a scammer.

Before I joined this platform, I had an incorrect definition of "niche". I thought niche perfumes were those like Heretic, LVNEA, Pineward, Room 1015, Olympic Orchids, and so on... Turns out, those are considered "indie" or something? I would have never guessed that something so popular and widely used as Amouage or Creed is considered niche! 😅 To me, they still aren't, and I won't change my mind.

So, for me, "niche" (Amouage, Nishane, Creed, and whatnot) are not really that different than designer or cheapies. I recently tried YSL Muse, a commercial designer release, which smelled more "niche" than anything I've ever smelled from Nishane, for example.

A lot of "niche" are just overpriced designer-like scents with clever marketing.

I personally prefer indie or artisanal perfumes because I love weird smells, and usually those kinda brands are not afraid to experiment; but I love a good designer perfume or a cheapie, too! And l've yet to find anything from the popular "niche" brands I actually like, though 🤣

Thanks everyone, I'm glad my nose wasn't kidding me . 

This definition is definitely not correct, but I don't care, honestly. For me, if Lattafa & Co. are not able/ not interested to clone it, it's niche.