The Death of the "Middle Market"

Hello, Fragrant Friend 👋,

Last week, I had the privilege of spending two hours with master perfumer Christophe Laudamiel in his lab, and I am still somewhat electrified by the intensity of that conversation.

Also, I came across a remark by Luca Turin: in the past, good perfumes often found their audience on their own, whereas today weaker scents are frequently carried by branding and constructed storytelling. It made me wonder whether this also reshapes the consumer over time, whether taste is still formed through exposure to quality or increasingly through signals and narratives.

🗓️ Contents of this Issue

1. Note Worthy: The Death of the Middle Market, L’Oréal x Kering x Creed, Nathalie Feisthauer on Leaving IFF & Givaudan
2. Niche Newcomers: B87.135, Fables d’Orient Extrait, Tobacco Memories
3. Quiz: Who Mastered Gourmand Perfumery?
4. Scent MythBusters: Why a “finished” formula is rarely finished

Note-Worthy 🔎🌸

#TWOEXTREMES: A widely shared article argues that perfume is abandoning its safe middle. Strategist Olya Bar suggests the market now rewards either depth or daring. Heritage houses revisit complexity, modernising classics like Guerlain’s Shalimar with richer materials and sharper emotional focus, while concept brands treat fragrance as narrative, investing more in story and packaging than in the juice. The result: little room remains for “pleasant but forgettable”. The middle ground no longer sells.

#HOUSEOFSCENTS: At the end of March, L’Oréal closed its €4 billion deal for Kering Beauté, acquiring the House of Creed. The move includes fifty-year fragrance licences for Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga, with Gucci to follow once Coty’s licence expires. For Creed, it marks a second ownership shift in three years: family-run until 2020, sold to Kering in 2023, now absorbed into L’Oréal. The question is how “boundless luxury” survives inside a system built for scale.

#PERFUMERLENS: Perfumer Nathalie Feisthauer spent decades inside corporate perfumery before stepping away. After discovering scent through Yves Saint Laurent’s Opium, she trained in Grasse and built a thirty-year career at Givaudan and IFF. Over time, layers of marketing and decision-making pushed her to found LAB Scent in Montmartre. She describes perfumery as language: structure matters, but clarity often surpasses complexity. Today she asks not “Will it sell?” but “Does it feel right on skin?”.

Niche Newcomers 🎨 🌟

B87.135 — Desert Rituals in London. Marc-Antoine Barrois’s latest extrait takes its name from Harrods’ address and imagines a scented bridge between Knightsbridge and distant dunes. Perfumer Quentin Bisch revisits the brand’s leathery signature with natural saffron, creamy iris butter and ambrette seed. Pink peppercorn lends sparkle, myrrh adds a mineral breath and tobacco facets deepen the leather. Perfumer: Quentin Bisch. Notes: pink peppercorn, ambrette seed, saffron, myrrh, Damask rose, iris butter, Georgian cedarwood, patchouli, Haitian vetiver, tobacco, Georgywood.

Fables d’Orient L’Extrait — Myrrh Meets Milk. L’Artisan Parfumeur’s Fables d’Orient debuted in 2021 as a “flower milk” built on heliotrope, nutmeg and creamy musk. The new extrait deepens it: Christophe Raynaud amplifies incense and amber, while bright aldehydes bring clarity — a luminous yet enveloping oriental. Perfumer: Christophe Raynaud. Notes: incense, amber, aldehydes, heliotrope, nutmeg, iris, myrrh, frankincense, musk, vanilla.

Tobacco Memories — Smoke & Cherry Nostalgia. Chambre 52, founded by Nicolas Dewitte, frames hotel rooms as olfactory diaries. Tobacco Memories opens with saffron, powdery iris and ripe cherry, then unfolds into smoky tobacco absolute, incense, creamy vanilla and oakmoss — a boozy, melancholic tobacco scent. Notes: saffron, juniper, Morello cherry, tobacco absolute, iris, incense, oakmoss, vanilla.

A brief disclosure

Scently Speaking runs without ads and without paid placements. It exists because New Niche exists. New Niche is the fragrance publishing house we’re building in parallel. Obtaining one of its perfumes is not merchandise. It’s how this work stays independent.

Quiz 🎲

Which legendary perfumer is considered the master of gourmand perfumes?
Bertrand Duchaufour · Olivier Cresp · Christophe Laudamiel · Francis Kurkdjian

Scent MythBusters 🎭️

“Once the formula is done, the final product is chosen.”
Myth of the week

TL;DR

It’s tempting to think a perfume emerges fully formed the moment a perfumer pens the formula. In reality, what you smell in a perfumer’s lab is a rough draft. Freshly blended oils often smell harsh or unbalanced because top notes dominate, natural materials haven’t mingled and the alcohol hasn’t dissolved the compounds. Many decisions happen only after the concentrate has rested.

What’s actually happening

The industry term for this resting period is maceration. The concentrate is mixed with alcohol and left undisturbed in cool, dark vats. Over weeks or months, molecules dissolve, react and “marry”, deepening notes, smoothing rough edges and increasing longevity and projection. Citrus and light floral blends may integrate within a few weeks, while woody, resinous or oriental perfumes benefit from six to eight weeks or longer. Frédéric Malle has stated that classic perfumes used to be macerated for four to eight weeks.

Discussion

Because maceration takes time and money, many mass-market companies have shortened or eliminated it since the 1980s. Bottles can reach counters within two weeks, leading consumers to judge a scent before it has settled. Niche houses, by contrast, often invest weeks or months in maceration, which partly explains the richer, longer-lasting quality of artisanal perfume.

Final judgement

The biggest misconception about perfume production is that the formula equals the final fragrance. In truth, maceration and maturation are integral to the creative process. Like wine in a barrel, a perfume needs time to harmonise. Only then does a scent reveal its true character — and only then should we judge it.