The Letter No. 4 — the first half

Hi Fragrant Friend 👋

If you're new here, a warm welcome. Some of you are joining from my old Scently Speaking letters, and I'm glad you came along. The short version: New Niche is building its first collection of fragrances, and this is the letter where they take shape.

Some weeks nothing happens. Then there are weeks like these.

The Artworks

Both artists have now painted. Not from a brief, not from a mood board, but from the fragrances themselves, in the version that is almost final. Sophia and Stephanie each received the scent, sat with it for a while, and answered it in their own language.

What you see below is a preview. Neither piece is finished. But they are close enough that I wanted you to have them first.

Seeing them next to each other did something I didn't expect. Two people, given two liquids and no instructions, ended up somewhere completely different. Which is exactly the reason we decided that a fragrance here never gets released on its own.

With these two, the first half of the whole thing is nearly done. Once the paintings are finished they get digitised, and from there they travel onto the packaging and onto the label. The artwork isn't decoration printed on a box. It's the other half of the release.

At the same time Mansour is in New York, finalising the fragrances. We're in touch constantly, sometimes several times a day, about the last few percent that make the difference.

Two Packages

I've asked myself for a long time at what point I would actually know whether this format works. Not the sales, those come later. Whether the idea itself hits a nerve.

A few days ago I came home to two parcels I hadn't ordered. One from a perfumer in Argentina. One from a perfumer in Italy. Both had sent samples of their own work, unprompted, because they want to collaborate.

I stood there with two boxes on my desk and thought: I get to smell something new today, and my horizon just got a little wider. And right after that: people are starting to see themselves under this label.

It's like a lot of things in life. You forget to stop and look back, and by the time you finally do, you're already further along than you thought you were.

One More Thing

I'm also very happy to tell you that I have my first employee. Technically a freelancer, but I'll take the win.

From Friday, Tanay Panjwani takes over the thing that matters most here and always ends up last on my list: telling you what actually happens behind the scenes. Mostly on social, where it's become quite funny lately.

And there's a lot we haven't talked about yet. There will be immersive experiences, and at some point even travel. More on that in the coming issues.

As always, if any of this sparks something, just hit reply. I read everything.