Fragrances by country 🇯🇵 🇰🇷 🇩🇪 🇨🇳 🇺🇸 🇫🇷 🇪🇸 🇮🇹 🇷🇺 🇬🇧 Where do you think the best fragrances are made? Do you have a preference?

[UESNYC]

French fragrances are too much like concoctions, like the cuisine. Not saying that is necessarily negative but for me I prefer the Italian esthetic. The big designer fragrances could be from any country honestly so it really doesn’t matter.

 

[otterlake]

French fragrances are too much like concoctions, like the cuisine. Not saying that is necessarily negative but for me I prefer the Italian esthetic.

The more aromatic, classical Italian approach to scent (embodied by houses such as Lorenzo Villoresi and Santa Maria Novella) is very much to my taste, and is *probably* my favorite regional style.

 

[Varanis Ridari]

Yeah, I think that's entirely fair. Rather than the nuanced differences that leads to genuine diversity, as we had in Europe up until the recent past, it feels like you can divide the world in to very broad territories or regions. I'm not even sure the Atlantic would count as one region (it did 20 years ago but I'm not sure anymore) as a fragrance like Sauvage, for example, feels totally unattached to any particular place, without roots. Arabia and Persia definitely still has a distinct style, which is spreading, and I also think the Japanese do as well. But Europe and America definitely position themselves as "global", and this is seen in the fragrances appealing to the aforementioned regions (ouds, yuzus) or in the blandness of mass appealing designers.

Unrelated to your reply (but it occured to me as I was coincidentally going through some Italian fragrances), how far -back- are you willing to go with Italian brands?

I know you like Villoresi, and I have a few samples from them waiting to be reviewed, but what about Basile Profumi, Victor/Visconti di Modrone, Krizia, Roberto Capucci, Gianfranco Ferrè?

I think there are some good 50's-80's gems you might want to sample if not buy (most discontinued and quantity/price in your neck of the world unknown), and they represent that non-fussy masculinity you feel, without dramatic chest-beating animalics.

 

[tspencer]

Anyone who doesn't think France makes the best fragrances to this day just isn't really living in reality. So, France. Even artisans in other countries literally lean on French concepts and styles to create their craft. So, even when a fragrance doesn't come from France, French influence is all over it.

 

[hednic]

Anyone who doesn't think France makes the best fragrances to this day just isn't really living in reality. So, France. Even artisans in other countries literally lean on French concepts and styles to create their craft.

Agree with your assessment.

 

[slpfrsly]

Anyone who doesn't think France makes the best fragrances to this day just isn't really living in reality.

Steady on. 😂

 

[slpfrsly]

Unrelated to your reply (but it occured to me as I was coincidentally going through some Italian fragrances), how far -back- are you willing to go with Italian brands?

I know you like Villoresi, and I have a few samples from them waiting to be reviewed, but what about Basile Profumi, Victor/Visconti di Modrone, Krizia, Roberto Capucci, Gianfranco Ferrè?

I think there are some good 50's-80's gems you might want to sample if not buy (most discontinued and quantity/price in your neck of the world unknown), and they represent that non-fussy masculinity you feel, without dramatic chest-beating animalics.

Tbh my own search is over. In truth it ended a good 12-18 months ago and I haven't given a great deal of consideration to anything else since then.

I was (am) interested in expanding further back in to the past but my own tastes for what I actually want to wear are very much 1990 onwards. It would be time consuming and expensive to continue scouring the internet for whatever vintages are available, and I'm also aware that prices have gone mental since I started this roughly 5 years ago. I don't know what happened but it seems like perfumery hit some sort of algorithm around the time I started becoming more interested (the two are unrelated, I'm sure), and again during covid, which has seen loads more interest in fragrances. More interest = more bidders on ebay and elsewhere. Now that ebay have really tightened up on decant sellers as well, my interest in going back to look up/buy vintage fragrances isn't sufficient to actually go through the process of searching, buying, selling etc all over again. I'll be honest, the interest is there, but it's just not very strong. If I could meet the interest without the time and money cost it took me to find my own wardrobe, I would, but otherwise I am happy to let the (dwindling) supply of older fragrances remain a mystery to me, and in the hands/collections of other people.

I like Villoresi as some (not all) of his fragrances are just exactly what I like in perfume. I'm not sure I would use him as the perfect example of Italian perfumery, just because so many of his fragrances are orientals, but to my mind he is a great perfumer, whatever that still means.

 

[Varanis Ridari]

Tbh my own search is over. In truth it ended a good 12-18 months ago and I haven't given a great deal of consideration to anything else since then.

I was (am) interested in expanding further back in to the past but my own tastes for what I actually want to wear are very much 1990 onwards. It would be time consuming and expensive to continue scouring the internet for whatever vintages are available, and I'm also aware that prices have gone mental since I started this roughly 5 years ago. I don't know what happened but it seems like perfumery hit some sort of algorithm around the time I started becoming more interested (the two are unrelated, I'm sure), and again during covid, which has seen loads more interest in fragrances. More interest = more bidders on ebay and elsewhere. Now that ebay have really tightened up on decant sellers as well, my interest in going back to look up/buy vintage fragrances isn't sufficient to actually go through the process of searching, buying, selling etc all over again. I'll be honest, the interest is there, but it's just not very strong. If I could meet the interest without the time and money cost it took me to find my own wardrobe, I would, but otherwise I am happy to let the (dwindling) supply of older fragrances remain a mystery to me, and in the hands/collections of other people.

I like Villoresi as some (not all) of his fragrances are just exactly what I like in perfume. I'm not sure I would use him as the perfect example of Italian perfumery, just because so many of his fragrances are orientals, but to my mind he is a great perfumer, whatever that still means.

More than a fair answer! I know Royal Mail is fussy about what they allow in and out of the UK too, which compounds your problems.

Workarounds like private couriers such as FedEx are prohibitively expensive.

 

[Larry Hoover]

Majority of all commercial fragrances are produced in France, Italy, and the USA. So it's hard to pick another country where there are only a few dozen or less brands.

 

[baklavaRuzh]

Majority of all commercial fragrances are produced in France, Italy, and the USA. So it's hard to pick another country where there are only a few dozen or less brands.

If we are going by the made in label, indeed, there aren't that many. I have made in Oman, Italy, France, Poland, Spain and perhaps UK (I would have to double check). If we go by "school of the perfumer" it would mostly be French I suppose anyways.

 

[Andrewthecologneguy]

France/Italy tie for first.
Spain/Latin American style ties with the Middle East and USA for second.
Germany and Japan tie for third.

 

[UESNYC]

France does make many great perfumes for women but the men’s stuff is generally just ok at best. When French perfumers miss the mark it’s usually by a lot, when Italian perfumers screw up its not by that much. I do think that Italian perfumers get gender and unisex right more often than French. Personally I have never purchased a French fragrance. My four favorites now are Profumum Roma, Villoresi, Santa Maria Novella and Floris for just great men’s stuff.The French are just a bit better at convincing others how great they are.

 

[slpfrsly]

So tha

France/Italy tie for first.
Spain/Latin American style ties with the Middle East and USA for second.
Germany and Japan tie for third.

So that would be:

1. France
= Italy
3. Spain
= Latin America
= Middle East
= USA
7. Germany
= Japan
😁

 

[slpfrsly]

Majority of all commercial fragrances are produced in France, Italy, and the USA. So it's hard to pick another country where there are only a few dozen or less brands.

Hmm, not sure on that one, Larry. The Muslim world has had a relatively longlasting and substantial perfume industry. Presumably China/the far East does a lot of the production work for modern/western brands now as well? So we're back to the globalism angle, but generally speaking the USA's perfume culture is/has been about attracting Europeans to come to America, particularly the French, and having them make fragrances that can be produced at scale by US businesses (many of which are/were Jewish owned). With that in mind, I'd say Arabia has a richer/better perfume history than the USA as a country distinct from Europe - and that has to count for something, even if they fell behind the Transatlantic alliance in the C20th.

Interesting discussion point there, though: how much does history count? How much does the present (and future) matter?

 

[slpfrsly]

If we go by "school of the perfumer" it would mostly be French I suppose anyways.

The grip France had on that has loosened considerably in the last few decades. Which is interesting.

 

[davidcalgary29]

What I find interesting is that houses in a number of marginal perfume territories -- Canada and the Nordic countries, in particular -- lean heavily into their national branding in either creating or marketing their lineups. Canada just doesn't have a lot of parfumeurs, and most (but not all)of them focus heavily on celebrating or invoking natural landscapes, animals, or plants. Zoologist is a great example of this, even though they've only branded a minority of their lineup on actual Canadian animals. Svensk Parfym also comes to mind with its carefully collated collection that is supposed, I assume, to invoke northern forests (although Sadel is my favourite scent from the company). And the Perfume Company, which is the only active perfume company that I've found in The Bahamas, has based all of its ideas on tourists' expectations of an idealized tropical vacation.

 

[slpfrsly]

What I find interesting is that houses in a number of marginal perfume territories -- Canada and the Nordic countries, in particular -- lean heavily into their national branding in either creating or marketing their lineups.

Yes. It's like the phenomenon of "Brand Britain" versus actual British culture. As seen in many of the old English houses, particularly with their newer releases; Britain is the 51st state in many ways and so follows the American trend of becoming a vessel for global homogeneity, expunging its own history and culture in the process.

It makes sense to see this for countries without a great deal of history making perfume. If you're a newcomer, and don't have the same established culture of perfumery (and therefore unique or particular style and methods etc), then you make up for this with superficial gloss despite the fragrances being very much globalised (synthetic, made and distributed by one of the major multinationals) and indistinct from so many other brands/fragrances in other parts of the world.

Floris would be a good example of this, having clones of Aventus, GIT, Italian Cypress, Tuscan Leather, and the synthetic oud trend. And more. There's literally nothing British about these fragrances, so they have to amp it up with "Brand Britain" marketing e.g. name it after a British landmark or road or location. People crave for national coherence - even if just in the form of consooming product, and even if it means just making it up/bullshitting about how particular something is, how representative of its maker/location - and brands know this well enough, even if they can't provide it. So they add it in at the end, gilding it with the signs and images that people want but did not contribute in creating the fragrance.

A lot of fantasy notes seem to play in to this as well. Types of exotic fruit or wood that are not 'real', yet get listed as notes for the appeal they offer to a customer who wants to buy 'identity' and 'culture' in this way.

 

[Andrewthecologneguy]

Hmm, not sure on that one, Larry. The Muslim world has had a relatively longlasting and substantial perfume industry. Presumably China/the far East does a lot of the production work for modern/western brands now as well? So we're back to the globalism angle, but generally speaking the USA's perfume culture is/has been about attracting Europeans to come to America, particularly the French, and having them make fragrances that can be produced at scale by US businesses (many of which are/were Jewish owned). With that in mind, I'd say Arabia has a richer/better perfume history than the USA as a country distinct from Europe - and that has to count for something, even if they fell behind the Transatlantic alliance in the C20th.

Interesting discussion point there, though: how much does history count? How much does the present (and future) matter?

I agree with this.
The Arab world has been manufacturing fragrances longer then the Europeans.
The word perfume (parfum) literally means 'by smoke' which was derived from how the Arab world wore fragrance - with censers and bakhoor

 

[slpfrsly]

I agree with this.
The Arab world has been manufacturing fragrances longer then the Europeans.
The word perfume (parfum) literally means 'by smoke' which was derived from how the Arab world wore fragrance - with censers and bakhoor

I'm not sure about that. Egypt and the Middle East precede European perfumery as we know it, but the Greeks, Romans were making perfume long before the Arabs. In terms of America and the new world, though, then yeah, as said, the Muslim world trumps the USA by some distance. Even now, we can't really boil it down to just Europe (France/Italy) and America.

 

[Andrewthecologneguy]

I'm not sure about that. Egypt and the Middle East precede European perfumery as we know it, but the Greeks, Romans were making perfume long before the Arabs. In terms of America and the new world, though, then yeah, as said, the Muslim world trumps the USA by some distance. Even now, we can't really boil it down to just Europe (France/Italy) and America.

Agreed!
I should have qualified my reply to reflect surviving practices that have been successfully commercialized.