The Mad Dash for the Disappearing Scent

[Pallas Moncreiff]

I presume, all of us at some point, have gone looking for the known-discontinued or not-in-production perfumes, but I recall my search more vividly for the ones which were being discontinued and I found those last bottles of current stock on a store shelf, on an online site or...

I think for me it started with Mystère, Rochas. I heard from a friend, and went to a store in NY I think, mid 90s perhaps. I remember the sales lady saying, at the warehouse, the stocks were gone and what was left in the shop was their last. Then she said, “What a shame”. I stood there staring at her (obviously, my friend was correct) and she asked, “So, do you want it?” I still remember that woman… lean, tallish, had a maroon jersey shirt on, long nails painted the same, with a small silk scarf tied around the neck… a strawberry blonde, and she was chewing gum. I nodded and bought both the large perfume and the red snakeskin cannister. I remember I didn’t speak, and her chatter irritated me.

It was a few years later, again through the grapevine… Fendi’s Theorema. This time, it was in the mid-to-late 2000s I think, went online shopping and I found two large bottles. I like the packaging where you thread the wooden stick through the loopholes. And the scent of course; perfumed pencil-shavings.
It was something similar for Insense, Givenchy. It made me angry just like with Mystere. It was sheer luck I found the new bottle in a small store.
With DSH’s Sandalo Inspiritu, I offhandedly had read a comment on Basenotes. And I thought, WTH… called DSH’s number and the lady on the phone said, well, isn't this odd, this is our last bottle.
I am careful with it.

Also, I bought the last bottle of Attrape Coeur off the shelf in a Guerlain boutique. First, the SA said it’s all gone but then her system said, there was one left. She went to the back of the shop, was gone for a while and on coming out said, it was sitting among Vol de Nuit stock. She said, “What luck?” It was I think, either 2010 or 2011? Hmm, was it... makes me wonder.
Recently, again, it was the same thing with Hiram Green’s Dilettante. I was in no rush to order another until during a discussion here on Basenotes about orange blossom scents, someone mentioned it, and lamented that it had been possibly discontinued. When I went to online stores, I realized, it was not to be found anywhere. Later, Perfume Lounge (Netherlands) had one last bottle.

And what brought about this entire reminiscence is Farmacia SS Annunziata discontinuing all its old stock. WHAT IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT’S HOLY, why? It was an empty space under Farmacia SS’s name on Luckyscent that got my attention. Talc Gourmand… couldn’t find it anywhere. I enjoy its bittersweet scent. I emailed Farmacia folks, they said Talc is all gone and among their new ones, nothing is similar. Finally, I found a place in Italy who has it and also willing to mail it.

I am a tad weary of this last-minute dash to get a bottle of the current stock for posterity’s sake. Most such discontinuations I can easily ignore, and I do. But imagine, never be able to smell Mystere, Theorema, Insense, Dilettante again… NO! For a while, I was frustrated about TG and decided not to pursue looking. But the other day, as I smelled the vial of talc gourmand that always sits on the kitchen-cupboard top, I felt an odd bereavement. And thus began the chase…

Time is passing by and one of these days, it won’t matter anymore.
You see, we all get discontinued. No mad dashes then.

 

[cheapimitation]

The only one that really hurts me still is Frederic Malle Dries Van Noten.

I was well aware of its impending discontinuation and it was widely available on a few sites for a time. But I found the fragrance a bit challenging at the time and so I kept putting off buying it until one day it's availability totally dried up. I've got a little 3.5ml sample of it and I've come around to like it more now. Really wish I had gotten a bottle when I had the chance, but c'est la vie.

 

[hednic]

Time is passing by and one of these days, it won’t matter anymore.
You see, we all get discontinued. No mad dashes then.

Very true!

 

[DoctorM81]

One of the things that helped pull me in to the hobby was Paul Smith London being discontinued. I remember going to buy my second bottle and seeing all the stock marked down. By the time the penny dropped and I went back to scoop it up, it was mostly gone. The chase that ensued only sucked me deeper in...

 

[Bonnette]

I am a tad weary of this last-minute dash to get a bottle of the current stock for posterity’s sake. Most such discontinuations I can easily ignore, and I do. But imagine, never be able to smell Mystere, Theorema, Insense, Dilettante again… NO! For a while, I was frustrated about TG and decided not to pursue looking. But the other day, as I smelled the vial of talc gourmand that always sits on the kitchen-cupboard top, I felt an odd bereavement. And thus began the chase…

Time is passing by and one of these days, it won’t matter anymore.
You see, we all get discontinued. No mad dashes then.

The rush of finding the needle in a haystick is indisputable. I'm of two minds about it - on the one hand, better to track down and obtain a disappearing fragrance, than let it meet destruction in a landfill or recycle bin; on the other hand, procuring the grail just because it's there means that someone who could equally recognize, appreciate and actually use it...can't. Even so, with the passage of time, as reformulations become the gold standard, there will be fewer and fewer souls with long memories - which makes the quest for disappearing bottles more enticing, almost imperative. I've rescued a few such beauties, knowing that they'll probably still be sealed in splendor when I pass. So I completely understand the mad dash, and would probably take it up again for a worthy cause, even at my advanced age, knowing intellectually that success would only matter in some enchanted quarter of my mind. Such is the romance, mystery and allure of perfume.

 

[Varanis Ridari]

I've had a few that completely got away, or are so expensive now in the aftermarket I'd have to somehow not eat or pay bills for a whole month to buy them (we're talking hundreds or over a thousand), which functions the same for my humble station as if it were physically extinct. I have a 50ml of a fragrance right now that I got for $20 and now sells for $300 minimum on eBay. I had considered a backup but kept passing the buck and now it's too late. People go fast to madness in this hobby, sellers included.

Makes me sort of value what I have more than the things that got away. Especially knowing if I had to do it over again, there are some scents I own that I literally couldn't afford to buy if I had just discovered them now.

 

[Pallas Moncreiff]

Such thoughtful responses; thank you.
But here is the thing… I say all this, and I understand the confounding transience of perfume, even worse of this life, and it still doesn’t lessen the need for ‘that-perfume’ when it inadvertently shows up.
And agree, one learns to cherish what you have more rather than mourn the one not there anymore.

But, at the same time… that reminds me, perhaps it is time to sell that Attrape Coeur bottle.
Hah I know.
There goes my highfalutin mad pursuit of lost perfumes.
Tut-tut Pallas…. Lucre, lucre.

 

[FiveoaksBouquet]

Once a perfume is no longer produced, I don’t want it any more and even stop wearing it if I still have some. No idea why or how This practice came about but it has always been my modus operandi. I only go for the low-hanging fruit; i.e. fragrances currently on the primary market. There may be some feeling of loss but no anxiety about unobtainables.

 

[Trilby Lark]

Once a perfume is no longer produced, I don’t want it any more and even stop wearing it if I still have some. No idea why or how This practice came about but it has always been my modus operandi. I only go for the low-hanging fruit; i.e. fragrances currently on the primary market. There may be some feeling of loss but no anxiety about unobtainables.

Over time, I have reached the same conclusion. I figure there's always something new and wonderful to buy, so I don't chase the unobtainable. I might not be as strict as FiveoaksBouquet, but almost.

 

[StylinLA]

I have knee jerked a few times on scents I thought might be discontinued. I think it's kind of a side effect of Basenotes participation...

Was wrong more than I was right so far. But at least I've got backups I suppose.

At this point, I've got plenty pf the stuff I love the most and likely won't chase after anything at this point.

 

[Martialisaragon]

When I started getting serious about fragrances about two years ago, Aramis Havana was a cheapie. It cost about 22-23 euros online. When I got around to wanting to buy it, in autumn that same year, it was all gone. Turning to eBay, I found that the price had at least doubled from before.
I still haven’t bought it. It feels ridiculous to pay three times (or whatever it's currently selling for) the price it went for when I first saw it. But I guess it is not going to change.

 

[Zenwannabee]

I agree the siren song of the “going, going, gone” fragrance can be loud. I try (sometimes successfully) not to fixate too much on that and to enjoy what I have.

But often for me it’s cheapie fragrances that I love and that are still produced in rather mass quantities that cause me the greatest anxiety. What if those scents closest to my heart like Giorgio for Men or Aramis go the way of the dinosaur and I could have stocked up and didn’t? Even if they don’t fetch unicorn prices in the future (just fall out of favor and production as tastes change), that woulda coulda shoulda feeling can cause a cold sweat at 2:17am, and then what? A fitful night ensues.

Anyway, I try to stick to to fragrances in production, with 1-2 backups to help me sleep soundly. Though I still wish I’d bought cases of Old Spice before P&G switched from glass bottles to plastic and had to change the formula… 🙂

 

[Pallas Moncreiff]

I won’t say I’m surprised by sentiments expressed about not bothering with. those well-liked but now discontinued perfumes, but I will say….
Oh, I wish.

 

[Adonna]

Accustomed to 'holy grail' products & companies being disco'd.
& Yes, my 'lemming' head space.
In the past, back ups and/or purchases from exotic sources etc...
Trying to save my 'chase' for other things.
Yes -APLS - still hurts 🤕
& when seeking to smell the new in one of the many perfume shops here, my eyes wander the shelves for lost loves... on the off chance... which has worked out once with Parure.

Now seeking enjoyment and ease. There will always be something beautiful to smell.

a~~

 

[Pallas Moncreiff]

Well said, there always will be.

And if they slip past you, then what’s that you say cheapimitation….
Ah, c'est la vie.

 

[CeeTee]

Over time, I have reached the same conclusion. I figure there's always something new and wonderful to buy, so I don't chase the unobtainable. I might not be as strict as FiveoaksBouquet, but almost.

@Trilby Lark , Same. There’s never a lack of want on my long list, so I stopped buying backups. Everything I’m selling now are things I thought I needed to back up. Then, when I tired of them, they just sat around and became clutter.

 

[Ken_Russell]

Strangely or not, happening to be quite calm and unstressed about searching certain discontinued favorites, knowing that luckily most are still available for the right asking price (and of course, the sellers reputation also being a decisive factor).

However, while taking some of the pressure out of this fragrance search, it does not also take away the thrill, the excitement of both the search and that magic moment when first actually getting to own the specific bottle.

So far, tried to make the best of the search of nearly disappearing, at least increasingly rare vintage and focus on the quite satisfying but also fascinating aspects of it.

 

[Tea_Lilly]

When I started getting serious about fragrances about two years ago, Aramis Havana was a cheapie. It cost about 22-23 euros online. When I got around to wanting to buy it, in autumn that same year, it was all gone. Turning to eBay, I found that the price had at least doubled from before.
I still haven’t bought it. It feels ridiculous to pay three times (or whatever it's currently selling for) the price it went for when I first saw it. But I guess it is not going to change.

I feel the same way - I think it was back in 2011-12 or so we learned about Creeds and liked some. But I felt the bottle price was too high, but the 250 ml was much more reasonable per ml. I still remember going "oooh - around $300, this is crazy". So over a bit of time got a couple 250 flacons- and now a small bottle costs more than the flacon! I was lucky to find a bottle of the one I delayed getting for reasonable so finally got it. But yeah, I hesitate to buy at those kind of prices.

 

[CookBot]

People go fast to madness in this hobby, sellers included.

But it seems like the cycle has sped up so much in the past two to three years, that it's easy to completely miss the "mad dash" window entirely!

it used to be that a perfume would be discontinued, the leftovers would go out to the discounters, and it would be available for peanuts for a while before it disappeared altogether. Then, after a year or two, people would get a little frantic because they couldn't find it any more, and the occasional bottle would show up on eBay at about twice what its discounted cost had been.

Now, at the merest rumor of discontinuation, all the apex predator sellers start firing up their engines and charging three, four, five times the original price.

Makes me sort of value what I have more than the things that got away. Especially knowing if I had to do it over again, there are some scents I own that I literally couldn't afford to buy if I had just discovered them now.

I think about that all the time. But instead of feeling grateful for what I was able to afford when it was possible, it makes me feel sad for all the people of moderate means in the near future who won't ever get to experience the perfumes that existed before the crushing twin steamrollers of corporate greed and material restrictions mangled the industry.

 

[Bonnette]

But it seems like the cycle has sped up so much in the past two to three years, that it's easy to completely miss the "mad dash" window entirely!

it used to be that a perfume would be discontinued, the leftovers would go out to the discounters, and it would be available for peanuts for a while before it disappeared altogether. Then, after a year or two, people would get a little frantic because they couldn't find it any more, and the occasional bottle would show up on eBay at about twice what its discounted cost had been.

Now, at the merest rumor of discontinuation, all the apex predator sellers start firing up their engines and charging three, four, five times the original price.

How true. And not only do rumors of discontinuation spark rises in price, but now manufacturers build consumer jitters into the mix by dc'ing popular fragrances that have barely had time to macerate - two that come instantly to mind are Midnight in Paris and Sahara Noir, and there are plenty of others. The hair trigger is set, the minute a much-anticipated fragrance is launched. Get it while you can!

 

[Pallas Moncreiff]

Ken_Russell: I hear you, about the fascinating elements of a well done perfume.

Cookbot brought up an intriguing point which I have noticed more so since perhaps 2015.
If something got discontinued, it still use to linger around in the market, but now… whoop, gone. Especially decant-sample and mass market sellers scoop up the remaining stock. They keep track of such on BN and other perfume- forums.

Varanis Ridari‘s mention of “madness” is unfortunately, cringingly true

But sadly, this is the future…

…instead of feeling grateful for what I was able to afford when it was possible, it makes me feel sad for all the people of moderate means in the near future who won't ever get to experience the perfumes that existed before the crushing twin steamrollers of corporate greed and material restrictions mangled the industry.

I guess there goes the “mad-dash” as well.

In last 25 years, perfumery has gone from this… near fairytale realm of exclusivity, hereto unknown perfumery processes, an elite circle of perfume sponsors, and perfumers behind smoke and mirrors, their influences, quibbles and stories… to an entire exposed, cut throat, world of money, raw material sources, rampant hype and equally rampaging greed.
Sometimes, I miss that time, for I only caught the tail end of it, but I saw it. When one only talked about perfumery with a perfumer or scent-molecular industry insider.
I wish the discourse around perfumes was not of either extremes, but when have humans stayed on the middle path esp. when billions get involved.
And compared to before, perfumers positively chatter these days, but in the past… their behaviour was reflective of the sense associated with their métier : restrained silence.

 

[CookBot]

two that come instantly to mind are Midnight in Paris and Sahara Noir,

MiP was the exact scent I was thinking of when I wrote that! I first wrote a long diatribe about its path to exclusivity, then I deleted it because it seemed too obscure.

Around 2012, when it was loudly acclaimed here on BN, I thought I'd blind buy it for The Boyfriend, and kept an eye on the discounters, thinking it would drop from $40 to $25, and then... poof, it was gone, Today I looked on eBay, and the SOLD bottles are averaging $200, with more than a few fetching $250+.

 

[CookBot]

In last 25 years, perfumery has gone from this… near fairytale realm of exclusivity, hereto unknown perfumery processes, an elite circle of perfume sponsors, and perfumers behind smoke and mirrors, their influences, quibbles and stories… to an entire exposed, cut throat, world of money, raw material sources, rampant hype and equally rampaging greed.

I believe the blame for 75% of that can be laid at the feet of Bernard Arnhault and the insatiable maw of LVMH, and the gangs that are trying to follow in his footsteps, viz. L'Oreal, Puig, and their ilk

And compared to before, perfumers positively chatter these days, but in the past… their behaviour was reflective of the sense associated with their métier : restrained silence.

I don't suppose we can blame that on Monsieur Arnhault et al. The wild frontier of information-spew has probably affected many industries in the same way it has perfumery. There's bloody little that stays behind closed doors any more.

 

[Varanis Ridari]

But instead of feeling grateful for what I was able to afford when it was possible, it makes me feel sad for all the people of moderate means in the near future who won't ever get to experience the perfumes that existed before the crushing twin steamrollers of corporate greed and material restrictions mangled the industry.

Sadly this sort of thing is making perfume itself increasingly a concours-level hobby only for the conspicuous consumption set, which is arguably where it started 200 years ago.

 

[CookBot]

Sadly this sort of thing is making perfume itself increasingly a concours-level hobby only for the conspicuous consumption set, which is arguably where it started 200 years ago.

You know, I find that sort of weirdly comforting. As if by some accident of chronology we got to experience an anomalous little window of egalitarianism that may very well close behind us when we're gone.

 

[Pallas Moncreiff]

When I started writing this thread, I didn't realize it would lead to such meaningful discussion.

Pre 1880s, it was usually the royalty or the landed gentry who had the privilege and the money to afford perfumes but then came the industrial revolution and it brought them to the masses (politely referred to as, the great unwashed, then) … not funny.

Although perfumes especially ones with cheaply available synthetics would remain available... but those high quality, deemed the epitome, made with expensive molecules, and naturally sourced extracts or absolutes have already become so expensive... when inflation is running amok, who's going to buy? How many are buying Frederick Malle, Guerlain and Chanel parfums or Clive Christians on a regular basis?
Life always comes full circle.

And here’s to a wonderful quote remembering the amazing Martin Amis, who just died on Friday...
“When you considered this world--people winched up and lowered down into the earth in steel cages and speed-fed through the tunnels, with doors cracking everywhere, and arctic winds mingling with dusty gaps of fire from the planet's core--it was hard to believe how delicate life was, how breakable things were.”
~ Martin Amis, Other People

 

[cheapimitation]

But it seems like the cycle has sped up so much in the past two to three years, that it's easy to completely miss the "mad dash" window entirely!

Yea the speed of everything is crazy to me and I just completely stay away from any brand that releases loads of stuff and just as quickly discontinues them. I really like it when a brand sees their collection as curating a body of work rather than just throw shit at the wall to see what sticks.

I really think it's fragrance trying to copy the fashion model, where constant manufactured obsolescence keeps people buying season after season (one minute you're in and the next you're out!). I know I've felt the tug of end of season sales in the fashion cycle "but if I don't get it now, it will be gone forever!" but of course the next season there's a new thing to want.

I'm sure the fragrance industry is profiting wildly by fueling a constant malaise of FOMO and uncertainty throwing people into a consumerist panic. I'm sure nothing boosts sales like discontinuation rumors.

Still, I'm glad to see most of us on basenotes have a pretty healthy attitude towards this. My take is that if a brand doesn't believe enough in their product to keep it in production more than a year or two, why should I have any faith in their products either?

 

[Varanis Ridari]

You know, I find that sort of weirdly comforting. As if by some accident of chronology we got to experience an anomalous little window of egalitarianism that may very well close behind us when we're gone.

One door closes, and another one opens.

In the 1980's (let alone the 1880's) we didn't have such free and open access to information (regardless of what governments try to do), for example.

 

[yellowtone]

Sadly, it makes more sense to pander to consumerism than to do anything else, from a money making perspective that is. The odd thing is that even though the model is increasingly turning to fast fragrance, the prices are not doing the race to the bottom that we see in the fast fashion industry. Weirdly, the fragrance industry seems be able to have an unholy marriage between high volume and quickly rotating output and increasingly higher prices, kind of as if the likes of H&M would start charging $200 for a pair of jeans and getting away with it. I notice this at one of the larger local niche perfume stores. They used to have a stable selection of (the usual) niche brands, interspersed with a few new options here and there, but now they seem to have an entirely new inventory every other month, and I'm sad to say the quality is not improving. One of the few brands they still keep in stores is Diptyque, which is now the least expensive thing they sell by far. It's not that perfume is a necessity in life, but it does make me sad that it's becoming increasingly unattainable for so many.

Once a perfume is no longer produced, I don’t want it any more and even stop wearing it if I still have some. No idea why or how This practice came about but it has always been my modus operandi. I only go for the low-hanging fruit; i.e. fragrances currently on the primary market. There may be some feeling of loss but no anxiety about unobtainables.

I understand this sentiment. I don't stop wearing discontinued fragrances altogether but I do have to make myself use them. It makes no sense, but somehow discontinuation makes the scarcity mentality kick in. I try to be sensible about it though, if I love it I should use it. I also limit back up bottles, I have back ups for 2 scents, and I don't think I will add to to this any time soon. There's plenty more fish in the sea (even though that sea is increasingly expensive).

Recently, again, it was the same thing with Hiram Green’s Dilettante. I was in no rush to order another until during a discussion here on Basenotes about orange blossom scents, someone mentioned it, and lamented that it had been possibly discontinued. When I went to online stores, I realized, it was not to be found anywhere. Later, Perfume Lounge (Netherlands) had one last bottle.

Ha, so that was you?! I love Dilettante too, and snagged a bottle right when it was being discontinued from Hiram Green's own site (it came with a lovely note stating it was one of his last). I directed a couple of people to Perfumelounge (my favourite local niche store, a tiny tiny place with a lovely owner and very knowledgeable staff) as they were the last to have a bottle in stock. Nice to hear it ended up with you!

 

[Martialisaragon]

When I started writing this thread, I didn't realize it would lead to such meaningful discussion.

Pre 1880s, it was usually the royalty or the landed gentry who had the privilege and the money to afford perfumes but then came the industrial revolution and it brought them to the masses (politely referred to as, the great unwashed, then) … not funny.

Although perfumes especially ones with cheaply available synthetics would remain available... but those high quality, deemed the epitome, made with expensive molecules, and naturally sourced extracts or absolutes have already become so expensive... when inflation is running amok, who's going to buy? How many are buying Frederick Malle, Guerlain and Chanel parfums or Clive Christians on a regular basis?
Life always comes full circle.

And here’s to a wonderful quote remembering the amazing Martin Amis, who just died on Friday...
“When you considered this world--people winched up and lowered down into the earth in steel cages and speed-fed through the tunnels, with doors cracking everywhere, and arctic winds mingling with dusty gaps of fire from the planet's core--it was hard to believe how delicate life was, how breakable things were.”
~ Martin Amis, Other People

Martin Amis most definitely is a man of my tastes - thank you for bringing me notice.
This interview is very readable, I seriously doubt there's anything of this quality made in today's newspapers. Congenial to Amis, one could argue that this is just another proof of occidental decline.

The New York Times: Book Review Search Article

 

[baklavaRuzh]

Once a perfume is no longer produced, I don’t want it any more and even stop wearing it if I still have some. No idea why or how This practice came about but it has always been my modus operandi. I only go for the low-hanging fruit; i.e. fragrances currently on the primary market. There may be some feeling of loss but no anxiety about unobtainables.

Me too. There are probably two fragrances I would get an extra bottle of if they were being discontinued, but that's it. I use too much time to get through a bottle anyways, so I don't except a fragrance to be on the market when a bottles empties out, depending on the brand.

 

[Pallas Moncreiff]

Ha, so that was you?! I love Dilettante too, and snagged a bottle right when it was being discontinued from Hiram Green's own site (it came with a lovely note stating it was one of his last). I directed a couple of people to Perfumelounge (my favourite local niche store, a tiny tiny place with a lovely owner and very knowledgeable staff) as they were the last to have a bottle in stock. Nice to hear it ended up with you!

See, it is a painfully small world. And am I glad for that bottle. I often place it on one arm and And The World Is Yours by A Lab on fire on the other.

The New York Times: Book Review Search Article

Thank you for the url. He was such a pithy writer.

One door closes, and another one opens.

What a wise but optimistic comment. And more access owes itself to internet I think.

Although, I can afford to, but my “mad dash” these days is only reserved for scents which I not only enjoy, and but have a definite emotional element.
Gah, in my middle age, Im turning maudlin! But, Ive noticed, it has to be there for me: it has become paramount. This is my way of being mindful. Sometimes just a sample would do for my olfactory-library.
But, the decline of integrity, professional morality and ethics on a societal level, when reflected (as expected) in perfumery saddens me to no end.
Well… onwards, and upwards (not so sure about the last bit).

 

[Franco65]

If some scent is too good to be true I always back it up, several times... I hear a voice in my head that says "you're going to miss this!"
Wish I heard that voice when Davidoff original was still out but I was not a scent junkie, yet!

 

[Varanis Ridari]

What a wise but optimistic comment. And more access owes itself to internet I think.

Although, I can afford to, but my “mad dash” these days is only reserved for scents which I not only enjoy, and but have a definite emotional element.
Gah, in my middle age, Im turning maudlin! But, Ive noticed, it has to be there for me: it has become paramount. This is my way of being mindful. Sometimes just a sample would do for my olfactory-library.
But, the decline of integrity, professional morality and ethics on a societal level, when reflected (as expected) in perfumery saddens me to no end.
Well… onwards, and upwards (not so sure about the last bit).

The flipside to that coin is the door which opens to replace the closed one may not be one we want to walk through. 🤣

 

[cazaubon]

Discontinuation is like waving a red flag in front of a bull to me, but I’m trying to fight the urge nowadays, since I have too much perfume already and nearly all of it is better than what is currently being released. I feel fortunate to have gotten in on the last of the golden age of perfumery.

 

[Pallas Moncreiff]

As if by some accident of chronology we got to experience an anomalous little window of egalitarianism that may very well close behind us when we're gone.

I feel fortunate to have gotten in on the last of the golden age of perfumery.

These two comments bring it all home in a way, that reminds me of Dr Turin’s 2010 lament (when IFRA regulations fully went into effect)… that the golden age of perfumery was dead.
He sorta walked back on it, but I think he was bluntly honest the first time.
I am glad that I caught the shreds of that earlier era when almost no one talked about perfumes, to this precious window when chaos ensued.
I wish it had not been so hyped-up and money-oriented, so damningly feverish. That unique position in history, as only perfumery has, of being a true science and an art at the same time (~ this is “my opinion”, and I know even one of my favourite perfumers, Jean Desprez doesn’t agree with me!), of that incredible gift some perfumers have that speaks to something divine in scents… I wish it would have been more valued and cherished for posterity.
But, M. Jean Kerléo efforts for Osmothèque are to be commended.

What happened to Art per se in last century, kinda happened to perfumes as well.
Money ruined it all.
When the taint goes beyond the boundary, well then, there goes legacy.

I’ll tell a story, more than a decade ago, in Moroccan High Alps, I got to see Amazigh culture up close, their traditions and handicrafts, the carpet weaving, silversmithing, etc. I recall a mountain nomad lady telling me that men came from the souks down in the land (that meant, cities down in plains like Fez, Marrakesh) and they wanted her old weaves, carpets, her old marriage head-dress! I told her not to sell if she could help it. Those men made a lot of money selling her history. I encouraged her to go down the mountain to those souks and sell if she was of a mind to make profit. She asked who will buy? I said, I would.
I bought a small hand woven flat weave carpet which she had made for her wedding day, to sit on. It was tattered at the edges. Her spouse had died few years ago. I told her, I wont put it on the floor, but up on a shelf, and I would remember her every-time I saw it. She sat there with me in the blue gloom of Alps evening with silent tears. She understood what I didn’t say.
I caught the tail-end of a civilization ending.
Perfumery has the same feeling.

 

[Bonnette]

These two comments bring it all home in a way, that reminds me of Dr Turin’s 2010 lament (when IFRA regulations fully went into effect)… that the golden age of perfumery was dead.
He sorta walked back on it, but I think he was bluntly honest the first time.
I am glad that I caught the shreds of that earlier era when almost no one talked about perfumes, to this precious window when chaos ensued.
I wish it had not been so hyped-up and money-oriented, so damningly feverish. That unique position in history, as only perfumery has, of being a true science and an art at the same time (~ this is “my opinion”, and I know even one of my favourite perfumers, Jean Desprez doesn’t agree with me!), of that incredible gift some perfumers have that speaks to something divine in scents… I wish it would have been more valued and cherished for posterity.
But, M. Jean Kerléo efforts for Osmothèque are to be commended.

What happened to Art per se in last century, kinda happened to perfumes as well.
Money ruined it all.
When the taint goes beyond the boundary, well then, there goes legacy.

I’ll tell a story, more than a decade ago, in Moroccan High Alps, I got to see Amazigh culture up close, their traditions and handicrafts, the carpet weaving, silversmithing, etc. I recall a mountain nomad lady telling me that men came from the souks down in the land (that meant, cities down in plains like Fez, Marrakesh) and they wanted her old weaves, carpets, her old marriage head-dress! I told her not to sell if she could help it. Those men made a lot of money selling her history. I encouraged her to go down the mountain to those souks and sell if she was of a mind to make profit. She asked who will buy? I said, I would.
I bought a small hand woven flat weave carpet which she had made for her wedding day, to sit on. It was tattered at the edges. Her spouse had died few years ago. I told her, I wont put it on the floor, but up on a shelf, and I would remember her every-time I saw it. She sat there with me in the blue gloom of Alps evening with silent tears. She understood what I didn’t say.
I caught the tail-end of a civilization ending.
Perfumery has the same feeling.

So, so beautifully said, every word. I'm practically in tears, reading about that dear woman in Morocco. And I agree, this moment in perfumery does have all the hallmarks of a fading ethos and way of being. Like you, I think Luca Turin got it exactly right in 2010, and his later quasi-reversal felt to me like a sad nod to the perfume industry's might as his bread and butter. In a 2008 interview, Malle told Kafkaesque that regulations had already begun to still perfumery's creative heart, with no possibility of resurrection. The writing was on the wall in those days, and has become indelible.

You say:

What happened to Art per se in last century, kinda happened to perfumes as well. Money ruined it all. When the taint goes beyond the boundary, well then, there goes legacy.

Yes, yes. So many of us feel that way, and we mean no offense to those just coming into these fields. Years from now, there will probably be voices bewailing a similar perceived loss. But the coarseness of consumerism today was surely prefigured at the end of the Belle Epoque: I suspect that, ironically, this was one of the reasons why Midnight in Paris - a nice but unremarkable fragrance, aligned in the collective imagination with Woody Allen's contemporaneous film - aroused such disproportionate ardor.

 

[Pallas Moncreiff]

Thank you, Bonnette.
Let’s see if I am still around when VR’s ‘another door opens’, and if it is worth passing through.
Meanwhile…
“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life. It goes on."
— Robert Frost.

 

[Scent Detective]

Thank you, Bonnette.
Let’s see if I am still around when VR’s ‘another door opens’, and if it is worth passing through.
Meanwhile…
“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life. It goes on."
— Robert Frost.

Yes, it goes on...until as you said in your first post, it ends.

My take is similar to the reason I still play in a rock band at age 61...because I'm having fun. When it stops being fun, then I won't do it anymore. It's the same with perfumes, when I'm completely priced out of the things I want to pursue, or they're so exclusive that I can't even dip my toe in the pool to get a sample, I'll walk away because it won't be fun anymore. I love the pursuit of the unobtainable in a Quixote kind of way; and yes, I'm sure some probably think I'm crazy too, but I've had many hours of enjoyment from my fragrances and I'll continue to do so as long as I can, and as long as I'm having fun. There are some unobtainable's I've been able to track down and some I haven't. The anticipation is a huge part of the fun if you can eventually get your hands on the prize. If you can't find the prize after a long period of time, (everyone has to determine their pursuit "shelf life"), then you have to move on. I still maintain a hazy feeling of longing inside for things I've never been able to find/accomplish in my life and get a wan smile when I think of them, but I still move on and enjoy the now. Great thread idea by the way, Pallas.

 

[Pallas Moncreiff]

Yes, it goes on...until as you said in your first post, it ends.
If you can't find the prize after a long period of time, (everyone has to determine their pursuit "shelf life"), then you have to move on. I still maintain a hazy feeling of longing inside for things I've never been able to find/accomplish in my life and get a wan smile when I think of them, but I still move on and enjoy the now. Great thread idea by the way, Pallas.

Thank you, and you’re welcome (re: thread idea).
Human desire for what we may not be able to or cant, have! Hah.
I think our race has a penchant for the melancholy… but I do remember well when I first read this concept, such a long time ago, in Jack London’s The SeaWolf (by far my favourite of his books), I felt so irritated at him— whims of youthful exuberance I guess.
I wrote… time is passing by, and I realize, its us who are passing by;
time is exactly where it is supposed to be.

PS: I was informed today that that fateful bottle of Talc gourmand (Im waiting on), is in a warehouse somewhere, and some Italian restrictions?? have caused a delay in its retrieval… so will I kindly await patiently for it to be mailed.
(I’m laughing so hard…. you poor thing, all this kerfuffle over a scent!).