Top quality designers

im not a niche-y person
but
designers...really depends...the difference from dior homme ot calvin klein...

all designers want is money...honestly....right?

YSL Rive Gauche and M7
Terre d´Hermés
Chanel Egoiste and Antaeus
Dior Homme and Eau Sauvage
Narciso Rodrigeuz for Him
John Varvatos
Guerlain Vetiver

there are nice for designer scents

It's funny but, soon after joining Basenotes, I decided to buy only designer scents and to restrict niche frags to decants. At the time, I loved designer scents and thought that niche either wouldn't appeal to me as much or, if it did, couldn't be justified by the price tag. I was very reluctant to invest in a full-size bottle of ANY expensive/niche juice. I suppose, at this early stage, I hadn't fully appreciated the art of pefumery (and, initially, I really wasn't planning to invest a lot of money in scents).

However, after a few months of testing niche decants and samples, my tastes gradually changed and I suddenly felt the need to purchase my first SL scent (I think it was Arabie). I also realised that I wasn't too keen on having a decant collection and decided to only collect full-sized bottles. By this point, I was completely in love with my decants more than my designer scents. With every niche bottle I purchased, one of my designer scents was evicted. Now my niche bottles outnumber my designer bottles...

I totally agree about the harshness of most designer frags - I think that's why my signature scent for nearly a decade (Le Male) no longer appealed to me and was promptly sold. To me, Experimenting with niche scents is almost like losing your innocence once again - once you've been exposed, it's literally impossible to go back. Nowadays, whenever I try to find a new addition, I'm always looking for a niche and not a designer.

rompip, this is just the next logical step in your personal olfactory development. Enjoy!

i got both niche and designer scents and i also switch the fragrances.

While I enjoy both, I do notice the difference now. I went into Macy's the other day and remember having the thought about how many of the frag's were so characterless or one-dimensional. Not all, but many.

I too began with an emphasis on designer fragrances and a skeptical view of "niche" lines. I think what led me to branch out (so that now more than half my wardrobe is on the niche side) is not mainly a difference in quality. Instead, I now have a wardrobe full of scents I love, so if I'm going to buy another, it has to give me something new and distinctive -- I'm not interested in a slight variation on something I already have. I think niche fragrances cover a wider "fragrance space," whereas designer scents -- especially newer releases -- tend to occupy a small, safe portion of this space.

That said, scents like Calvin, Terre d'Hermes, and Armani Eau pour homme aren't likely to be cast out of my wardrobe anytime soon.

^ I agree with PaulSC. The fragrance space of niche challenges me more often and fills voids in my drobe that most designer frags can't. There are always exceptions however.

I concentrate much more on the scent itself, rather than its designer or niche roots. However, there are certainly inspired designer scents that equal or better niche scents. I'm thinking of YSL Opium (especially the women's version), Nino Cerruti Pour Homme, Jean Patou Pour Homme, Spazio Krizia Uomo, Laura Biagiotti's Roma Uomo, Romeo Gigli per Uomo, Hermes Equipage (and quite possibly Terre), Zino Davidoff, Shiseido Basala, and Ricci's Signoricci. I love all these the equal of any of the many niche scents in my collection.

When Sephora first opened in the US, it was such a revelation. It was a "Designer Fragrance" library that spanned decades. Little cards listing the designer's name, ingredients and the year it was introduced were hanging in front of every fragrance, A- Z. It was the first place I discovered Caron pour un Homme. Can you imagine seeing anything by Caron in a Sephora today? They also carried Comme des Garçons and Yohji.
The Paris Sephora on the Champs Élysées hasn't given up on this idea.
I guess all those classics and cult fragrances didn't sell too well in the US. And, who can compete with all the discount internet shops? I'm not complaining, I buy almost exclusively on the internet.
So where does one actually go to try a good sampling of "Designer Fragrances" in the US? Bloomingdales, Macy's and Duty Free? I feel Marshalls, TJ Maxx and Filene's Basement all do a better job of offering unusual choices than the department stores.
I was in Dusseldorf last month and visited the German equivalent to Sephora, a chain called Douglas, there I was able to try the "Designer Fragrances" that I've only read about on Basenotes: Cacharel pour Homme, Aigner 2, Basala, JHL, etc. It was actually exciting to be in that store.

I enjoy niche and designer scents equally.

Some niche scents I really don't like at all, other designer scents I absolutely love. Vice versa.

Remember - some perfume noses work on designer scents AND niche scents. Yes, the niche house usually give the noses much better quality ingredients to work with, or more creative control. But nonetheless, sometimes the 'creator' of a scent has a lot to do with how a scent ultimately smells, regardless of who is actually putting their brand name all over it.