No reason for putting this here other than I wanted to. Words from Basenotes member scentemental, who writes about fragrances as well as Federer plays tennis:
"Probably the most oft-repeated misconception and misunderstanding on Basenotes and a dichotomy many just can’t seem to get away from in the obsessive compulsion to build up niche fragrances at the expense of designer fragrances. It’s as if niche fragrances can’t be left alone to fend for themselves without attacking their less prestigious brethren......the majority of people who write about the development of modern perfumery and those in the fragrance industry, including the great noses, understand clearly that the skills set developed by noses creating for the non-niche industry is where the true originality and quality of composition lies........
I hold to no clear cut hierarchy between niche and designer.....It is the individual fragrances and not the category that matters.....If one really wants to know about and understand fragrances, I mean really wants to know and understand, one needs to keep an open mind and lose the clichéd dichotomies and the false hierarchies. They don’t even begin to address the marvel which is fragrance creation. My harshest criticism of this falsely dichotomous view is that it produces very little sense of wonder. Everything is too clear cut for that. You can’t have wonder in such a world."
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Chanel Sycomore
Givenchy Gentleman (vintage)
Chanel Egoiste (vintage)