At Fueguia 1833 in the Hyatt at Roppongi, and L’Officine Officielle Buly today in Daikanyama.
I am TOTALLY NICHED OUT
( you can see me and D endlessly sniffing at the end of the second picture. Fueguia had SEVENTY perfumes, some of them quite intriguing, but even so…)
Andrea Maack, L’Orchestre Parfum, Son Venin, Stora Skuggan, Sauf, Nebbia, Abel, Agonist, Laboratorio Olfattivo, Unum, Nebbia, it goes on and on: Liquides Imaginaires, Zoologist, Les Bains Guerbois – almost universally overpriced, ludicrously so, and even more expensive in Japan.
Some perfumes I have liked, and would wear. And might buy ( like L’Orchestre Parfum’s gorgeous frankincense, Encens D’Asakusa, or L’Histoires de Parfums’ dreamy Madam Butterfly.) Even if, on the whole I sometimes I feel that with all these never ending grim hipster smoked woods and Burning Barbershops and pretentious conceptual nonsenses it’s as if no one has ever got over CB I Hate Perfume and Comme Des Garcons two decades after the fact: everything MUST be metallic and off putting and smell of sinister priests or gunpowder or blood or some other extortionately priced humorless claptrap.
Stimulating, yes.
But sometimes I just wish there were more JOY in it all.
Any thoughts on any of the above brands?
The Black Narcissus 
Plus: how is it that so many perfumes smell like Feminite Du Bois?
Iso E Super, maybe?
Fueguia 1833 launched with 10 perfumes several years back and that was too many for me. It is ridiculous. These cannot all be completely different from one another. I am sure there are redundancies. Niche companies would do better with consumers if they slowed it down a bit. Launch 2 or 3 initially and maybe one new one a year. I count on perfume reviews to cut through some of the chaff for me but what happens when the reviewers are overwhelmed?
there were SEVENTY
although I did quite enjoy just going round the table two or three times to take them all in. Quite a few I would wear, but they were 35,000 yen. Which is just stupid.
P.S. Sniff those Unums…..
Yes, you see I like those. I would wear LAVS, Opus 112 and I really liked the Rosa Nigra .So expensive though!
PLUS : I would like to wipe synthetic oud from the face of the earth
I adore LAVS also but so spends.
I meant speedy! Spellcheck how I loathe thee!
I will only type this one more time! SPENDY!
I completely agree.
Which ones do you like?
Ditto, what you just said about synthetic ouds. And I feel the same way about perfumes that have so much promise in the first 5 minutes and then become a nose-searing mess of cashmeran, or ambroxan or some other equally heinous synthetic fixative. When did longevity become more important than quality???
Yes, very true! Those aromachemicals put me so utterly off that I hardly want to smell the new scents… On the blog „un grain de musc“ I read that the blogger wanted to flay her arm after spritzing Hermès‘ Eau de citron noir. Extreme, but that is exactly the feeling I have. I now unfortunately mistrust novel scents.
I agree with the synthetic oud and ISO E Super, a molecule I can detect from the next county.
Citron Noir is horror. With the Encens D’Asakusa, I made sure I got to know the scent through its duration (on a card, at least), and was DELIGHTED that it did succeed in being all frankincense and niche incense to begin with but then ceded to a soft, vanillic base eventually that I know I could wear. Not everyone succumbs to that wood-horror bullshit!
Amen.
Oh god yes. Far too many, and far too few worthy scents, at ridiculous prices. ISO E Super, Ambroxan, Cashmeran and Dihydromercenal galore. Great opening which collapses in an indistinct heap after 20 minutes. I hardly bother to sample any more, my success rate is quite low and I have so many great fragrances already.
Fueguia is totally out of control.
And yet they had some interesting solo notes perfumes like a Tuberose (Muskara Polianthes) that was obviously natural, almost a more intense Carnal Flower… the ‘woodies’ I passed by, though that is not entirely true. I got D to try one of them, as it smelled quite nice – some cedary thing that was based on the smell of a guitar, but sure enough, in a restaurant later I was shocked when I suddenly started getting this aggressive oudh crap…It is a plague!
I am older so I remember a time when there were only classic perfumes and a few new one every year and a new release was something special. Now there are probably a thousand new ones every month and new houses as well. I don’t have the time nor money to try all of them, but now and then I send away for samples of some of the ones that sound intriguing to me. Alas, the intriguing ones are few and far between. Plus most of these houses don’t just put out one new perfume…no, it is usually a collection of at least 4-5 to add to their other collections. Sometimes I just get weary of it all and shop within my own collection, some of which get neglected because I already have more than too many.
Yes! I love the idea of shopping within one’s own collection. ‘I’m just going upstairs for some browsing….’
I’m niched out and priced out and I just don’t care about it anymore. I just want to support small independent sellers like DSH and Alkemia and Sixteen92, and other people you find on Etsy. Chasing vintage is also losing its appeal to me…. 35,000 yen for a bottle of perfume? Reminds me of that old saying: cocaine is God’s way of telling you have too much money. Just sub out the coke with perfume (which would be a better use of money, but still….)
It does feel like that..
Of these brands, only UNUM—barely—and Zoologist are worth your time. Zoologist’s scents are hit and miss, but mostly hit—and they’re plucky and fun and don’t take themselves too seriously (without resorting to cheap minimalist tricks to accomplish that).
Zoologist’s Rhino is a stonking rum and egg nog oriental, Bat’s a challenging geosmin composition, and Nightingale is an ethereal aldehydic floral. I haven’t tried others from the line but I’m looking forward to picking up T. Rex (upcoming animalic floral from A. Gardoni of Bogue).
– Jake
I thought some of the Zoologists were genuinely quite interesting, though hardly any were actually wearable! Nightingale I might wear as I like the patchouli plum note.
I have two fragrances by Laboratorio Olfattivo that I like very much, but they are the kind of florals that appeal to me and won’t appeal to everyone. The ones I have are Decou-Vert (love it!) and Nirmal. The interior of the store you visited is beautiful!
It IS nice actually.
I love Decou-Vert too : a most pleasant, easy green. I have a sample of the Nirmal : I will have to check it out.