Hey Fragrant Friend 👋 ,
It’s day 658 of me trying to change the perfume industry for the better. Here’s the weekly note from inside the engine room.
I’m in a strange in-between phase right now. The samples of #1 are finally there. I’ve shipped the first sold samples. I’ve sent the first ones to shops across Europe. Interested creators now actually have something physical in their hands. And yet there’s still no real market proof. No hard validation. Just early signals.
There’s a difference between people inside the industry liking the narrative and the market responding to it with real demand. I’m very aware of that. So this period feels exciting and exposed at the same time. It’s the first real test of whether the concept around New Niche and Before the World Moved Again by Chester Gibs connects beyond theory.
Berlin had its first real hint of spring. I intentionally wore Before the World Moved Again and went for a walk in the sun. My skin reacts strongly to seasonal shifts, and fragrances always behave differently on me when temperature changes.
And there it was again. The Bengal pepper CO2 extract Chester used. In winter it already stood out to me, but in sunlight it opened differently. Warmer. Deeper. Almost velvety, with a moist warmth instead of sharp dryness. Not the spiky pepper most people expect. More like warmth with texture. It gives the scent a dimension I honestly haven’t experienced elsewhere except maybe in some creations by Ensar Oud.
That moment reminded me why this whole thing exists in the first place. Not for positioning. Not for narrative. But for that exact experience on skin.
On the second fragrance with Dario Siegel, the evaluation group has now received their samples. In the next two weeks we’ll gather again and go through impressions before Dario touches it once more. What’s forming there feels like light hitting warm depth. Golden, soft, but grounded in resins and a subtle base warmth. Less postcard Mediterranean. More sunrise on an empty coastline that still feels untouched.
This week was also about showing up properly. I’ve spent a lot of time pushing the media footprint forward. Not by “creating content” in the classic sense, but by trying to document what is already happening. Gary Vee has this line: don’t create, document. And I’m really trying to live that. Just taking what’s unfolding with New Niche and putting it out there without polishing it into something it’s not.
Still, I’ll be honest. It feels awkward. Sometimes even cringe. I recently watched someone say that everything feels cringe until you’ve repeated the narrative often enough that people actually understand what you’re about. And I feel that. Even if I’m not inventing stories, just documenting the fragrance development, the samples, the retail conversations, it still feels strange to speak into a camera and trust that this repetition will eventually land.
But here’s something that grounded me this week.
Three independent perfumers reached out to me separately. Just genuine messages saying that what I’m building is something they’ve been hoping to see for a long time. That putting perfumers first, giving them name and face, building a format that serves them globally, actually matters.
That meant more to me than I expected. Because it’s easy to say our DNA is built around service to perfumers all around the world. It’s different when the people you’re trying to serve tell you it resonates.
If there’s one quiet learning this week, it’s this: documentation feels uncomfortable before it feels natural. Validation from insiders feels good, but it’s not the same as market resonance. And the only way to find out is to keep moving.
So that’s what I’m doing.
Mood of the week: exposed but steady.
Song of the week: Tiffany - Dragoste dulce.
More soon.
Sebastian