Hey Fragrant Friend 👋 ,
It’s day 686 of me trying to change the perfume industry for the better. Here’s the weekly note from inside the engine room.
Before we dive into this issue, a quick favour: Move this email to your Primary tab so future issues land where you’ll actually see them.
Update
This week feels like the last quiet moment before everything changes.
If all goes according to plan, the packaging for Before the World Moved Again will arrive Monday evening. That means by the time I write to you next, I’ll be holding the final product in my hands. After 17 months of work, doubt, and countless iterations, it feels almost surreal to be this close.
I’ve been trying to imagine what that moment will feel like. Relief? Pride? Maybe just exhaustion. But mostly, I think it will feel like the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. Because as much as this journey has been about creating a fragrance, it’s also been about building something bigger, a new way of thinking about niche perfumery.
Validation and Reflection
This week brought some unexpected validation from people I deeply respect.
One industry veteran told me the fragrance smells like it could come from one of the great houses - “a potential bestseller”. Another, a brand owner behind one of the most successful niche lines in Czech Republic, said it’s a scent he’d personally choose to wear every day. And a well-known influencer shared that it’s the kind of quality she usually has to sift through 20 or 30 niche launches to find.
These aren’t just compliments. They’re moments of connection. Proof that what we’re building resonates not just with me, but with others who understand this world deeply. And while I’m careful not to let praise cloud my judgment, it’s a quiet reassurance that we’re on the right path.
At the same time, I’m realising that the way forward isn’t without its challenges. To keep growing at the pace I’ve been moving, I’d need to accept that this will remain a slow, deliberate process. But if I want to dedicate myself fully to this mission, to truly change the industry, I may need to explore other paths.
That’s why I’ve started having conversations with industry professionals about what those paths might look like. How to grow in a way that’s sustainable, impactful, and still true to the vision of New Niche.
A Thought on Consolidation
This week, I also found myself reflecting on the rumoured acquisition of Puig by Estée Lauder.
If it happens, the most interesting consequence won’t just be the size of the resulting company. It will be the completeness of their fragrance portfolio. Puig already owns the muscular center of prestige fragrance: Rabanne, Carolina Herrera, Jean Paul Gaultier, while also holding culturally meaningful names like Byredo, Penhaligon’s, and L’Artisan Parfumeur.
Estée Lauder, on the other hand, brings a different kind of power: Jo Malone’s scale, Tom Ford’s luxury signaling, and the artistic credibility of Le Labo, Frédéric Malle, and Kilian.
Together, they wouldn’t just be bigger. They’d define much of what prestige fragrance means today: commercially, culturally, and symbolically.
The risk isn’t just consolidation. It’s that more of perfumery’s key definitions, what counts as taste, what counts as niche, what counts as creative seriousness, could begin to sit under fewer roofs, even as the market performs diversity on the surface.
It’s a reminder of why I started New Niche in the first place. To create a space where perfumers can take risks, where creativity isn’t just a marketing angle, and where the definition of niche isn’t dictated by a handful of players.
Mood of the week: Surreal and reflective.
Song of the week: Nessi Gomes - These Walls
More soon.
Sebastian