Hey Fragrant Friend 👋 ,
It’s day 672 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 we had another session with our Evaluator Circle to discuss modifications of our second fragrance together with Dario Siegel.
As always these calls are incredibly insightful. But what fascinated me most this time was something slightly different.
Even though only one fragrance from New Niche is currently close to commercialisation, I increasingly feel that the Scently Speaking community already understands surprisingly well what New Niche should stand for.
We noticed this through one specific piece of feedback. The current modification of fragrance #2 is technically extremely well executed. Everyone agreed on that. But several people felt the direction leaned a bit more commercial and slightly more classical in its inspiration.
That immediately sparked the question whether this actually fits New Niche. What fascinated me was that this thought did not come from me but from the community. During the call Izabella from Spain, Max from the Netherlands and Tatiana from France were surprisingly aligned. Through that conversation something started to crystallise.
What people seem to associate with New Niche is the idea that fragrances should feel contemporary and distinctive. The kind of scent where you cannot immediately point to something else it smells like.
And that is also exactly how I think about working with perfumers. If a perfumer works with New Niche I want them to feel that this is a place where they can try something they might not attempt somewhere else. Maybe pushing a material further. Maybe following an idea that feels slightly risky.
If you ever had the thought in the lab “what would happen if I actually tried this” then New Niche should be the place where the answer is let's find out.
Because the worst reaction to a fragrance is when someone smells it and simply says it is quite nice. The interesting moment is when someone pauses and says
I have never smelled something quite like this.
This might not be the final definition of New Niche. But for the first time it feels like we are starting to see the outline of an answer. For now I’m thinking something like this: contemporary, potentially polarising, courageous, with the chance of becoming a game changer perfume, but still highly wearable and never abstract.
And the exciting part is that this clarity did not come from a strategy document. It emerged from a conversation between people who simply care about perfume and from the community around the project.
From the outside it probably still looks like we are moving slowly. But internally the last weeks have created a surprising amount of clarity.
Production Update
Another exciting development is that the primary packaging for #1 Before the World Moved Again has finally entered serial production.
If everything continues according to plan the packaging should arrive within the next two weeks. After almost four and a half months of delay we are getting very close to finally shipping the first bottles to the early supporters who ordered the fragrance without ever smelling it.
A Small Future Dream
There was also something else this week that energised me quite a bit.
Max from the Netherlands who is part of the community shares a very deep fascination with Fynbos. A unique and incredibly biodiverse shrubland ecosystem in the Western Cape of South Africa.
Max is originally from Cape Town and we first met during our community gathering in Amsterdam.
Fynbos Flora
Over several conversations we realised that we both feel a strong curiosity to explore this extraordinary biodiversity in the context of perfume. Interestingly the region itself is not heavily used in perfumery today. Not because it lacks beauty but simply because it is not an obvious source of large scale essential oils.
Which makes it even more fascinating as a creative territory. One of the most intriguing aspects of Fynbos is that fire is not seen as a catastrophe but as a necessary force for regeneration.
The idea that destruction can be a prerequisite for renewal opens an incredibly rich narrative and olfactive space. Every time we talk about this landscape the excitement grows.
I have a feeling that sooner or later this will become a fragrance story we explore together. For now it is still just an idea.
Mood of the week: Grounded and determined 💪
More soon.
Sebastian