The Meaning of Niche Perfumes

Almost every day, you walk by someone and think to yourself, “What’s that intoxicating scent? I’ve never smelled that perfume before.” You’ve just woken up to the world of niche perfumes.

What is Niche Perfume?

It’s pretty simple, actually. We’ve probably all bought a bottle of designer perfume at one time in our lives. You find them in every pharmacy and duty-free shop. You smell their sillage (scent cloud) everywhere. They are sometimes quite loud and scream for attention.

Niche is the other side of that coin. More subtle yet incredibly present, niche perfume is the yellow brick road leading you to the olfactive Emerald City. And just like Dorothy, you get to see the wizard behind the curtain. We now hear the names of noses (perfume creators) like Dominique Ropion, Nathalie Lorson and Mark Buxton in everyday conversation. And we actually know who they are — for the most part. Niche perfume has come a long way.

“Even I have a tough time defining niche,” says Les Vides Anges Perfumes’ creative director and nose, Aldo Parise. “I guess you can consider it an alternative perfume. A break from the repetitive designer perfumes.” August, as he’s known in artistic circles, founded Les Vides Anges and La Maison LVA in 2015 after working for years making commercial fragrances. He got “bored” — his word — of making the same type of perfume over and over again.

“Every time we suggested a new, stand-out aroma ingredient or tried to give a scent a modern edge, the clients shut us down. After a while, I had a notebook full of formulas no one knew what to do with. I needed to find an outlet for my overactive imagination.”

The perfume house’s spring 2023 collection has just been launched. Its latest limited-run extrait de parfum is Pop, an effervescent take on a bergamot/sandalwood classic. A heavy dose of mandarine aldehyde keeps the fragrance true to its name. There is also an addition to the permanent collection, with Eau de Surréel, a reformulation of an existing skin perfume using a special extract of the Elemi plant and a blend of velvety musks.

So what is niche perfume? Parise still seems unclear, “It’s maybe about how the perfumes are formulated or about the choice of ingredients. But if I had to put my finger on it, I’d say it’s mostly about the nose (perfumer) behind the perfume. They are always present. You can see their style and signature on each bottle.”

Why start a niche perfumery?

August: I hate the word niche. It’s meaningless. We’re indie perfumers. We don’t have captive materials to rely on. Yet we can make something distinctive. It’s really about time.

What do you mean by “about time”?

Lucien: It takes time to work the formulas. It takes time to mature the experiments. Time is the only thing we can’t make more of though.

You’ve decided to focus on limited-run fragrances. What if someone falls in love with a fragrance and it’s sold out?

A: If they’ve loved one of our fragrances, then they’ll enjoy one of our newer creations. We archive all our formulas, but I’m not interested in looking back. I only want to see how else I can manipulate the ingredients. And it’s not like we don’t have a permanent collection.

You mean la 1e?

A: Yes. It’s a favorite for a reason. It’s hypoallergenic, simple yet powerful. It’s a quintessential modern perfume. And it smells amazing on both men and women.

How important is it to you to make your fragrances unisex?

L: All perfumes are unisex. Any man can wear Channel №5. A woman is stunning with a touch of Tom Ford Oud. It’s ridiculous that we’ve created these false corridors between scents. Perfumes are an extension of how you are feeling — or want to feel.

How do you start a fragrance?

A: I start with my list of materials. I like to focus on a particular aroma which has piqued my interest. Then it’s time and dozens of experiments. Failure is a big part of perfumery.

Do you fail a lot?

A: All the time. Sometimes failure leads you down a different path. That’s why I love it when things go wrong.

What do you learn when things go wrong?

A: Everything. The only way to honestly know what you like is to understand what you don’t.

Is there one ingredient that, as you say, has piqued your interest?

A: I want to say there are a lot, but one has really gotten me recently  —  Humus Ether from Takasago. I’d love to build a fragrance with it as the central pillar. I’ve yet to figure it out.

You came to perfumery after years as a street artist. Why did you make a change?

L: I love the solitude of working on an art commission or just going out tagging. But the commissions started drying up about 10 years ago. We found ourselves obsessing about our passions. Perfumery was the one that meant the most. Plus, have you ever tried running from the cops at 45 years old?