Perfume 101- Designer Vs Niche Fragrances

Often perfume buyers overlook a major chunk of the perfume universe and are averted towards showroom stocked designer perfumes. In all its being there is no supremacy in whether designer perfumes are good or the niche ones but the fact to consider that the niche ones are overshadowed a lot of times and maybe even misrepresented.

There are a couple of factors that differentiate these two perfume types and will be an easier map to navigate your nose to these scents

1. Quantity: On of main differentiators between Designer perfumes and Niche perfumes is the quantity they are produced in. While designer perfumes are manufactured in bigger numbers to reach a rather wider audience. Niche perfumes on the other hand are made in smaller quantities to cater to a specific set of audiences. The budget is also a factor to monitor in during the production of these perfumes. Whilst designer perfumes come from a rather bigger family where a variety of commodities are produced the budget is definitely higher whereas niche perfumes usually have a smaller budget comparatively. They are intended for the connoisseurs, thus often are not commercialised.
2. Creator: Designer perfumes come from houses that produces other items as their primary products like clothes, bags , shoes et al. Niche fragrances focus on just one product as their primary which are perfumes.
3. Fragrance Type: Usually designer fragrance do not explore a lot of the notes and cater to scents that are liked by the mass and thus choosing safer and popular scents which will get off the shelf faster. As for niche fragrances they cater to perfume lovers with vivid tastes and thus are experimentative in nature and thus are unique in their perfume offerings.
4. Price: The designer perfumes usually are a tad bit cheaper than Niche perfumes. Since niche perfumes use high-quality essential oils and perfume series are not mass produced, the price is higher than with designer mainstream perfumes.So in general, a Designer (mainstream) fragrance is designed for a mass market where they target the individual with heavy promoting and advertising to sway them to feel included. Niche perfumes, are more specific and more personal – each person individually can find something which reflects their true personality, rather than the one size-fits-all smells that are found in self-service perfumeries.
5. The Perfume making process: With niche perfumes, their creator is driven by vision and an idea of the perfume using a high percentage of top quality ingredients. The goal is to make a perfume that represents emotion, thought or yearning – what the creator wants to capture in the bottle. Contrary to that, in the mainstream industry, it’s all about fashion, trends, the taste of the audience and mass likeability.

1. The Perfumist: Niche perfumes are focused on the maker of the perfume. In the world of art perfumes, it is very important who is behind a certain perfume. Perfume noses are stars and not brands, like it’s the case with mainstream designer perfumes. When people buy perfumes by brands such as Burberry and Versace, they don’t care who made that particular perfume. There is no personality cult, only if the perfume and its allure are.With niche perfumes, it’s all about the artist/perfumer. Just as it is important to know if the author of a certain sculpture is Rodin or Michelangelo, so it is important to know who made the perfume.
2. Where to find them: Designer perfumes are mostly found in all the major beauty chains and their commercial stores. However, when you want to buy a niche fragrance which have a limited distribution you can find them only at luxury, high-end boutiques or their private stores which are not as easy to find as the stores which stock designer perfumes.