Whenever I start feeling like I’m living in a hoarder house,
I go into a frenzy of getting rid of stuff I don’t need. My closets are in that
condition, but so are my cosmetic and perfume storage areas. Plus, it’s been
raining continuously for more than the proverbial 40 days and 40 nights, and
I’m really tired of it. So the giveaways continue.
This Monday’s prize is the last of three small fragrances I
had from an artisan brand that shall remain nameless. It’s one of those brands
that keeps releasing way too much new stuff as old stuff continually disappears,
making this prize, if nothing else, a collector’s item.
Personally, as a consumer, if I see a perfume brand’s
website with a staggering number of offerings, I tend to go look at a different
brand rather than try to sift through the entire list to see if there’s anything
interesting. This is especially true if it’s a very new company and/or if a lot
of the items are listed as “out of stock”.
An excessive “out of stock” collection is also a waving red
flag to me when I see it on big online vendors’ websites because there it seems
like a bait-and-switch tactic. I think the company hopes that a customer will
search for a hard-to-find perfume and be led to their website, which appears to
be the only source for it, at a very good price. Once there, the perfume in
question is always listed as “out of stock”. I assume the company hopes that
the customer will look at their in-stock items that can be found anywhere, and
order something. No thanks.
I know I’m guilty of having over two dozen Olympic Orchids perfumes
in production, so I’d be interested to know what you, as a consumer, think is
too large a number of perfumes for a single brand to offer. Leave a comment and
be entered in the worldwide drawing for a small bottle of a perfume that seems
to be discontinued, along with other assorted goodies.
[House-cleaning and flood graphics from Wikimedia; Out-of stock perfume image adapted from a vendor's website]
Oh, coming to you from a hoarder house! Have started spring cleaning with eight inches of snow on the ground. Too much stuff, but it seems to like it here.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that I can give an actual number as to what are too many perfumes for one brand to offer. I do know if I have to scroll through the Fragrantica list and I'm only on the Ks by the end of the scroll, that is too many for me. Maybe it isn't the total number from a house, but the number of fragrances that are launched at one time that overwhelms me.
However, Olympic Orchids could never offer too many fragrances in my opinion.
The endless supply of flankers gets a serious eye-roll from me. It's a great way to get people who love a particular fragrance to continue buying, but the 20th iteration in the "Chloe" family usually bears little resemblance to the original. I suppose it's not that different from countless movie sequels.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who has many bottles of fragrance, some would say to many, who am I to judge! But it does get crazy when a fragrance house keeps releasing basically the same variation of a fragrance with one note difference! I think they believe consumers will just buy anything!
ReplyDeleteNever too many in my book! mandiecandie18@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteTaffy, Triniti, Nelle25, Abbasprincess, My old computer died and I had to replace it, so have been slow to get back online. Thank you all for your comments! You are all entered in the drawing.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't consider two dozen to be too many offerings- especially if they are all in stock. When one gets up to the amount of scents that BPAL offers (and so many are discontinued), it becomes impossible for my brain to sort it all out and they all start to sound alike. I just don't even go to their site because of the confusion.
ReplyDeletedarkphoenix54 at gmail.com
Laurie, BPAL was one of the ones I was thinking of. I am turned off by their website, too. You're entered in the drawing.
DeleteI think an independent perfumer is like an independent artist. The most important is the continuity of his artistic expression. The number of creations is just an indicator of years of work. He/She needs to improve it by seeking a new technique, offering a new stepstone expression or even proposing a modification of an old work. What exasperates me a bit is this trend in luxury brands to launch 6-8 "exclusive" fragrances at the same time. It depersonalizes even more creations often already mediocre.
ReplyDeleteI think if I had to add something to your site it would be a stronger visual of the strong personalities of each perfume (I saw magnificent photos illustrating your perfumes on Facebook).
Frederic, Thanks for your comments. One of these days I will be updating the images on my website. It is on my queue!
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