The Elusive Search for an Exceptional Fragrance

With almost 6000 new fragrances each year, nowadays, it is impossible to proclaim something as best of X year. There is absolutely no way of testing everything, even if we tried. Pure mathematics prove this: 6000 divided with 365 gives us 16,43 fragrances tested PER DAY, every day. Who can do that and how would one's poor nose react to that sort of tension and over-reaching? 

I bet there would also be days of a nose cold or lack of adequate weather conditions in order to do proper tests. A day of heatwave tends to side-track and alter olfactory perception, simply due to the physics of volatility and diffusion of scented molecules. Therefore the process of elimination starts at the testing chop block. 

Personally I tend to seek out brands which either rejecting the norms of mass produced fragrance, seeking a return to luxury and creativity, therefore brands on a carefully controlled scale in order to empower the fragrance creators while offering the customer an exceptional experience. Collaborations with talented perfumers also pique my interest to sample fragrances, or a very creative and unusual concept catches my attention. But the judging does rely on the result. Does the fragrance deliver in terms of adhering to its communicated concept? Does it have consistency with the general style of the brand? Does it bear an individual touch which separates from the rest in its genre? Or alternatively does it exalt its genre into something elevated and pushing boundaries? Originality is somewhat twisted. 

British author Tibor Fisher wrote that all ideas were covered by the Greeks long ago and we're merely rehashing the collectively forgotten. This is the conundrum of the artist: "I won't look at what has come before, I won't go to galleries or museums, I won't read or talk to artists, and thus I can't help but be original." Is this even possible? Is it even desirable? So in a world that is rehashing tropes in a way, sometimes knowingly, sometimes unconsciously, I tend to seek either the iconoclast who dares step further on: say, a modern neo-chypre that project as novel, or an atypical use of Iso E Super in order to give peppery tones for example. Either some craftsman who absolutely excels at what they're doing: a polished amber that does not feel obese or cloying, a shimmering aldehyde floral which manages to stand shoulder to shoulder with great specimens of the glorious past...That sort of thing cuts the thread for me.