Et tu, Frederic Malle? Estee Lauder Buys Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle

It's not enough that performer-perfumers of the niche market with their own eponymous brand under their belt shun perfumistas, considering them irrelevant audience that needn't be cajoled because they don't really matter. It's not enough that indie niche perfumers have the guts to spell out the truth and state that perfumistas account for less than 1/4 of the total sales they make. Now Big Companies buy out the smaller players, at least the ones with the highest profit margins... First Le Labo was bought by the Estee Lauder Group, the fusion effective this November 2014. Now Editions des Parfums Frederic Malle is being bought by the conglomerate., according to an article by Julie Naughton on the Financial side of WWD. [Read the rationale on Vogue UK online, very quick to pick up the news]

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I've been saying it a lot during the last couple of years (and initially articulated the thought back in 2010) but I have been accused of being cynical: Niche is (now) dead. Marketing is not a dirty word. Presenting an "updated" segmentation within a luxury brand is a plan to have your cake and eat too. When you hear too much art talk, you know something is fishy. Fragrance costs little to produce. Above all, think of what gives you pleasure, what is beautiful, and choose to support the ideas that matter to you and additionally not be swayed by fear-mongering. I suppose what I'm saying is "use your head". And we all know that the head is very purposefully elbowed out of the equation by the fragrance industry for decades, all that fluff talk about emotions, dreams, sentiments blah blah blah....

Let's re-iterate: Perfume aficionados form a very small, insignificant segment of the actual buying audience of perfume niche market. Expect the winners to be bought off by big brands, the struggling unoriginal ones to wither and die via survival of the fittest and the dedicated artisanal indies to continue to cater to a small, cottage-size industry. Consider where your buck flows carefully.

Bottom line, what bugs me most: The perfume aficionados have been USED as a stepping stone in order to build covetable brands that would bring back the investment by being sold off later on.
You call it business acumen. I call it exploitation. Let's agree to disagree.

NB. I was alerted to this news snippet originally via Basenotes. 

Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle The Night: new fragrance

The new fragrance by Editions de Parfums, ‘The Night’, is aiming for the rich in scented heritage market of the Middle East. Master perfumer Dominique Ropion’s first composition for Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle that speaks the language of Middle Eastern per­fume, The Night is a rarity for more reasons than one.
Unlike classic "oriental" perfumes which have been composed to correspond to a French perfumery tradition interpreting, rather than replicating, the ways and tastes of the Middle East, the newest launch by Malle is set to be a true oriental, yet, given the expansion of the tastes of the western customer thanks to niche offerings, a welcome addition to a aficionado's collection as well.

Malle opens up on the composition of "The Night" in the following terms: "Unlike perfumes called Oud which contain at best a trace of this precious raw material, if any, ‘The Night’ is built on an unprecedented proportion of Oud from India which Domi­nique has mixed with a generous amount of Turkish Rose and Amber." The perfume is purported by Malle to be the one with the richest percentage of natural Oud in the market, with a price to correspond, naturally.

The counter and fragrance will be launching in store by the end of October and Frederic Malle The Night by Dominique Ropion is exclusive to Bloomingdale’s – Dubai in the Middle East. {NB.The info comes from the official store source}

Price is reportedly 850$US for the 100ml bottle and 755$ for the 50ml bottle.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine:
Oud fragrances reviews, 
Oud/Aoudh/Aloewswood: What is this Perfume Raw Material?

Frederic Malle by the Numbers

"$0 Amount Malle has spent on advertising. Bucking the industry trend of hiring celebrities to sell product, Malle is tight-lipped and protective of his famous clientele.

2,000 raw materials The amount at the International Flavors & Fragrances scent lab for creating perfumes. Roughly 250 are used regularly by Malle and the perfumer Jovanovic.

350 The approximate number of variations Malle and a perfumer typically go through in developing a single scent.

19 fragrances The number in his current collection, including one collaboration with his friend Dries Van Noten. Malle opened his first store in Paris with only eight."

via Pinterest

This is part of a longer article about Frederic Malle opening two new boutiques, one in Rome and one in West Village, NYC. You can read the entire article on this link. 

Frederic Malle Iris Poudre: fragrance review

There is a human, flawed sublayer beneath the icy, perfect Hitchockian beauty of Betty Draper from Mad Men, which manifests itself when the woman is emotionally beaten to pulp by the final realisation her husband is actually cheating on her. The mask-like layer falls off and the melting face, crumbling updo and wrinkly tulle dress falling off the shoulders instill human empathy in us, hinting at a crack of the perfect facade. Iris Poudre is the Betty Draper, née Hofstadt, in the Frederic Malle line of perfumes, the icy coolness of Grace Kelly incarnate, when faced with the line "You're so profoundly sad" to only tentatively reply "No, it's just that my people are Nordic". Brrrr...  

Iris Poudre needs no introduction, really. Catherine Deneuve cites it in the foreward of F.Malle's new book as the fragrance that drew her from her beloved Guerlain into "fragrance infidelity" with the likes of Malle & company. A random choice? I think not.
Within the confines of this much esteemed niche brand that caters to the tastes of perfumephiles and perfumers both, this scent holds a firm place of distinction due to its haute elegance: The former group appreciates Malle because they can sample the vision of some of the best noses of our days with trully good ingredients. The latter group because they are at last given free reign to do what they had always wanted to do but couldn't, due to commercial restrictions.

Inspirations
Iris Poudre was created by Pierre Bourdon, one of the finest noses in the field and arguably one of the most personable ones to talk to. Frédéric Malle reveals that it was the first fragrance created in the line: his collaboration and appreciation of Bourdon goes a long way back. The initial inspiration for Iris Poudre is a substance called "concrétolide", a legendary French iris base that was the heart of many perfume classics from the period between the two world wars. The finished result was drawing inspiration from the famous 1960s film Belle de Jour, starring none other than...Catherine Deneuve!
Malle professes that "if it were a garment, it would be a cashmere sweater - classic but personal, appropriate for most occasions, something one never tires of".

Scent Profile
Although touted to be a grand floral aldehydic, to me it has no distinct relation to aldehydic fragrances that people perceive as typical of their classification, such as Chanel No.5, Madame Rochas or Arpège. It is subtler and less sparkly, more softly, cooly powdery. However it does have touches of the chilly allure and rosiness of YSL Rive Gauche or Paco Rabanne Calandre, both scents with a beautiful coolness contrasted with a little warmth in the base. There is a repressed sensuality about this scent, like the cool exterior of perfectly proportioned glacially faced Severine who goes to spend the afternoons as a high-class prostitute in her sexual frustration.  Dihydromyrcenol gives that steely ambience of scrubbed countertops, hissy clean citrus. Muscenone (a musky substance) gives human warmth sensed underneath the perfect facade.

Iris Poudre utilises the caramel butteriness of tonka bean, the cosiness of the musks and just a hint of fluffy vanilla to instill that faint warmth that surrounds you like a precious pashmina on a chilly evening on a walk back from the theatre or an art exhibit. Until you hear that your husband slept with someone you wouldn't even consider worth sleeping with, of course!

Notes for F.Malle Iris Poudre : aldehydes, iris, ylang ylang ,rose, vetiver, musk, vanilla, tonka bean.

photo credits: top January Jones as Betty Draper from Mad Men TV show via wikimedia commons and bottom via telegraph.co.uk