Niche perfumes sold for 9,000 francs per liter

No advertising, no muse, little known to the general public, with prices that can reach hundreds of francs, or even more… And yet, “niche perfumes” or “haute couture” have never so attracted women and men. who “no longer want to smell like others”.

“We have absolutely incredible growth”, explains to AFP Julien Sausset, the general director of Parfums Marly, which should reach 600 million dollars in sales in 2024: “Last year, we made more than 50% growth, this year, we will achieve more than 40%.

“People no longer want to smell like others. They want to emancipate themselves, assert their identity,” he explains, and the market “will continue to develop.” Today, niche perfumery “accounts for around 10 or 12% of the perfume market, but it is growing at 13% per year when classic perfumery is between 3 and 5%”.

Marly Parfums, sold from 230 francs and mainly in the United States, are present in more than 80 countries. In Paris, the brand will soon open a new boutique in the Golden Triangle, a luxurious district of 8^e arrondissement, around the Champs-Élysées and avenue Montaigne. “What is important is to have a space where we can present the product, to have our own sellers to enter into the storytelling” (editor’s note: narration), explains Julien Sausset.

The brand, created in 2009 by Julien Sprecher, olfactory expert and 18th century enthusiast^e century, draws its inspiration from “this period when modern perfumery was invented”, “where Louis XV gave incredible parties at the Château de Marly”. Niche perfume also means “different performances, 12-hour or even 24-hour staying power, increased quality of ingredients, stronger concentrations, packaging that positions these perfumes in a luxury segment,” he adds. .

Julie El Ghouzzi, author of Manual of luxurytells AFP that in the 90s, “while perfume was becoming more popular, perfumers had the impression of (all) making the same recipe”. Some then wanted to “make different perfumes”, which “exploded the notion of masculine/feminine and offered perfumes based around high-end ingredients, with ingredient names and not brand names”, explains. She. “Not having the means to make custom bottles, they used rectangular bottles, all the same. And they were successful.”

Then luxury houses “started to imitate them”, brands like Dior or Cartier resorted to the “niche bottle code to show that it was niche”, underlines Julie El Ghouzzi. “Today, that’s changing a little with more original bottles.”

At L’Oréal, where we prefer to speak of “haute couture” perfumes, this bottle code has remained. The world number one in cosmetics which owns consumer perfume licenses (Mugler, Cacharel, Azzaro, Lancôme, etc.) is developing “haute couture” perfumes for seven of them.

What difference? “When the consumer pays 375 francs for a bottle with an orange blossom, it is in our interest to use a high-quality orange blossom, in a large dosage, patinated, sculpted, chiseled,” explains Karine Lebret, director of the creation of perfumes.

The brand can vary a scent depending on the stylist: for example, orange blossom will be “solar, treated in the color, cheerfulness, light of Rome” at Valentino; she will have “a strict, rigorous, cut-to-the-point side” for Prada; or “baroque, a little in excess” for Yves Saint-Laurent.

“Today, there is no major brand that does not have its own niche perfume,” according to Eric Briones, author of Generation Z and luxury. The Chinese market and Generation Z (born between the end of the 1990s and the beginning of 2010) particularly like these perfumes.

And then, there is “the ultraniche”: Sylvaine Delacourte, formerly of Guerlain, offers tailor-made perfumes. After a 2-hour consultation where she “goes back into the clients’ olfactory memories,” over several months she composes a unique perfume, sold for 18,000 francs for 2 liters.