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Good afternoon! I hope everyone had a blessed and merry Christmas! Mine was pretty good. I had a few readers actually chip in to buy me a 180ml Fico di Amalfi and a decant of Azzaro Wild Mint, so I am pumped about that. Some of you who chipped in are probably reading this, so thank you again.
How a fragrance performs is often the most intensely debated topic in the fragrance community. I dislike talking about performance, even though I just made an article a few days ago that listed the performance that I get from fragrances. I really dislike speaking about such things and I am going to tell you why.
Many of you know, that I have held a belief that performance is overrated for a long time, but a recent video by Mr. Smelly(link) Inspired me to cover the topic again. For the record, I agree with everything he says in this video, even though I think my take is a bit different than his.
I hope you enjoy this one. Remember folks, this is only my opinion. You are free to your own opinions. I am simply stating my case against the performance culture in the fragrance community. Take it as you will. Let's get into it!
Performance is a Guess
Yep, you heard it from me. Most of us reviewers just guess about projection and performance based on comments from others. Like Mr. Smelly said in his video, we can't smell how strong a fragrance is on us. Sometimes you can get feedback from people, but that also tends to vary significantly depending on their perception of the fragrance and how long they have been exposed to it.
There is no way to accurately gauge performance. You can't just say, I can or can't smell it, so it lasts a certain amount of time. It's like throwing darts at a map and aiming at one continent and hitting a country in it. It's in the same area, but it's still not as accurate as simply choosing where you want to go.
There is no way that any reviewer, despite how good their nose may or may not, can tell you how well a fragrance performs with any sort of standard accuracy. Most of the time we just say how long we can smell it, which is a shot in the dark if the fragrance is still there or not. I have had fragrances vanish to my nose, only to come back hours later. It's just something that is too subjective with too many variables to track.
This also goes for random people on Fragrrntica and in the Facebook groups as well. We are all guessing.
The Pressure
Oftentimes, we reviewers are pressured into talking about performance. At least, I feel like I am sometimes. If I post a SOTD or article then people will ask how it performs and not what it smells like. That is quite possibly one of the most annoying things to me. It has become a pet peeve of mine, honestly. I do understand that people are in different stages in their perfume discovery and YouTube influence has a lot of sway on newer people into the community, but it's just frustrating when it seems like that is all people care about.
So, we almost feel obligated to make guesses about performance and what weather to wear stuff in because people constantly ask us those questions. It gets really tiring answering the same thing over and over. At some point, you just give up and guess so they will stop asking. I love interacting with people, but I would much rather talk about notes and what fragrances smell like than compliments and performance.
Value vs Quality
I see many people say that notes that last a long time are of higher quality. I vehemently disagree with this assumption. There are many expensive notes and accords that do not last very long. For instance, many citruses do not last very long. Now, some of the heavier notes like woods, vanilla, and some florals will last a long time in their natural form.
However, the thought that performance is equal to quality is flawed to me. To me, that would be valuable to a person who is concerned about performance. The value would be getting what you want for a good price. A bergamot oil that is natural is still a high-quality note, even if it doesn't last long. A synthetic bergamot note that lasts longer, like the one in Dior Sauvage, would be an example of value to some people.
Just because you don't enjoy a note/accord or how it performs, that doesn't mean its quality is decreased by any margin. It just means it's not valuable to you.
Please Smell Me
It seems primitive to me that some guys want others to always smell them. It's like some sort of animalistic mating call in the animal kingdom to me. They seek out the heaviest projection fragrances and overspray. Now, I am not saying overspraying is terrible, just the motive behind it might not be agreeable to me.
If you are doing it with the sole purpose to get reactions from people, then I think that could be an issue. I just think always seeking the approval of others is a toxic mentality to yourself. I don't seek approval from anyone, that is why I make articles such as this. It's because I flow to the beat of my own drum and I expect there to be negative reactions from this one, but I do it anyway, despite my generally positive outlook on things.
Pressuring Perfumers
I have spoken to many perfumers. Some of them have voiced their distaste for people wanting long-lasting fragrance, even if it means the fragrance won't smell like they want it to. They have spoken of feeling crippled to use certain ingredients and not being allowed to be as creative as they want. If they were that creative, then people wouldn't buy their stuff because they wouldn't last for eight hours.
I think it's a bad thing when the whole performance thing is so mainstream that it makes perfumers have to choose between creativity and staying in business. I wonder what amazing and inspiring creations we would have if this wasn't the case. This is why I speak out against this sort of mentality. We should never be seeking to hinder someone's creative freedom based on such trivial things.
Being Noseblind
This is something that everyone says, so I feel like I have to include it as well. I often see people say that fragrances only last 20 minutes. I have never smelled or worn a fragrance that lasts 20 minutes in my 34 years of life. I have probably smelled at least a thousand fragrances. Even 4711 lasts longer than that. I am not sure if this is an over-exaggeration or if it's caused by an outside factor
These situations can be caused by many different things such as weather, number of sprays, diet, and many other things. Some fragrance notes need heat to make them perform as intended. Overspraying overloads your nose with alcohol, so it can make you not able to smell anything. Using more sprays doesn't mean you will smell it more with fragrances.
Your diet can play into this. Your skin and nose both need nutrients and water to perform correctly. There have been studies that the overconsumption of some foods are linked to body odor as well, even with healthy foods such as garlic.
One other possibility is that people just aren't familiar with fragrances and expect them to smell like the opening for the whole time, then they can't detect the dry down. This is very rarely the case, unless it's a very linear fragrance.
Hype
I think many people fall into the hype regarding performance because everyone else speaks about it. When it's spoken about ad nauseam in the groups and YouTube videos, then it tends to stick. Repetition is one of the best ways to learn, so when this stuff is repeated so often, people don't second guess it and just go with it.
Many of us, including myself, started to learn early on from Jeremy Fragrance. One of the things he pushes heavily is performance, so I think some of it can be attributed to that. I find it amusing that some people like to hate on Jeremy, while they promote many of the same things that he does. That was just a random musing.
Conclusion
I am going to go back to not mentioning performance in my reviews most of the time unless I think it's merited. I honestly don't care about it that much and it dreads me to speak about it. I would much rather spend time speaking about how the fragrances make me feel or what it makes me think of.
I could probably come up with many more topics about why I don't like talking about performance, but I am already tired of talking about it from this article. It's just very mundane to me. Perhaps that is because I err more on the artistic side of things and want to discover perfumes and not just wear them.
I hope I didn't offend anyone with this article. If I did...then perhaps my blog isn't the place for you. I am sorry to be so direct and forthcoming, but that is just how I feel. I want to get back to reviewing things that are fun and inspirational to me. I care nothing about hype and compliments. I didn't start this blog to be rich and famous. I don't even run ads, even though I can. I started it as a passion and I am going to let my passion show and not feel pressured into speaking about things that don't interest me. The soul of the perfume interests me. It always has and it always will.
I hope everyone has a fantastic day. Remember to say something kind to someone today. You never know who is struggling, especially after the holidays. A kind word is all it takes to make a friend or to help someone through a rough time. I hope everyone is looking forward to a new year and getting past the trials of this year. The future is always bright if you look at it from the proper angle.
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