Fragrance Content Memetics

Yes, yet another rant on fragrance community culture.

There are few things that had me ass over kettle this week. I was thrilled to see my beloved Basenotes win the Contribution to Scent Culture Award and my favorite release of the past year, Nuit Elastique from Première Peau win the Independent Category Award at the 12th annual Art and Olfaction Awards. I also ran into the most incredibly fragrant tea rose bush on a walk in my neighborhood. I learned that sadly a favorite neighbor, one have off a duo of friendly ducks who live around the block, Waddles, passed away, leaving behind his brother Gideon. It also has been hot as sin and I have a low tolerance for heat and humidity, so that has left me a bit of a grouch. Lucky you. And because I am a grouch I am again dissect fragcomm culture, this time through deliberately doom-scrolling content to notice the peculiar, and often profoundly irritating memes that infest the sphere.

One phenomenon I’ve noticed is the tendency for content creators to handle their bottles in a peculiar manner, tending to hold them at an oblique angle rather than upright, often rocking them back forth. I imagine this is not limited to fragrance content but that’s what I tend to see the most, because goodness knows I make every effort to manipulate the algorithm to not show me any other kind of consumer product content. Hell, I barely want to see most of the fragrance stuff that gets thrown into my feeds. The tilting and the rocking of the bottle somehow has that “nails on a chalkboard” effect that makes my skin crawl and as soon as I see it, I scroll away fast.

The mind wobbles.

A PSA, if I see or hear the following words/terms I have installed dry wall specifically for punching:

Girly/girlies

DNA

Old money

Saffron

“These 10 Esxence Fragrances Completely Stole My Heart.” Oh, you don’t say. Let me look. Then I proceed to click through the photos, and sure enough, its mostly brands I’ve never heard of and frankly I’m burnt out on learning about new houses and new releases so I’ll pass. But wait a second. ALL 10 stole your heart? Is it possible for all 10 at once to steal someone’s heart? Then I start to think out of the thousands I’ve smelled and the scores I own, can I say that 10 stole my heart? Maybe. But how deep of an affection can one have so quickly with fragrance discovered at an industry event? Oh, of course, it’s just content—it’s BUILT on hyperbole. How foolish of me. I look at the caption: the names of the fragrances and tags to all the brands. And that’s it. Hmmm… Then of course this the comment left by the creator, addressed to all: “Which one u like the most?” This is what we call engagement.

Screenshots of Fragrantica scent pyramids flash before my eyes along with public domain images to illustrate the perfumes discussed. The words “green, clean, fresh.” Perfect, that’s all I need to know. On to the next one: a man applies approximately fifty sprays of a fragrance onto his neck, arms, t-shirt. The caption is “the only way.” Who knew? Said man must be rich because the fragrance drained is Dior Bois d’Argent Esprit. At that rate, he will need a new bottle in approximately one week, but that is “the only way.” Now I encounter a post for the laypeople: “Reviewing 30 Diptyque in easy terms, so you know which ones are worth blind buying.” Who needs more than some cute clip art and a brief video snippet to make such an important decision?

Benjoin Bohème: vanilla, incense, and an old library. That’s all there is to it. Now you can buy it blind! Easy peasy.

Creating this kind of content will get you 100k followers and easily over 2,000 likes on each post. All you have to do is the above: “turn perfumes into art.”

I proceed: the title “How I enter the fragrance store knowing I know more than the salesmen” accompanies a video of a man dressed all in black with sunglasses rushes into the store and immediately dismisses the approaching sales assistant with his outward hand, suggesting “back off.” Yes, we experts should put low-wage retail workers in their place, because we fragrance lovers do our research!

Just make the move to Basenotes. They won an Art and Olfaction Award for crying out loud!

Now as I continue to scroll I run into no fewer than four posts of gay and lesbian couples apparently discovering “Part of Your World” was written by a gay man in the 80s “and suddenly it hits different” (yes, every reel has exactly the same text) and it is at this point that I realize it’s time to touch grass.

But before I go, be sure to look out this weekend for my premiere contribution to the ÇaFleureBon Perfume Blog, ‘Lesser Known Notes: Flowers.’ It will be the first of a three-part series, the second of which will be covering herbs and the third, spices.

Until next time…