Let's remember the best perfumes of 2018

The perfume year 2018 is notable for the fact that no one offered anything new during the year. Perfumers kept all technological innovations for the future, and boldly borrowed ideas and themes from the past. However, there were plenty of interesting launches, and it was very difficult to choose the best, most outstanding perfumes of 2018.

I would call Music for a While by Frederic Malle the best niche fragrance of 2018. Not so much for its beauty and charisma, which it undoubtedly has, but for the fact that Music for a While has completely erased, etched, and incinerated the already flimsy gender and age boundaries of the fougere genre.

2018 could generally be called the year of fougere compositions with lavender, fragrant herbs, citrus fruits, and moss. The most boring and hackneyed theme of the past has suddenly come to life! Fougeres are now not only in men's perfume departments and not only in the mass market. They have captured the attention of freedom-loving women and are already approaching ladies with traditional tastes with a bunch of lavender.

No matter how beautiful Music for a While is, it will share first place with Nudiflorum Nasomatto. I couldn't choose between them, because both are good and important. The leather theme is also experiencing its hundred thousandth birth and new popularity. A whole generation of people has grown up who did not know leather chypres with isobutylquinoline, and who perceive sharp, black-green leather as something innovative.

The best niche perfume of 2018 among inexpensive ones is Molinard de Molinard. An amazing triumphant return of a fresh, green and aldehyde composition exactly when we really need it. Everyone who is tired of oud and sugar should at least try Molinard de Molinard.

In second place in this nomination I will put the beautiful rose chypre Udaipur Etro. It also seems to be from the past, but it sounds modern and is etched in the memory.

The best niche collection of 2018 was released by Sylvaine Delacourte. La Collection Vanille may not be the most innovative and bold, with a simple mythology, but people need it. Five fragrances. Five angles. Not a single sugar overdose and not a single cliché, which the niche has already had enough of.

The best niche brand of 2018 is Parfums Dusita. I will never tire of introducing it, I will never tire of praising it. The owner of Parfums Dusita, Pissara Umavijani, is a genius of perfumery, communication, creativity, marketing and everything that is needed to produce wonderful perfumes, from which it is difficult to choose just one. Her fragrances are angels.

The perfume breakthrough of the year is Genevieve 1907 Perfumes. A small niche store from Bratislava decided to make its own perfume and did so that the entire perfume press and hundreds of connoisseurs of good perfumes literally went crazy.

The return of the year is L’Iris de Fath by Jacques Fath, which was painstakingly, bit by bit, recreated by the new owners of the Jacques Fath brand. They dug through the archives and the entire Internet, found everyone who wrote about the legendary Iris Gris (including me) and everyone who owned samples of the live perfume. According to descriptions, recipes and by ear, four perfumers tried to recreate the delicate, fruity-sandalwood iris of Jacques Fath, but the young perfumer Patrice Pevillard did it best of all. Iris with a slightly changed name was released in a limited edition at an absolutely impossible price. But it is beautiful.

The best presentation of 2018 was the visit of Alessandro Gualtieri, a fighter against red depression, November grayness and pathos. It was unusual, strange, but fun.

The commotion of the year is Facking Fabulous Tom Ford. You have to be able to make so much noise out of nothing.

The best popular fragrance of 2018 among expensive ones is Amouage Love Tuberose. Almond-creamy fudge, melted ice cream and beautiful tuberose in a creamy bottle. As for me, Love Tuberose is pure, unadulterated girlish joy that does not require olfactory experience or any special sophistication. But it is expensive.

In second place in this category, I cannot help but mention the revived Sicily D&G. Unreasonably expensive, but from the honey-sweet perfume of the past they made a cheerful mix with lemoncello, neroli, pigeon droppings and soft suede. Beautiful, complex, but without abstruseness.

In general, new compositions addressed to mass taste have become more complex. That is why it was very difficult to choose the best fragrance of 2018 in luxury. Many performed beautifully: Narciso Rodriguez with his hot Rouge, Givenchy with the memorable L`Interdit. But I think the best is the crystal fresh Carat Cartier.

I have nothing to say about men's fragrances in luxury. Conservatism and despondency reign there for now. Let's wait, maybe someone will break through next year.

The best collection of luxury fragrances in 2018 is, of course, Chanel. Les Eaux de Chanel has three fresh and, at first glance, simple colognes, of which you and I need at least one. You can argue until you're hoarse about which of them is valuable to the mother of history, but this is a futile exercise. All three have some kind of invisible hooks. Deauville hooked me with its kinship with the great Eau Sauvage and how the theme of wild freshness migrated into a feminine scent. Vintage lovers and collectors will appreciate the Les Eaux de Chanel bottles - copies of genuine vintage Chanel bottles, and practical people are already washing themselves with the bath line, which Les Eaux de Chanel has supplemented.

The best advertising and marketing in luxury is Aura Mugler. This includes a presentation with the alien beauty Zhenya Katava, endless promotions, and new bottle shapes. The last straw is the scented gel pencils.

On my own behalf, not as a critic, I will add that 2018 was the year of roses. Roses were everywhere: in the landscape, in bouquets, in bottles, in cosmetics, and even in food. Among my fellow rose lovers, even those who swear that they don’t like roses wore roses. The pink theme is no longer coming head-on, it is covered with freshness, dew, water, greenery, berries, other flowers (Uermi Or Damask, Black Swan Brocard, Blouse YSL. But the most popular combination is rose + patchouli and rose + currant.

The find of 2018 among niche fragrances is Lost Paradise Urban Scents. It is rare that I can wear a perfume without taking it off for almost two weeks.

There were many vintage finds in 2018, but the most unusual, perhaps, was the first release of Amouage Ubar from 1996 with its lush flowers, indecent animalics and stupid bottle by Pierre Dinand.

The return of the year is Gucci Pour Homme. After many years of unsuccessful hunting, I restored it to the collection and revel in its dark power.

For me personally, an important collection of the year is Noble Royale, because it is made on a historical theme by talented people and made beautifully, in a vintage style. I appreciate three fragrances out of five.

In the promotion of fragrances, 2018 is interesting because the position of "I'm the smartest here, I'll tell you everything now" has finally become a thing of the past, which was broadcast by both paper magazines and their electronic versions. The opinion of an expert plays an increasingly smaller role. and the reputation of an expert is questioned (especially if he simply rewrites a press release or sticks gross errors in an article). People now trust those who are close to them, but are a little more passionate about the topic. This is good, because the local authority is more accessible, and bad, because often such people spread myths and dense superstitions that make your hair stand on end. But nothing can be done. You can only watch where all this will lead.

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