Pump up the volume!

There’s no trend without a countertrend: at the turn of the millennium, the Arabian fragrance oud was introduced to western bottles in the form of M7 by Yves Saint Laurent. The oil derived from the resin of the agar tree makes perfumes warm and sexy, and in larger quantities animalistic and overripe. The new fragrance notes crashed in like a bomb, partly as a counter-reaction to the clean 90s, partly as an echo of Middle Eastern fragrance habits as a result of the development of lucrative gulf markets by luxury European brands.

Since then, the volume control has been turned up and up, and today, fashion and fragrances reflect the times. On Instagram and TikTok, everything and everyone is becoming a competing brand: extreme looks as click bait even for venerable couture houses, the filtered face of an influencer as a battleground in the fight for attention. It’s no wonder young, label-obsessed target groups are looking for something clear-cut even when it comes to fragrances. Silage is the magic word, a more elegant expression for effectiveness. So, as the large logo for the buying power of the wearer declares, some expensive fragrance houses with particularly inconsiderate dosage levels have become status symbols.

Volume without a message is just noise. Volume with attitude is rock and roll. Just like the music from every era has had crashing passion and genuine unwieldiness, today there is olfactory Dolby surround sound, which people are happy to be overpowered by.

HELDER SUFFENPLAN is an independent journalist and creative consultant from Berlin, and has had a particular passion for perfumes since he was a child. With his successful 2013 launch of SCENTURY.com – the very first online mag azine for perfume storytelling –Helder has become a recognised authority in the global world of fragrance. He has been on the jury for events such as The Arts & Olfaction Awards in Los Angeles and the Prix International du Parfumeur Créateur in Paris. As a writer, he combines his passion topic of fragrances with a range of fields such as contemporary art, popular culture, literature, film and geopolitics.