They are taking the money and running... cant blame them on one hand... i have a feeling this niche bubble where everything is 500 dollars will burst soon ...but I have been thinking that for years 🙄
Don't forget Kilian, MFK, Frederic malle,le labo, Christian Dior, aqua di parma, jo Malone and even a company like Guerlain back in the day shows you anyone will sell out, almost nobody does it for the passion of the fragrance industry, all they see is dollar signs.
@@RamseytheRam Ram you should know, we are in the Age of Aquarius, the age of knowledge, humanism, age of synthesis of dualistic strifes and also an egalitarian Age. So, yes for the next 2.000 or so (watch "Great Year - precession of the Equinoxes"), the Controllers secret societies decided that the average Joe goes levels up...
Well, neither PDM nor Initio were anything I cherished. But it is eye opening to know how they play with the trust of consumers. It is difficult to find these days houses that stick to their passion. Also I started to be extremely suspicious of any perfume that is sold for more than 100€. The same is happening with clothing industry.
Thank you for that preamble ramble. Good stuff. Something to think about. I am really new to t he fragrance community. I got caught up in the overhype heavily influencer rabbit hole and then magically I stumbled onto Ytubers like you. With every video I learn something and I become more astute about how I select fragrances, how I source them and how I purchase them. For now swapping and getting people to give me decants is not an option. Black Rock owns a perfume company. That is eye opening. For now the love affair with fragrances among the masses is growing. But It is amazing to realize how many new releases are out there -- and some of them really good. Here's to venturing out and charting new scent fragrance territories. I don't want to be a slave to the grand overly priced fragrance conglomerates. Vive les artisans! Let's finds them!
Spot on Gems ...btw Blackrock only owns Creed which they have no right owning... its L'Oreal , Estee Lauder, LVMH & Puig that make up most of the big boys
@@RamseytheRam Really enjoying this fragrance journey. I am in the process of revising a manuscript (fiction) and perhaps I could get your advice on what were the perfumes favored by old money in the early 200s for a man in his early 30s vs an older gentleman in his 60s and 70s. More to come.
@@RamseytheRam By the way wasn't the leader of Black Rock a relative of the super rich Secy of Education Betsy DeVos. Is Creed an old money type of perfume?
The point for them has always been to be bought. When you know you can recognize a pattern with these niche brands calibrated to quickly gain value and sell: the influencer strategy to hype the brand, the easy and uninspired products that are mostly clones of pre existing fragrances, the crazy prices. Most of these new niche brands are created with that in mind since the start. They all want to follow the same path and that leads to new brands arriving on the market every year. Issue is now there are too many new brands, too many fragrances, everything get lost in the shuffle and the bubble is going to burst soon.
@@RamseytheRamexcept for the fact most consumers are not actual perfume connoisseurs, but casual people who enioy mass pleasing scents. The majority dictates the market trends. No problem with that.
Great job! Awesome video, Thank you very much! Most influencers start out similar to you, trying hard not to affend anyone, but unless they are very wealthy and do this for a hobby only, it does not last long. Most do not bash a fragrance that was given to them to review. No matter how bad it is. Because if they did, it would ruin their chances of future freebies. Take the perfume guy. Who preaches that he is not fond of clones! Then he does a whole video on what he called "alternate" fragrances, all from the clone house 'Althena'. When asked if it was a Sponcered Video? He never responded, and the comment question disappeared. It was likely also blocked. That is how he runs his channel, and people still believe him when he raves about a clone house and how good they are. I learned a long time ago that if you are spending more than a hundred dollars, to make sure to smell the fragrances on skin before you invest. Unless you trust the influencer and know he has a similar nose as your own. Good luck in your indeavor to persevere! Hope you can remain as you say you are!
Incidentally, I noticed quite a few brands near the beginning of the last decade just chucking lavender into their fragrances to fill them out. So many blue fragrances feature it as the star floral that it's more than a bit suspect. Like basically taking the smell of lavender soap, adding sweetness and a citrus top. There's your blue fragrance right there. 😄 Can't wait for Advent to include Aventus in their new briefs. 😂 We should start taking bets.
Hi Ramsey! Loved your thoughts totally agree on the hype trains of free bottles! I’ve got a few Initio as I got them heavily discounted over season sales from my local mall and that made them a normal price (around designer or a bit more). Agree their price tag is way too high, for that price point one can get Amouage. For instance I like a lot Psychedelic love, why I like it? Cause it’s almost a dupe of Valentina Myrrh assoluto by Valentino, a discontinued perfume I totally love.
The world needs more videos like this! 🙏 Interestingly, Sebastian-The Perfume Guy just released a video about this topic as well, and in it he mentioned how Oud for Greatness is “a great Oud fragrance”. Considering your last video on OfG, I just had to laugh at this 😅 Although to be fair, he did also say that it was basically a copy of Baccarat Rouge and is “overdone”, so that is appreciated. But still. Great oud? C’mon!
Having gone through the entire feminine and masculine PDM sample sets, I'm throughly unimpressed and kind of pissed off at the brand. It's so obviously not about perfumery or creativity, it's just money. Very good and needed video.
Just FYI: "For its current fiscal year ending March 2024, Initio is expected to ring up $125 million in retail sales.'" I totally agree on the fact that it's not an investing fund's business to own a fragrance company, but at the end of the day money money it's all it matters for those kind of companies.
Thank you for this video. Private equity firms have been causing so much destruction in so many areas increasing income gaps and causing thousands of personal tragedies. Now perfumery joins the trend. Sad.
@@RamseytheRam True that =) It’s a really concerning trend though, giving that they’ve got their dirty hands in anything from a public sector to healthcare. Anyway, both the video and the sentiment are great😂
Dapper af, you look like you just signed a 700M deal. Tbh I think that every company’s main goal has always been to maximize its margins and profit. Each fragrance is first of all a product, even though some of them may be more than that to us enthusiasts. All those perfumes we consider staples and masterpieces nowadays have never been intended as works of art but as potential best sellers appealing to the largest audience as possible. Just different eras, different trends, different taste. Same goes for the current indie/artisanal brands. They sell products and have to make a profit out of them, but, since they can’t compete on a larger scale, they focus on multiple niche audiences, so they can/must deviate from the mainstream trends.
Love your take on the industry, many of us feel the same way and understand that's it's almost always about the money grab vs respect for the art. The fact that clones houses got so close to the OGs told me all I needed to know a long time ago. We are paying for the hype and pretty packaging. Please venture more into femme leaning frags for us ladies. New subscriber here!!!!
Lolol when i read that news. I knew they had something cooking up. I'm yet to see the brand saying I started in the Greek era 500 B.C making perfumes for Alexandra the great 😂😂
PDM uses more natural ingredients than most major brands, but sadly, that will be coming to an end now! PDMs were just on sale in a lot of discounters! That is a major sign that a buy-out may happen and was a good time to purchase them before reformulations begin. That will happen, and prices will rise. They need to recoup some of that money.
Every perfume novice should watch this video. Please stay like this, Ramsey! Keeping it real... It's hugely appreciated by real perfume enthousiasts, in this snake pit of a RU-vid fragrance reviewers world.
I have a 10ml decant of Tango and its okay if you like Cecile Zarokians previous work and my favorite Masque Milano is Russian Tea by Juilan Rasquinet ... I also tried the Iris one called L'Attesa and have a video on it on the channel but havent tried the rest of the houses offerings maybe one day🙏
I had a 8mL of Paragon during its initial release. I got a full bottle a few months ago and though they are the same…. They are not. The 8mL lasted 10 hours and 24 hours on my skin. My full bottle last at best 5 hours.
There must be some new molecules to do palosanto, I believe every time a new note or accord is possible all houses want to put it in a perfume of theirs. For instance the infamous rhubarb note in Delina: I smelt the exact same accord in a 5 times cheaper perfume that came out in the same moment, so they obviously did not dupe Delina. Also Guerlain did a new palisanto aqua allegoria I think
I love Creed Viking too. To me it's closer to a variation on a traditional Bay Rum. Replace the rum with absinthe, the bay leaf with mentholation and add lavender. And I love plum notes too. My favorite frags with plum notes are Le Dandy Pour Homme by D'Orsay and the original Michael by Michael Kors. The plum note in Michael is listed in the base, like it is with Chypre Palatin by MDCI.
Yes indeed ,is niche going the way of the dodo ?? Seemingly so 😢. It would also seem that as this kinda thing becomes more and more prevalent and more people turn to the vintage side of the hobby it’s gonna put big pressure and high prices on the little gems we love to chase and collect, I see it happening as we speak glad I got into vintage when I did and I guess fragrance buying in general cheers Rams ,Boss suit right there salute ✌️🙏👍
As if these companies weren't bad to begin with now getting bought out just means they going to do the same thing Creed did, dilute the fragrances and up the price. Then they will start releasing more of these mass appealing scents that are generic. What will the Ram think when Areej La dore gets bought out by Estee Lauder 😂
Areej will never get bought out because these brands look for one thing... the ability to easily (and cheaply) remake the fragrance over the years that smells the same.. That is the opposite of Areej Le Dore
@@RamseytheRam they just delute the fragrances with like 80% perfumers alcohol 😂 knowing these companies they will put done shiet like that. But i in all honesty i believe Russian Adam will keep his integrity and not let the dollars signs blind him.
Hey Rams! Thank you THANK YOU so much for your advice to those new to the frag community, (which as I've said I AM!) And, as usual, I take your advice to heart. I thoroughly enjoy your reviews and look forward to next ones. Keep up the great content! Sincerely, Rachel (Lipstick Bohemian)
Ooouuuuuu 👀 outfit on point ! Advent invested n the biotech I used to work for. They have a “ style”. I wonder what that acquisition will mean for these perfume houses.
@@RamseytheRam on the biotech side, they put they dismantle the companies and put their team in without taking the time to understand all operational aspects of said company. They don’t talk to the team, only to the CEO. In our case, the CEO was deceiving. Long story. The new Advent tech division in France is a great team though. They are a smaller team and operate differently. They talk to the team and take the time to understand the organizations they invest in. I love your channel, you’re interesting and knowledgeable. Awesome!
@@RamseytheRam changes are good sometimes. In our case, advent never asked about our intellectual property docket and strategy. I left with that knowledge. All the best to you and your family! 😊
I've been into scents since high school but only in the last few years i started buying and last year (2023) i started really getting into it and bought aventus and diff pdm samples and everything and idk why but Percival and Layton are just my top 2 out of like 50 colognes so this is really sad to see. I was gonna buy a bottle of each and now im worried it's not gonna be the same like the sample. Loved my aventus sample but my bottle just barely lasts but i still love it but don't want pdm going down like thius so i hope they don't fall :/
@@RamseytheRam any in particular u like from them? i donnt like tobacco or oajan type scents Percival and Layton and bleu de channel are my typa style haha and also most def lhomme
@@RamseytheRam i was also excited for pdm because it lasts so long tht was the biigest thing for me why it was worth the money because it smells great and lasts hours which is rare esp for Percival like frags
Black rock 😂 . If you like George Carlin. You’d love Owen Benjamin. Stand up guy and father (much like yourself). Funniest banned comedian/ homesteader
Frag RU-vid got me excited for PdM and Initio, then I got samples and I thought, ‘wth am I missing?’ I’m wearing Herod today in honor of Olivier Pescheux, and it’s fine but nothing that exciting. So many of them are obnoxiously strong and far too sweet.
I always like your videos and reviews. This time you ve generalized a “behavior” from other “influencers” and brands, and the profits making. Its easy, for people like us, consumers, to identify “influenced” influencers and to start judging with our own noses. Anyway .. a free bottle of perfume is enough for mis-judging? Are you the only one acting for the sake of art? Are we completely ignorants?
You are so right. I follow only 3 reviewers that I trust not to get free bottles. You are one of them. Actually, I never blind buy because my nose is extremely picky. From Initio I only have a 10ml decant of Addictive Vibration... my wife loved it. Initio is very generic. No wow factor. Same goes for PdM. I only have Godolphin, which is an office-safer version of TL... not original but nice to have.
Thank you for the follow & I have never smelled addictive vibration but I dont have high hopes for it lol Although I have a few drops of Godolphin I will do a video on soon 🙏
@@RamseytheRam AV is for women. Come to think of it, I also have a 3ml sample of Divine Attraction for myself. To my nose Divine Attraction is the only interesting scent for men by Initio. It's not a full bottle worthy because of the price, but I might get a 10ml decant when I finish the sample. If it was way cheaper, it might have been a full bottle worthy (it has the same vibes like Gucci Guilty Absolute to my nose. It starts off "stickier"). I'd love ii if you smell a sample and review DA. I'm interested to know whether you'll also find it interesting... :)
Great video Ramsey. Paragon is also my "favorite" from the brand, glad to see your take on it. Have you ever smelled Le baiser du dragon by Cartier and I've been mote than smitten with it. Would be interesting to see your take on it someday hopefully :)
No but if you want that animalic vanilla try and find a bottle of Ambrarem ... or if you have never smelled shalimar try and get your nose on those two... both of them a million times better than anything lattafa or Initio would do 🍻
honestly, i got into community via the hyped fragrances, unfortunately. Now i prefer less popular ones like goutal or f. Bianchi. i must still admit i like paragon and rehab. Mostly because they really last on me. Other fragrances tend to disappear on my skin after 1h :/
If there is one positive about brands like these it is getting someones foot in the door of community and then once you are in the front door head straight for the stairs 😆 Thanks for watching 🍻
RAM in a CEO mode 😎 what happened with Initio/PdM and others of their keen, presents to us one of the ugliest faces of capitalism. Let's not participate in this procedure. SOTD: Balenciaga Pour Homme vtg 😁
@@RamseytheRam it smells very warm and cosy, but then the urinal cake kicks in XD I definitely see myself wearing it from time to time. PS. Reminds me a bit of vtg Opium - mybe due to both of them being quite expired 😂
@@RamseytheRamThe goal is to ramp up a brand, overprice with a tall tale story, then cash out and laugh at your customer base all the way to the bank.
