Louis Vuitton has announced the Woody Wagon Colognes Collection. Details are still emerging, but it appears to be a new wood-focused direction rather than another typical citrus-aquatic LV release. Valentino is introducing Vendetta, its first completely new fragrance franchise in more than six years. It will include separate men’s and women’s fragrances rather than being another Born in Roma flanker. That makes it more significant than the average designer release. Sol de Janeiro is entering men’s fragrance. Its new Cheiroso Cologne Mist collection is the company’s first line created specifically for men. This is important commercially because prestige body sprays and lighter fragrance formats continue to take market share from traditional bottles. Sol de Janeiro has officially entered men’s fragrance The company is introducing two men’s releases: - Cheiroso 7 Cologne Mist - Cheiroso 10 Cologne Mist This is commercially important because it brings the inexpensive, high-volume body-mist model directly into men’s fragrance. It may also encourage more traditional designer houses to release lighter sprays, layering products, and affordable refill formats. A new masculine niche house called Urbanbeast is pushing traditional men’s perfumery. While much of niche perfumery has moved toward gender-neutral marketing, Urbanbeast is deliberately presenting itself as a return to clearly masculine scent profiles. That could signal a broader countertrend. Gourmands are still dominating niche perfumery. Coverage from Esxence 2026 shows that brands are not abandoning sweetness, but they are making gourmands stranger: salty beach accords, realistic lemonade, savory fig-and-tzatziki ideas and unconventional food references. So the movement is becoming more experimental rather than simply producing more vanilla bombs. The strongest industry trend I see: perfume is splitting in two directions. Mainstream brands are building easy fragrance “wardrobes,” mists and celebrity collections, while niche brands are going increasingly artistic, regional and unusual. At the same time, there may be a small return toward clearly masculine perfumery after years of nearly everything being marketed as unisex.

Just got a delivery of four niche decants to try out. I picked three that I haven’t tried before based on research into their notes, and one to try again (I had traded away a sample of this months ago and kind of regretted it so I wanted to try it again). Of course I couldn’t wait to test them one at a time so I’ve got two on each arm. Of the three new ones, one is a winner and two are just horrific. Like epically bad, like I hate them and wanna wash them off my arm. Right now. Luckily, I’ve learned to have a little patience in this hobby and I’m going to let the two I hate settle down to see if they get any better — but based on their opens and how my weird nose perceives certain aromachemicals, these are absolutely not gonna be for me. But I think I stumbled on a winner out of the three new ones in this batch, and the fourth one I’m revisited is definitely a winner as well, so I think this is a good outcome today! In order of how much I like them: - Day Three Desert Rain: This is a winner! Bright, crisp, aromatic and sparkly, this reminds me a bit of M Micallef GN Tonic but feels like something I can wear throughout the year. I definitely want to get to know this one, but I think it could be full bottle worthy right out of the gate. I’m not feeling super positive that this has great performance, though, it seems to be fading fast. We’ll have to see how it does. But in terms of the scent profile, it’s very good. - Blackcliff Madagascar Man: this is a winner as well! I first got my nose on this when one of my decanters threw in a free sample almost a year ago. It’s… really weird, frankly, and I ended up giving my sample away — but I kind of regret not getting to know this one better so I ordered a decant with this shipment. This has a very challenging animalic open but if you can get past that funky civet then you’ll be rewarded with a beautiful dry amber vanilla and toasted spices. It’s really interesting and gorgeous, kind of like a much more masculine, dry and less sweet but more spicy take on absolute aphrodisiac.