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.

What fragrance has a permanent place in your collection? Like if you used it up, you would replace it? Or if it was reformulated or discontinued you would buy multiple backup bottles. For me, that would be Tom Ford Black Orchid and Byredo Gypsy Water. What’s yours?