Elevated Classics

With the passing of Olivier Creed last week, conversations about Creed have resurfaced across the fragrance world. For some, he represented one of the last visible faces of a family perfume dynasty. For others, his name remains tied to larger debates about authorship, heritage, marketing, and what Creed truly became…

Anyone who has stepped into a Sephora lately has seen them: a pack of three or four teenage boys huddled around the fragrance wall. They move through the testers with that chaotic energy of guys who have just discovered grooming and trying to impress girls at the exact same time.…

Before reviewing my bottles from Les Exclusifs de Chanel, I wanted to begin with the history behind Chanel fragrance itself. Chanel perfume is one of the great success stories of French luxury, but the story is far more complicated than the polished mythology usually allows. Most people begin with Chanel…

When MERIT Retrospect L’Extrait de Parfum launched, I wrote about it as a new release: a first fragrance from a beauty brand entering a category that looks deceptively easy from the outside. A year later, I can review it with better evidence. My bottle is finished. (Listen to the Podcast…