Thank you! Just curious, which perfume houses do you like? Asking since you keep mentioning some as being synthetic.
Again, synthetic is not on its own a bad thing, plus almost everyone is using them. It's usually a combination of synthetic and/or lack of originality (clone house) and/or overpriced where a house really starts to lose me. There are houses that don't use synthetics, such as Hiram Green, but perfumes that are all natural (or, at least, bill themselves that way) usually do not have strong performance.
Frederic Malle's perfumes contain a ton of synthetics; however, it's one of my absolute favorite houses. He also speaks openly of the use of synthetics. The perfumes themselves, for the most part, do not give the impression of just being fancy pleasant-smelling lab chemicals. They're expensive, yes, but they're all artfully done. Frederic Malle also uses real ouds in some of his fragrances, like The Night, which is $1950 for 100ml because of the amount of real oud in it.
Profumum Roma is another one of my favorite houses. Their fragrances contain such a high amount of perfume oil in them that they're a very luxurious experience.
The majority of my collection is Dior, and it's probably my favorite house for its exclusive line. (The designer level fragrances are much more hit or miss, with the misses being almost every single version of Sauvage.) Again, they contain a ton of synthetics, but the experience of wearing their fragrances is always so beautifully refined. They're very well blended. They also used to be one of the best buys in perfumery, with their exclusive line being $210 for 125ml, but after watching so many people throw money at other trash houses, they've raised their prices at least $100 in less than five years.
Some houses I just won't touch, like MFK. Not only does almost every single one of them smell like screeching chemicals--some are so heavily synthetic and dependent on aromachemicals, like Baccarat Rouge 540, that they induce anosmia and I can't smell them at all (or all I can smell is a gross, thin sweetness)--but the reason they cost so much is because Roja Dove told Francis Kurkdijan to raise prices in order to generate sales. I do like some of the work that Francis Kurkdijan has done for OTHER houses. The perfume he created for Dior many years ago, Eau Noire, is fantastic and one of the ones that jumpstarted Dior's entire exclusive line. It seems that he does better under someone else's direction.
Perhaps the best house I've tried, though, is Henry Jacques. Those are all perfume oils, and while they're not all the most original in terms of composition, the experience of wearing the fragrances is so completely on a different level than I've experienced anywhere with any perfume.
Most other houses are very hit or miss for me, such as Le Labo, which has a few perfumes that I really love but also a lot that don't do much for me.
The ones I love from Le Labo, though, were done by Annick Menardo, who is perhaps my favorite perfumer. Maybe it is the perfumer who ultimately matters more than the house, as Annick Menardo works across different houses, many of which rely on a lot of synthetics--hell, she works (or has worked) for Firmenich, which creates tons of synthetics--but her work is always sublime, so she's a perfumer who knows how to use and blend ingredients well. I'll buy any perfume Annick Menardo is responsible for. I even begged Frederic Malle to pick her to make a new one for his line. I've got perfumes of hers from Dior, YSL, Bvlgari, and Le Labo, and I will buy more.
I'm not too interested in trying many new houses at this point. Most of the time they're just a disappointment. I'd rather just stick with what I know and love.
