By now, you may have noticed that our Limited Edition fragrances have some interesting names. M901, S210, R228...these aren't exactly the typical scent names you're used to seeing. They say nothing about what to expect. And that’s exactly the point behind why we name them that way.

The reality is that, for most fragrances, more time and money is devoted to its marketing than on the formula itself. Depending on whom you ask, marketing expenses can be 3-4 times more than the cost of what’s in the bottle, and that’s before tacking on what’s spent on fancy packaging. That’s right. Heavily stylized ads, celebrity endorsements, big social media campaigns...way more gets spent on that than on the magical potion you’ll actually be enjoying. Knowing that more is spent on attracting your interest than crafting your perfume makes it seem a lot less special, doesn’t it? Plus it’s wasteful, it’s silly, and it’s all based on the underlying premise that people who buy perfume aren’t very smart. This is the way it’s been for a long, long time.

Names are a large part of that marketing effort. Because perfume brands know most of us don’t know a whole lot about fragrance (without really doing much to change that), they decide to cut to the chase and do the thinking for us. Instead of helping us learn more about fragrance and evaluating what we like for ourselves, they hit us with a bunch of – sorry, I don’t know how else to describe it – aspirational trash. Before you’ve directly interacted with what’s in the bottle at all, a cascade of decisions has already been made for you to tell you whether or not you’re allowed to want it. Namely...

• The packaging: is this cool, does it stand out to me in some way?
  
  
• The brand: is this a designer that I want to associate myself with?
  (Luxury brands frequently create fragrances to allow people to feel like they have an affordable touchpoint with a label they wouldn't otherwise buy – you can splurge a little on a Burberry perfume and feel fancy about it, even if you're not quite able to pony up for a Burberry handbag or a coat. Think of it as an "aspirational gateway" purchase.)
  
  
• The fragrance name: does this evoke a feeling, vibe, or personality that I want to be like, or how I want to be seen by others? 

All of these things that have no thing to do with the smell are ways of getting you to self-identify with the statement it will make about you. It's a way of luring you and trying to get your mind made up before you decide what you think of the fragrance itself.

Think of it this way. You go into a makeup or department store, and you look around. Through the sea of brightly-lit products screaming for your attention (probably with some sleek house music layered on top, so you feel like a runway model), you see a fragrance in a pale pink bottle. That means it must be a women's fragrance! When you get closer, you notice it has flower petals all over it. Guess it smells like flowers – unclear which kind, but it looks cute. There's a Marc Jacobs logo. It must be posh and modern. It’s called "Daisy Dream Kiss". So it must be for a younger girl, because what kind of grown-ass mature woman (or a guy of any age) is going to march up to the counter confidently ready to buy themselves something called Daisy Dream Kiss?

Fragrance names are weird. "Husky n Musky", though...maybe?

And so before you’ve even touched it, much less smelled it, all those decisions have been made on your behalf. You're silently being told what you're allowed to approach from a mile away. But what if a guy smelled that scent, and decided he liked it? He can’t wear it, according to the packaging and the marketing, he can't wear it. It’s not meant for him. It’s meant for a young, flirty, posh, Marc Jacobs-y type girl. Sorry, everyone else – the marketing has spoken. Older ladies, please shuffle on over to the obligatory Chanel No. 5 and gentlemen, you will be steered toward a handful of acceptable options at the Ralph Lauren counter. Everyone knows how this works, everyone knows their place.

We. Don’t. Like. This.

At Jules & Vetiver, we’ve founded a brand that’s meant to strip bare all the traditional nonsense that ruins true enjoyment of quality perfume. We’re committed to it. This is why we our scents are formula names. We’re not here to tell you what to think, or what you’re allowed to like. We don't tell you what to wear. We make unisex scents that are designed to be unraveled and assessed by you, and only you. Because getting to know a beautifully constructed fragrance is a sensory joy for everyone, and you’re deprived of that joy when other factors skew you before you’ve even had a whiff. We want you to experience that magic for yourself, with no boundaries or limitations.

Our formula names are designed to let you discover what you like, without doing any deciding for you. Does it feel a little mysterious? It should. And it’s the only thing we’ll ever be mysterious about, because discovering yourself through fragrance is fun. We’re here to help you learn about yourself and what you like, with no bias, no judgment, and no BS. We’ll tell you everything that’s in your fragrance and teach you everything you’ve ever wanted to know. That’s our mission, and our simple, openminded-approach formula names are a hugely important part of that.

Let everyone else wear Candybomb and Sex Nectar*. That’s not our thing. And maybe it’s not yours, either. Join us by trying out one of our scents, and check out our other articles to learn more about perfume. We’ll make a beautifully scented perfume nerd out of you in no time.

-KS

*Not actual perfume names, but plausible, right? Maybe not Sex Nectar; that sounds kind of gross.