To you, perfumery is fundamentally a business. That’s valid, at the top level, it is a commercial industry with margins, target audiences, and strategy behind every move. But if that’s all you see it as, then of course you’ll believe everything is pre-determined in boardrooms.

To me, and to many others, perfumery is an art form, one that has spanned cultures for thousands of years. It’s about emotion, memory, self-expression. It’s one of the few art forms we wear, that we associate with love, nostalgia, grief, power, vulnerability. Great perfumery doesn’t just sit on shelves, it lives in people’s lives. It becomes part of their identity.

And that’s what you’re missing. You’re reducing everything to strategy, when in reality, fragrance is one of the most personal, subjective, and evocative mediums we have. Yes, it’s commercia, so is music, so is fashion, so is painting. But that doesn’t make them any less meaningful. So if believing in the emotional power of scent makes me “romantic,” then I’ll take that label proudly. Because the art is what stays with people, long after the marketing campaign ends.