Next up in my look at American clone houses is Scentual Obsessions. This is one of those houses that I think is a little different from some of the clone companies I've talked about. Scentual Obsessions started back in 2014 as basically a passion project selling "our version of" fragrances at a flea market. Owner Kevin Holt had spent 18 years as a chef before getting into fragrance, and by 2019 they had developed their own fragrance line. Today they're based in Fort Myers, Florida, where they handcraft their fragrances and also operate a brick-and-mortar scent bar. And when I say they have a large catalog, I mean LARGE. They cover everything from designer fragrances to expensive niche fragrances, discontinued scents, remixes, hybrids, and their own original creations. Their website currently lists well over 100 originals alone, so at this point I don't think it's fair to look at Scentual Obsessions as strictly a clone house anymore. One thing I really respect is that they don't play games about what they're doing. They tell you exactly what the fragrance is inspired by, and they openly state that their reproductions are created through lab analysis to get close to the original fragrance. They also clearly state that they aren't affiliated with the original manufacturers. I've said this over and over when talking about clones: if you're going to clone something, name the original. Give credit where credit is due. That's much better to me than creating a fragrance that's obviously 90% somebody else's work, giving it a completely unrelated name and then pretending nobody knows where the inspiration came from. Scentual Obsessions also understands something that a lot of clone houses eventually figure out: people don't just want something that smells close. They want performance. The company itself says customer complaints about longevity were one of the reasons they changed direction and launched their fragrance line in 2019 with an emphasis on stronger-performing fragrances.

And that brings me directly into Part 3, because this is where I want to go much deeper into who is actually behind these fragrances. Not just the brand name on the bottle, but the perfumers, the major fragrance manufacturers, the oil houses, the raw-material suppliers, and where these companies are actually sourcing what eventually ends up in the bottle. This is where the perfume industry starts getting a lot more interesting, because the brand selling you the fragrance is not always the company actually creating everything behind it. The Name on the Bottle Is Only Part of the Story One of the biggest misconceptions in fragrance is that every perfume house has a perfumer sitting somewhere in the back room creating every fragrance from scratch. That simply isn't how a large part of this industry operates. There are several different business models. Some houses employ in-house perfumers. Some hire independent perfumers. Some commission fragrances from major fragrance manufacturers. Some work with outside laboratories. Some purchase fragrance concentrates or bases and modify them. Some independent perfumers actually formulate, compound, test, and produce much of their own work. And there are companies using combinations of all of these methods. This is why I think we need to stop looking at perfume as simply brand versus brand. Behind those brands is another entire industry. The Major Fragrance Manufacturers At the top of the fragrance supply chain are companies most fragrance consumers will never see advertised on a bottle. · Givaudan · dsm-firmenich · IFF · Symrise · MANE · Robertet · Takasago These are some of the giants of the fragrance and flavor industry. They employ perfumers, chemists, evaluators, researchers, and technical specialists. They develop aroma chemicals, natural extracts, proprietary ingredients, fragrance bases, and complete fragrance concentrates. These companies can work on everything from a $20 body product to a prestige designer fragrance selling for hundreds of dollars.

Tauer is one of those houses I think you almost have to respect if you really get into perfumery, even if every fragrance isn't necessarily something you want to wear. Andy Tauer is basically the definition of an independent perfumer. This isn't some giant luxury company pretending to be artisan. The fragrances have a very recognizable personality, and you can tell there is an actual perfumer behind them making decisions instead of a marketing department trying to hit every current trend. And that's probably the biggest thing about Tauer for me — the fragrances smell like Tauer. There is often this dry, resinous, woody, spicy, slightly rugged character running through the house. You get amber, incense, woods, leather-like effects, spices, and those almost desert-dry textures that can make a Tauer fragrance immediately recognizable. L'Air du Désert Marocain is obviously the fragrance most people associate with the house, and deservedly so. It's one of those fragrances that helped put independent niche perfumery on the map for a lot of people. Dry spices, amber, woods, and incense with this hot-air desert feeling around it. It's artistic without becoming completely unwearable. Au Coeur du Désert takes that general idea and makes it feel richer, denser, and more polished. If you like the DNA of L'Air du Désert Marocain but want something with more body and depth, this is probably the one. Tauer also does florals extremely well, although I think some people overlook that side of the house because the desert-style fragrances get so much attention. PHI Une Rose de Kandahar is a great example. It's a darker, textured rose rather than some clean department-store rose fragrance. What I really appreciate about Tauer is that these fragrances don't feel designed by committee. Sometimes they're strange. Sometimes they're challenging. Occasionally I smell one and appreciate it more than I actually want to wear it. But I'd rather have that than another niche house pumping out ten sweet amber-vanilla fragrances because that's what's selling.

Bois Impérial / Essential Parfums — another Quentin Bisch killer 😏

Chanel is one of those houses I respect more the longer I’m into fragrances. When I first started collecting, I was chasing everything — inexpensive designers, every hyped designer release, Middle Eastern clones, and eventually niche and artisan perfumery. Going back to Chanel after smelling all of that makes me appreciate just how well put together their fragrances really are. Chanel isn't usually trying to beat you over the head with projection or create the loudest fragrance in the room. Their strength is refinement, balance, blending, and making fragrances that simply smell expensive. Bleu de Chanel is obviously the modern centerpiece of the men's designer line. Some people dismiss it because the blue fragrance category became so crowded afterward, but Bleu de Chanel helped define what a modern upscale blue fragrance could be. I particularly like the Parfum because it takes that DNA in a smoother, richer, and more mature direction. It isn't trying to scream across the room. It smells polished and extremely well composed. The Allure Homme family may actually be the strongest part of Chanel's men's designer catalog for me. Allure Homme, Allure Homme Sport, and Eau Extrême each have their own personality while still clearly belonging to the same family. Eau Extrême especially has become almost a benchmark fragrance because of how effortlessly it combines freshness, sweetness, woods and that creamy Chanel smoothness. Then you have Platinum Égoïste, which is a completely different side of Chanel. Green, aromatic, metallic, clean and masculine without smelling like another modern shower-gel fragrance. This is one of those fragrances that reminds you Chanel existed long before the current blue-fragrance era. And then there is Égoïste, which I think deserves much more attention today. Woody, spicy, and considerably more distinctive than most modern designer releases. It comes from a time when designer houses weren't afraid to put something on the counter that actually had some edges and personality.