The mainstream niche

As I strolled around in the local chain-perfumstore some perfumed insights just popped up. In these days when the launches of many nichelines becomes more and more bland and not distinguishable from other niche and mainstream offerings (we can call it "mainstremification" of the niche) an opposing movement occurs automatically when it comes to some "mainstream" parfumes or maybe better referred to "designer"parfumes. Just looking around in the ordinary assortment of the chainstore I visited, I came to some conclusions:

- The classics still remaining in the assortment  is way more interesting then the majority of the new niche realeases. A perfume that have survived five to ten years or more, even if gradually reformulated, has stood the test of time and is something special. Examples: Rive Gauche (YSL), No 5 & Coco (Chanel), Angel & Alien (Thierry Mugler), Infusion d'Iris (Prada), Aromatic Elixir (Clinique)

- There are good new releases too, even if increasingly rarer (in relative terms) i.e exactly the same phenomen as in the niche sector. From the latest two years: Esprit d'Oscar (Oscar de la Renta), Le Parfum (Elie Saab),  No 19 Poudre (Chanel), Body (Burberry), Candy (Prada).

- The, in some cases quite distinctive reformulations of some fragrances, with the new Dior policy as a hallmark, suddenly makes a ten year old bottle with an pre-reformulation formula to an almost niche fragrance. Examples are of course in particualar from the Dior range: Dior Addict, Dune, Miss Dior Cherie Edp. I will  definitely treasure my (not so) old Diors :-).

-This store had a tester of Miss Dior labled as that and not the new Miss Dior Originale. I bet the MDO version formula is somehow tweaked too.

When writing this I'm yearning for these and other distinctive "mainstream" fragrances. As I'm almost always  sampling different nichefragrances, a week or two in "mainstream" would be a great relief.