A friend of mine was cleaning out her mom's closet. They are moving into a smaller home now that they are retired, and she's been decluttering. Lo and behold, she found a box of perfumes that had never been worn, and her mom told her to just throw them away. Knowing that I love fragrances, she offered me the opportunity to go through the box and take first dibs. There wasn't much of interest, and what was interesting I already had a bottle of. But there on the bottom, was 15mL bottle of Hermes Oud Alezan, one of my favorite rose and oud fragrances, and a holy grail on my wishlist. The 100mL bottle is nearly $450, and it does not show up on discounters very often. The mom said it was her least favorite from the discovery set she had bought, and that she had never sprayed it after opening it for the first time. Just like that, it was mine. I've had lightning strike twice in the last week. Maybe I need to buy a lottery ticket.

Here’s the fragrance news worth paying attention to as of August 18, 2026—with the fluff stripped out. - Roja London – Elysium Absolue Pour Femme launches tomorrow, August 19. It was created by Julie Lerendu of Robertet working with Roja Dove and centers on rose, lychee, fig, raspberry, sandalwood, patchouli, and amber. It’s a 75 mL EDP at $330. Early testing from Fragrantica describes very large opening sillage and roughly 12-hour longevity. - Regalien – Hidden Origins Collection is much more interesting from a perfumery standpoint. Three extraits were introduced: Aurora: Halfeti Dark by Dominique Ropion, Anemos: Cappadocia Wild by Hamid Merati-Kashani, and Agora: Golden Horn by Honorine Blanc. They’re 80 mL extraits at €270. Anemos is the one I’d put at the top of the sniff list: citrus, leather, oud, nagarmotha, labdanum and amberwoods. - Rasasi just released Hawas La Mer and Hawas Gold Digger. What makes this news interesting is that the inspirations aren't being hidden: La Mer is described as inspired by Louis Vuitton Pacific Chill, while Gold Digger is inspired by Ultra Male. La Mer uses peppermint, citrus, blackcurrant, jasmine, carrot seed, fig and amber woods. This is another good example of a Middle Eastern brand moving from loose similarity into clearly identifiable interpretation territory. - Gucci Guilty Eau de Toilette Intense Pour Homme is new. The structure is surprisingly simple: sea salt, lavender and palo santo. Rather than making “Intense” mean sweeter and thicker, Gucci seems to be going mineral/aromatic/dry woody. Of the new mainstream men's designers, this is one I'd actually test. - Fragrance continues to carry the U.S. beauty business. Prestige fragrance dollar sales grew 6% in the first half of 2026, while mass-market fragrance sales jumped 15%. More interestingly, prestige unit sales were essentially flat while average prices increased about 5%, and EDP/parfum concentrations posted double-digit growth. Translation: consumers are increasingly spending more per bottle and moving toward stronger concentrations rather than simply buying more bottles.