Brazilian Cassiano Silva founded Perfumart in 2013 and has continued to engage and grow his online community with his acclaimed perfume reviews for seven years. With a professional background in marketing, advertising and branding, Cassiano has an invaluable knowledge and understanding of the perfume industry and took time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions.
What is the question you get most commonly asked?
LOL…that’s easy!
“Hi! I am a man/woman and I am (age). I like fragrances of types A, B, and C and I would like to buy something up to (amount R$) for this purpose (work/clubbing/dating). Can you indicate to me some perfumes?”
What is your earliest childhood scent memory?
I think it is coffee. But I also remember the scent of the rain touching the hot asphalt and the scent of cleaning products, since I and my brother were raised to help at home doing some tasks, like cleaning dogs, doing the dishes, etc.
What was the first perfume you bought?
Brazilian: I guess it was Absinto, by Água de Cheiro.
International: well, I think it was Café Café, by Café Parfums.
How did you know about us?
I am always looking for new brands, houses, and fragrances around the world since I have always wanted to turn my blog into a reference for Brazilians. When I read about the revival project of Le Jardin Retrouvé, I decided to get in contact with Michel and Clara, and a beautiful relationship was born (which is not so common within this industry full of egos).
I met Clara’s daughter in Brazil (before she left the country), published my reviews for the whole collection and since then I am always trying to make more people around here to discover the effort and the magic behind the LJR creations.
What does fragrance mean to you?
You know, I grew up with some self-esteem issues for being a short boy. Then, the sexuality part just helped to mess up with all the expectations people used to put on my shoulders (besides my own).
And since I could not afford expensive clothes from renowned brands and I always loved the perfumery field, fragrances have always been my superhero costume and mask. Through the years, they became my second – and more beautiful – skin, lifting my mood, giving me confidence and comfort when needed, and creating a unique character around my name: the scented guy!
Some people smoke and others drink in order to forget their problems. I prefer to look at several gorgeous bottles and decide which fragrance is going to make me feel better.
What does the fragrance industry need to do from now on?
Unfortunately, the luxury, glamor, and quality of yesteryear no longer exist. Perfumery has changed and become commonplace in exchange for millionaire figures. Luckily, the manifest that counted on with the help of Yuri Gutsatz brought back the focus on talent, creativity, and the power of fragrances.
However, in a short period of time, this segment has also been losing strength and surrendering itself for market share. To make matters worse, some brands use the excuse of more expensive and rare raw materials as a justification for charging absurd prices. How does the customer know if the press release tells the truth about what the fragrance brings inside?
Here in Brazil, for example, companies that make copies of the most famous fragrances in the mass market are selling a lot, precisely because the globalized consumer no longer wants a single perfume to wear as a signature. He/she wants to have several and, preferably, that are similar to others of more expensive brands, which are disseminated on social media by young influencers and delusional YouTubers.
2020 was an atypical year, which proved that sales need to go beyond training and retailer stores. If the industry does not change its approach quickly, stopping looking for likes on Instagram, the brands we call Designers today will end up bringing more copies of Prestige brands (like Tom Ford, for instance) in order to compete with the increased sales of fragrances that are already counterfeits.
And if the brands on the other side of the fence (indie, artisan, etc.) do not change its approach with this “high luxury” small talk, forgetting that they need to invest in word-of-mouth advertising through real fragrance influencers (as in the recent past), instead of spending rivers of money on luxurious websites, fanciful approaches, and nonsense PR professionals, there will be a general collapse at some point.
Do you have any projects you’d like to tell our readers about?
I have a huge list of great ideas and no investment behind me. But I am trying to work on some collabs as Creative-director. Right now, things are going slow and time is running fast.
Who knows I will have my name in some international fragrance soon?
Cassiano Silva was in conversation with Samantha Scriven. Find his website at Perfumart.
