Headspace Showcase Review – 2024

Nicolas Chabot knows perfume. He’s had a long career in the industry, he’s pulled off an acclaimed revival of Le Galion and he’s had considerable success with Aether. So I have no doubt that a great deal of thought and planning went into the creation of his latest brand, Headspace. I reviewed all eight of its perfumes in a recent episode of Love At First Scent, which you can find at this link – Headspace showcase review – followed by a complete list of the scents, with timestamps, and some further reflections on the brand.

Headspace Absinthe (Nicolas Beaulieu) 12:02
Headspace Tubereuse (Nicolas Beaulieu) 14:50
Headspace Sauge (Caroline Dumur) 17:34
Headspace Santal (Julien Rasquinet) 19:47
Headspace Myrrhe (Julien Rasquinet) 26:06
Headspace Styrax (Miroslav Petkov) 29:01
Headspace Genievre (Fanny Bal) 31:27
Headspace Kirsch (Paul Guerlain) 34:15

I say that a good deal of thought must have gone into setting up this brand, because I imagine Chabot carried out careful research and subsequently decided there’s a market for this sort of work: streamlined, quiet, ‘clean’ scents, with single-note names, and a look and concept with a marked sci-fi feel. A trying-to-be-edgy Jo Malone, if such a thing can be imagined. As far as ideas go, this one isn’t especially original, although that’s not to say it couldn’t have resulted in some interesting work. But as has been shown many times in the past, if you’re going to go simple, then you cannot compromise on the quality of your materials. And the main problem with many of these compositions is that they rely excessively on overdoses of tired synthetics that we’ve encountered far too many times before.

Sauge is a case in point: a vaguely herbal, retro-flirting, spice-inflected composition, with a slug of grimacing, ersatz woods in the base. For my money, the only one worth seeking out is Fanny Bal’s Genievre: a pleasing balancing act between citruses, berries and cedar. Otherwise, I don’t think these works are destined to occupy much of the head space of the likes of thee and me.

Persolaise

[Reviews based on samples obtained by me in 2024.]

—
If you’ve enjoyed this post, please consider supporting my work
by ‘buying me a coffee’ using the panel below.
Thanks very much indeed.

—