Posts Tagged ‘Perfume’

Per fumier Le Labo has a unique mission: To fight the growing conformity in the beauty industry. Le Labo thrives on its unique customer relationship (its laboratory is open to the public) and unlike other brands, the fragrances they produce are “made to order” (the alcohol and fragrance is not mixed until it is being purchased) which means the end product stays ‘fresh’ and retains the fullness of its fragrance for longer.

Excitingly, as a part of Le Labo’s mission to widen consumers’ perception of perfume, perfume provocateur Nicola Pozzani is hosting a series of workshops solely in London. The overall aim is to approach Le Labo’s fragrances through what they call a ‘synaesthetic approach’ which will explore the connection between fragrance and all the senses.

Le Labo’s “Synesthetic series” is a sequence of 5 workshops, which will take place once a month on Sunday afternoons at the Devonshire Street boutique in London. Working in small teams, students will learn about the brand, its fragrances and the ingredients used. Through sensory exercises an active involvement with the products will ultimately expand your knowledge and perception of scent. In addition, the workshops will allow students to explore the sensations fragrance can convey and experience perfume as “an art form, as a creative language and become aware of the creative scenarios that lay behind fragrance creation”. The synaesthetic aspect of the workshop will teach students to become more sensitive to fragrance and gain a newly discovered perception of perfume.  Nadine Bourne

Want to discover more cult fragrances? Try Molecule 01.

The Le Labo Synesthetic Series takes place every last Sunday of the month from January to May 2011
Time: 4pm to 6pm
Where: 28A Devonshire Street, London W1G 6PS
Price: £45
Number of places: maximum 6 per session
RSVP : lelabolondon@lelabofragrances or +44 20 3441 1535

The perfumers with whom Kate Moss launched her latest fragrance, Vintage, may look into having Mossy create a color cosmetics collections for its Rimmel brand, for which she is already a spokesperson. Vintage is her third perfume, a fruity floriental developed by Olivier Polge using pink pepper, jasmine, almond blossom, tonka bean, freesia, mandarin, heliotrope, vanilla and musk.

Perfume sales have not been good this year; although this can be hard to believe when out on the streets, embattled by the force-fields of over-enthusiastic Armani and cK supporters. In order to keep our attentions on all things fragrant, the perfume companies are falling back on their old friends the Stary-Army to convince us to keep the tide of bio at bay.

Faith Hill and Halle Berry have recently pledged their allegiance to the cause, as has Pamela Anderson who apparently spent more than the usual half day working on her Malibu scents, which hit stores in November.

Even though she has been battling demons of a rather different nature, Britney still apparently shifts the scents, launching her new Britney Spears’ Circus this month. Even Antonio Banderas is in on the act, rolling out his sixth scent called Seduction in Black.

With 40-50% of all perfume sales recorded in the months of November and December you can see why these slightly cynical, ‘buy me’ tactics are employed. But I can’t help feeling a little patronised by this. When cult scents like Shalimar by Guerlain, Farouche by Nina Ricci and Tabac Blond by Caron were created, the process took over 2 years and employed trained noses who had spent their lifetimes studying this art.

Is the general public really this gullible?

Maybe it is not the economy that ails this industry, but the quick-buck strategies of the board rooms that drive generic product creation and these unimaginative marketing strategies to try and sell them. A regression to the artisan processes of yesteryear might be just the ticket to create a new star in its own right – alexia inge