Modern perfumery is undergoing something of a renaissance as fragrance houses look to their archives for the creation of a new generation of classic scents
With criticism mounting about the lack of real creativity in today’s fragrance market, manufacturers have taken up the gauntlet and are injecting a much needed dose of originality back into perfumery. From new ingredients and accords to the revival of lost classics, the fragrance market hasn’t been so alive for a long time. Moreover, there is a real feeling of excitement among industry insiders who see this new burst of creativity as a turning point for the fragrance industry.
“In the early 1990s there was a tremendous feeling of creativity with the launch of cK one, Angel and L’eau d’Issey, and now again in 2006 we are seeing another cycle of increased creativity,” explains chairman of The Fragrance Foundation UK and director of Pandora, John Ayres.
This increase in creative activity has manifest itself in two directions of revival, according to Ayres. There is the literal revival of esoteric fragrances such as the Lanvins, Carons and Creeds along with Worth’s Je Reviens and Fracas by Robert Piguet. These fragrances are being celebrated as true classics rather than just old fragrances and are intended to be worn as they were 30 or 40 years ago. In addition, there has been increased focus on the quality and type of the perfume oil used in fragrance, echoing the methods used to create classic scents of the past.
Manufacturers and fragrance houses are also utilising the growth in popularity of the obscure and vintage by delving into their archives and using their rich heritage to rework old favourites with a modern twist.
Estée Lauder’s partnership with Tom Ford illustrates this new direction, the result being a modern interpretation of Lauder’s iconic fragrance Youth Dew. The scent, Youth Dew Amber Nude features a warm amber accord and the juice is encased in the original gold fluted bottle. Originally rolled out as a limited edition in 2005, the fragrance has been so successful that Lauder intends to relaunch it for the Christmas period this year.
Ford’s next project is the launch of his first signature scent under the Lauder banner. Black Orchid was created by the Givaudan team and is already being hyped as a new classic. Top notes of French jasmine, black gardenia, ylang ylang, citrus and bergamot blend into the floral heart of Tom Ford black orchid (created exclusively for the designer), spicy floral orchid notes and lotus wood. The dry down features patchouli, incense, amber, sandalwood and vanilla. The advertising visual features Julia Restoin-Roitfeld, the 17 year-old daughter of French Vogue editor, Carine Roitfeld, and has a glamorous vintage feel to it, embodying luxury and opulence. A men’s fragrance is also planned for 2008.
French fashion house Christian Dior similarly reworked its cult Miss Dior fragrance to launch Miss Dior Chérie, a sweeter, more youthful version said to appeal to a younger age group and fronted by Elvis Presley’s granddaughter Reilly Keough. And Nina Ricci launched Nina, a sweet fruity floral with a heart of toffee apple accord. The fashion house was inspired by its iconic scent Fille d’Eve when creating the new fragrance which is echoed in the apple-shaped bottle, a direct nod to the brand’s rich heritage.
Likewise, Lancôme’s latest launches, Tropiques and Hypnôse, carry brand history. Tropiques is an updated version of the original 1935 fragrance of the same name, created by Lancôme founder, Armand Petitjean and has been created specially for travel retail. The juice has been modified to a fruity floral for the modern consumer and features top notes of cranberry, raspberry and kumquat. The heart contains mango flower, jasmine and blackberry on a base of Tonka bean and vanilla.
For Hypnôse, Lancôme looked to its classic portfolio and created a bottle based on the 1950s classic Magie. It has also relaunched four of its ‘lost’ classic scents at its flagship store in Paris.
Other ‘lost’ classics destined for a comeback include Givenchy’s cult fragrance, L’Inderdit, which embodies the glamour and sophistication of the 1950s. Created by Hubert de Givenchy for his friend and muse Audrey Hepburn, the fragrance features notes of rose, jasmine and violet, and a blend of woods and grasses. Lanvin’s classic scent Arpège, although not strictly lost has seen renewed interest off the back of the launch of Lanvin’s new feminine scent, Rumeur.
A question of taste
The emphasis placed by manufacturers on heritage and classic scents has also resulted in a shift in fragrance taste. “After years of transparency, cleanness and airy notes, the consumer is looking for more textured, opulent, qualitative, deep fragrances,” says Catherine Bru, director fine fragrance, IFF. “There has been a comeback of chypres and sexy, glamorous fragrances as well as animalic, less clean scents.”
Professeur des Parfums, Roja Dove agrees: “There has been a fundamental change in perfumery and we are starting to see interest again in real creativity.” Dove cites the use of vetiver as a particular trend, which he believes, along with chypre and rose notes, is taking fragrance in a new direction.
“How much more sweetness can we take? We need to move away from these fruity florals if we are to create new classics,” he says. These accords, although not new are being used in a new way to create groundbreaking olfactory compositions. “We are discovering a new style of dry fragrance where woods are pushed to such an extreme that they don’t appear to have an oak moss note, hence the need for the vetiver. This kind of creativity sets the mood for where perfume is going.”
Examples of this creativity are evident in the slew of new launches this year including Charme by La Perla, Sel de Vetiver by The Different Company, Perles de Lalique by Lalique and Soir de Lune by Sisley. The latter, described as a floral chypre, is the first fragrance from the brand in more than a decade so there has been a large level of excitement around the new fragrance. Crystalline top notes of lemon, bergamot, mandarin, nutmeg and coriander blend into the feminine heart of May rose centifolia absolute, mimosa flower absolute, jasmine, lily of the valley and iris. This is balanced by the woody dryness of the base which features musk, moss, honey, sandalwood and patchouli.
Along with chypres and dry accords, spicy amber notes are also pushing the boundaries of creativity according to Ayres. “There has been an increase in more subtle, complex accords, particularly spicy, woody and amber notes,” he explains. “These accords create more warmth and intimacy in a scent and are being used to add a new dimension to a fragrance.”
Ayres believes this has been particularly evident in men’s fragrance where the traditional concept of masculine freshness captured in a fougère has been warmed up. He cites P&G’s Valentino V pour Homme and Boss Soul fragrances, along with L’Oréal’s Armani Code as examples of this trend.
“The increase in warm amber and musky accords is due to a change in legislation,” he adds. “This has resulted in new ingredients and synthetic musks coming through as well as an increase in the usage of patchouli and cedar wood oil which supports the spicy, ambery trend.”
Following this direction is the new generation of gourmand notes which continue to be a popular influence in perfumery. “Foodie fragrances have gone beyond sugary and now have a more bitter quality,” says Euromonitor account manager for cosmetics and toiletries, Briony Davies. “Pomegranate is particularly popular at the moment.” Jo Malone’s Pomegranate Noir and Calvin Klein’s Euphoria both use pomegranate in high concentrations.
“New tasty fragrances are very much contrasted,” adds Bru. “Bitter sweet combinations such as Burberry Brit Red are popular and apple has come through in DKNY Red Delicious.” The addition of chocolate notes has also been an influence this year, with Missoni’s signature fragrance, L de Lolita by Lolita Lempicka and Jo Malone’s Blue Agava both featuring bitter cacao notes.
On the floral side, magnolia, orchid and peony virtual accords have been popular, as has orange blossom, which is central to the new feminine fragrance from Giorgio Armani. Armani Code Woman, the follow up to the successful men’s launch features a heart of orange blossom and is echoed throughout the fragrance. Peony, meanwhile forms the cornerstone for Stella McCartney’s eagerly anticipated follow up fragrance, Stella In Two. The fragrance comprises peony scented edt featuring pink peony, black pepper, patchouli and cedar wood, and a separate amber scented solid perfume. The idea behind the two scents is that they can be worn alone or custom blended to create a personalised fragrance individual to the wearer.
Up close and personal
Consumer demand for difference in the fragrance market has also given rise to the increase in personalised fragrances. For example, www.createyourownfragrance.co.uk is an online facility that offers personalised fragrances that are determined by a number of questions about the user’s tastes, from favourite fragrance and colour to hobbies and flowers.
There is a certain amount of scepticism in the industry about such services and the need to clarify the true definition of a personal fragrance, but with a price tag of £30 this is clearly aiming more at the mass market than creating a truly unique one-off for the more discerning client.
“Personalised fragrances are very rarified,” explains Dove. “A truly personalised fragrance is something only a handful of people will be able to have as price points start at about £20,000. However, it’s an important trend as it cascades down to everyone else.”
It can be argued that such a steep price point opens this type of fragrance up to the super luxury category, inhabited by the likes of Clive Christian. In turn this increases market segmentation, an element championed by Ayres. “Personalised and super luxe fragrances are a clearly viable segment,” he says. “Things have shifted towards the middle of the market so having a super luxe segment opens up the luxury sector of fragrance.”
However, there is reservation from some. World renowned perfumer Yves de Chiris warns that greater credibility needs to be established in order for this sector to grow. “As long as people have the money to pay for personalised fragrances, they will remain. I would caution consumers however to make sure they are dealing with a bona fide perfumer, as this is an area which could attract a lot of charlatans.”
Stars in their eyes
For most a precious personalised fragrance is just a pipe dream. Instead buying into a luxury designer brand or a celebrity fragrance will suffice. In fact celebrity fragrances have bridged the gap between the aspirational and the affordable in today’s fragrance market.
“Celebrity fragrances helped to boost the industry at a time when it was shrinking,” says Davies. “Consumers no longer want just a perfume. They are buying into a lifestyle or attitude, and celebrity branding is part of this trend.”
And it is this branding which has resulted in much of their phenomenal success. “You already have the brand awareness with celebrity fragrances so you have solved part of the marketing challenge,” says Ayres. “Celebrity fragrance has had an enormous impact on the fragrance market. They have been responsible for the rebirth of the American market which was in decline for some years.”
There appears to be no let up in the slew of launches and new signings for celebrity fragrances. Jennifer Lopez, whose JLo Glow fragrance is a best seller around the world, has added Live Luxe, a limited edition fragrance to her Live fragrance franchise and is set to launch another limited edition, JLo Glow After Dark, at the end of this year.
The celebrity march continues with the news that singer Kylie Minogue will be launching her first fragrance, Darling, at the end of the year with Coty. The French manufacturer has significantly increased its celebrity fragrance quota since it acquired Unilever’s fragrance brands last year. Its most talked about launch to date is the fragrance duo from David and Victoria Beckham. Intimately, which follows David Beckham’s debut fragrance, Instinct, features a male and female fragrance, which have received a mixed reception.
“Fragrances that have an association with a celebrity rather than being an actual celebrity fragrance tend to work better with men,” says Dove. “Spraying a little bit of David’s [Beckham] juice on them may not appeal to that many men.”
However, the celebrity formula has been a hit with women, and fragrances like Sarah Jessica Parker’s Lovely and Britney Spears have registered very positive sales. In particular, celebrity fragrances have opened up the market to a younger consumer, with Britney Spears leading the charge. Her latest fragrance Fantasy was marketed directly to the teen and tween market using the medium of mobile phone texting as a way to generate publicity in the fragrance before it even launched.
Parent company Elizabeth Arden is hoping to replicate this success among the lucrative youth market with the launch of With Love by teen actress and singer Hilary Duff. The fragrance is expected to make in excess of £30m in its first year of sales in the US, highlighting the huge potential this market offers.
The Paris Hilton franchise is another example of the power of the young celebrity. Now launching a third fragrance, entitled Heiress, the momentum behind these fragrances is showing no sign of letting up. French fragrance house Guerlain, not normally associated with celebrity fragrance, has acknowledged the power of the celebrity and joined forces with Hollywood actress Hilary Swank for the launch of its latest fragrance, Insolence. Swank, who is both muse and face of the fragrance, is hoped to appeal to the young American consumer, Guerlain’s target audience for the new scent.
At the other end of the scale, 60s icon Jane Birkin has teamed up with luxury niche perfumer Miller Harris to create L’air de rien, the result of a two-year project between the two. The fragrance contains notes of amber, vanilla, neroli, oak moss and musks, and features Birkin’s illustrations on the bottle.
The celebrity sector is deemed so marketable that TV programmes and authors are jumping on the bandwagon. Author Danielle Steel has launched Danielle, slated to hit counters in October, while Coty has partnered with Touchstone Television to created a fragrance for the hit TV show Desperate Housewives. Forbidden Fruit is based on the apple tree shown in the opening credits of the show. And Cosmetic Essence Corp has created a fragrance duo inspired by popular teen show, The O.C.
So will the power of celebrity be strong enough to provide longevity in this market? Dove believes it is a reflection of today’s society. “Scent is a reflection of what’s going on in society so while the obsession for fame and celebrity continues, this type of fragrance will continue to sell,” he says.
Ayres believes the segmentation of the fragrance market produced by the creation of the celebrity fragrance sector could open up further opportunities. “There is an enormous older market that is not really being addressed by fragrance manufacturers at the moment. They have catered for the younger consumer so why not the older?”
With such demographic potential still remaining in the market, and the revival of olfactive creativity, let’s hope manufacturers recognise that the fragrance market still has plenty to offer the consumer, if they only could take that first step