Celebrity Life

Fragrance producer Nineteen Symrise has launched a new perfume, “Hero” in gratitude to those on the frontline of the coronavirus crisis. It has been produced by an international collective. Specially created with sustainable ingredients, various perfumers have contributed one ingredient to the unisex Eau de Cologne to express their appreciation of those helping to care […]

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The Dior J’Adore needs no real introduction. Born at the eve of the century, it quickly gained cult status. Since its debut in 1999, it has become one of the most recognisable fragrance from the House of Dior and one of the best-selling scents in the world. Now, the classic J’adore comes in a pocket-sized format with a roller pearl for easy application.

The History

It comes as no surprise why J’adore has rendered such popularity. The concept behind the scent comes from Dior’s dream to encapsulate a scent that represents the modern woman – a tease of the olfactory senses that is exulting, sensual, free yet at the same time, still fragile and serene. The nose behind J’adore is none other than the award-winning perfumer François Demachy. Using his youthful memories of his time in Grasse, he recalls the annual celebration of Jasmine Grandiflorum every August. J’adore honours the delicate and rare bouquet, and blends only the most exceptional harvest to be used.

The Notes & Accords

J’adore Eau de Parfum opens up with a heady Indian Tuberose and Chinese Magnolia, exotic Comorian Ylang Ylang, spirited Turkish Damascena Rose and Tunisian Neroli all cleverly orchestrated to shine individually, while lending the highlight to the star of the show, the intense Indian and Grasse Jasmine.

The Bottle

The feminine curves of the iconic glass bottle acts as an amphora that resembles the female silhouette which reveals a glowing golden liquid, while the rings of the bottle hang like a tribal piece from the neck.

The New Perfume Gestures

As the modern woman has evolved, so has J’adore. Catering to everyday needs, Dior is now releasing its roller-pearl form – one that still holds the same heritage, aromas and even the bottle. The miniature version features a gem-like roller pearl that can easily glide across the skin to deliver all the accords. Convenient for an on-the-go lifestyle, it can easily slip into handbags and is ideal for travel, too.

[caption id="attachment_207109" align="alignnone" width="1200"] J'adore Eau de Toilette Roller Pearl[/caption]

The Complementing Hair Mist

The J’adore Eau de Parfum also makes an appearance in a new version of the Hair Mist to complete the J’adore collection. To exude the embracing scent from head to toe, the mist can be spritzed from root to tip and in a liberated, sensual and generous gesture, symbolising absolute femininity.

[caption id="attachment_207110" align="alignnone" width="1200"] J'adore Hair Mist[/caption]

Shop J’adore Eau de Parfum and the full Dior Beauty range on Dior’s new online boutique here.

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Francisco Costa has always been a trailblazer. During 13 years as creative director of womenswear at Calvin Klein, the Brazilian designer defined the minimalist aesthetic that swept the fashion world in the early 2000s. And long before sustainability was all the rage, he produced collections from dead-stock yarn and clothing that could transform into flat objects to take up less space for shipping and reduce carbon footprints.

Shortly before leaving Calvin Klein in 2016, the art enthusiast was inspired by Piero Manzoni’s Merde d’Artiste (Artist’s Shit) collection of 90 tin cans with simple labels and – supposedly – each containing 30 grams of faeces to create a beauty-packaging concept. Those initial ideas soon evolved into a concept that would become Costa Brazil, a clean luxury beauty line launched in December 2018 and newly available in Hong Kong.

“I wanted to create something unique with strong Brazilian DNA, focusing on the purest indigenous ingredients found in the Amazon and creating a unique balance between nature, beauty and conservation,” Costa says. “Growing up in Brazil gave me an inherent appreciation of nature and an understanding of the beauty of simplicity. In Brazil we celebrate ease, happiness. We embrace the sensual rather than the sexual. In Rio, there’s a way of greeting people: ‘E ai, belleza?’, which means ‘Is everything beautiful?’

[caption id="attachment_205173" align="alignnone" width="1000"] Francisco Costa[/caption]

“I went back to Brazil while in the early development stages of the brand and took my first – of many – trips into the Amazon. This is where everything clicked; the delicate and perfect harmony of nature and the Earth as the essence of beauty.”

In fact, Costa felt drawn to the Amazon as soon as he left Calvin Klein. In the rainforest he learnt about native ingredients and traditional healing rituals. He met members of the Yawanawá tribe, explored open-air markets in Belem do Pará, and worked with chemists and botanists at a small laboratory in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. All of this led to Costa and his team discovering the “exclusive beauty trinity” that now powers every product in his concise collection.
“I had a very distinct brand concept, which changed as soon as we discovered the three ingredients that make up our Jungle Complex, two of which have never been brought to market for skincare or cosmetic use,” Costa says.

The first ingredient he discovered – which is still his favourite – was breu, an aromatic resin taken from the almacega tree and considered sacred by the Yawanawá tribe. “It’s unlike anything you’ll ever smell or experience,” says Costa, who suggests burning raw chunks of breu to enhance peace of mind, balance the sixth chakra and reinstate harmony to a room.

[caption id="attachment_205174" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Ritual De Purficação is a breathing ritual designed to lift spirits and enhance moods.[/caption]

While breu provides Costa Brazil’s products with their captivating fragrance, kaya and cacay provide a range of potent skincare benefits. Kaya, a powerful antioxidant harvested exclusively for the brand from sapucaia trees, has long been considered a superfood in South America for its blend of essential fatty acids and rich vitamin content. It’s also the key ingredient in Kaya Anti-Aging Face Oil and Kaya Jungle Firming Body Oil, which both work to boost skin hydration, texture, firmness and radiance.

Cacay, meanwhile, is a vitamin-rich oil and natural source of retinol that reduces the appearance of ageing, fine lines and other environmental stressors. It also provides much of the hydration in Costa Brazil’s Body Cream along with murumuru butter and Brazil-nut and tucuma-seed oils.
In keeping with the founder’s philosophy that “the spirit of beauty is inseparable from the health of the Earth”, most ingredients are wild-harvested to ensure no trees are cut down in the process, and packaging is made with sustainable, recycled and biodegradable materials whenever possible. All Costa Brazil products are also vegan and free of parabens, phthalates, PEGs, silicones, sulphates, gluten, glycols, mineral oil and artificial colourants.

The brand is certainly a far cry from where it started, with Costa’s ruminations on Manzoni’s Merde d’Artiste, and it appears this is only the beginning. “It’s incredibly rewarding to see the impact we’re already having – there’s a community in the eastern Amazon that now works full- time to harvest cacay plants for us,” Costa says.

“I seek to create a business with longevity, a feeling of slow luxury. I take my time to consider each element, and if it means delaying a product launch to make sure we can trace the origins and sourcing methods of our ingredients, or find the perfect custom packaging that’s both beautiful, functional and inherently good for the Earth, then I know I’m doing my job. There’s a wealth of natural ingredients that have yet to be tested and unearthed; we’ll see how we can continue to create impactful products that benefit the local communities, while maintaining the Earth’s abundance.”

Costa Brazil is available in Hong Kong via Net-a-Porter.com.

The post Costa Brazil is the Super Natural Skincare from the Amazon Rainforest appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

The fourth and latest fragrance to join Aesop’s collection is Rōzu Eau de Parfum (HK$1,300/50ml), a unisex scent that draws inspiration from the life, work and enthusiasms of muse and celebrated French modernist designer, Charlotte Perriand, and the Japanese rose that bears her name. Lending his nose for the new launch is perfumer and long-time collaborator Barnabé Fillion who you may know from previous Aesop favourites such as Hwyl Eau de Parfum (a natural fragrance rich in dark green textures and robust spices) and Marrakech Intense (a journey of the senses encapsulating evocative spices in local fare, and woody and oriental aromas).

[caption id="attachment_204704" align="alignnone" width="772"] Rōzu and the three main ingredients: rose, wood and shiso. Photo: Julien T Hamon[/caption]

Taking Charlotte Perriand’s passion for extensive travels, egalitarianism, a love for the wild outdoors and modernism, Rōzu is a reference to a blend of her lifelong affections including her love for Japan. Appealing to both genders, the fragrance opens with rich floral notes of rose, petitgrain, bergamot, shiso and pink pepper; while the heart is composed of headier florals such as ylang ylang, jasmine and guaiacwood, with hints of sandalwood, vertiver, patchouli and myrrh to end.

The Rōzu Eau de Parfum is available in a 50ml glass bottle, encased in an elegant box featuring an image from Perriand’s personal photographic archives.

The post Introducing Aesop’s New Unisex Fragrance, Rōzu Eau de Parfum appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

The thrill of Formula 1 is beyond the adrenaline that comes from watching extreme supercars zip before you. The experience would be incomplete without the smell of burning rubber, wet asphalt, the thrill of the race, the cheering of the crowd, and champagne celebrations. Now the world’s most expensive sport is bottling that entire sensory experience in its debut perfume collection made by fragrance producers Symrise, Firmenich and Givaudan in collaboration with UK-based Designer Parfums, which was launched at the F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2019 last December.

As F1 sits at th ecutting edge of design, engineering and technology, the idea was to introduce a world’s first by bringing out a bottle marking a design revolution in the conservative perfume sector. So internationally- renowned Welsh industrial designer Ross Lovegrove – who is inspired by nature and its evolutionary process and a major advocate of generative design and progressive technologies – was called in to create three high-tech, futuristic 3D-printed metal exoskeletons that wrap around a suspended glass flacon containing the fragrance.

Loving the challenge

A project that he worked on a daily basis for the best part of two years, the result is Fluid Symmetry, Agile Embrace and Compact Suspension – each in a limited and numbered edition of 20. Previously used for aircraft or spaceship parts or the high-end medical and dental industries rather than for commercial end products, 3D printing in metal has now been used for the first time in the universe of perfume. A showcase of what’s possible in 3D printing today and how beautiful it can be, the three variants are like nothing seen before as the technology to make them simply didn’t exist until now, and they can’t be manufactured by any other method.

[caption id="attachment_202714" align="alignnone" width="1600"] It is the first time ever 3D printing in metal has been used in the universe of perfumery – by Lovegrove, in the creation of sculptural exoskeletons that wrap around the perfume flacons. (Image: Formula 1)[/caption]

“I’m very picky so I only make any kind of design if I feel it’s a challenge and I have the chance to make a different level of contribution to a particular sector. I could feel that there was something interesting here. I’m trying to marry technology and form in a really new way. As an industrial designer, you have to make a commitment to use the tools that are available to you in the time in which you live. You wouldn’t make a Formula 1 car in old materials and processes. I’m interested in things that can only be made today. If you look at my work, you couldn’t make it in the past. I’m a designer who’s always brought in to talk about what can be done with new technologies,” Lovegrove states.

“So to apply it in this case in a sort of haute couture diffusion-like principle, I have an opportunity to explore these principles at a very high level with the high-value pieces in metal. When I was at SpaceX, they have 3D printing machines that mix biological, biomorphic form with base principles of engineering. And when these two co-join, you get an aesthetic that is on one hand, incredibly emotional, but on the other hand, full of total scientific discipline,” he elaborates.

A complex and time-consuming process, each exoskeleton requires from 15 to 35 hours to print in metal. They are produced in Germany by Materialise, a provider of additive manufacturing software solutions and sophisticated 3D printing services in industries ranging from healthcare, automotive and aerospace to art, design and consumer products. Rather than a predictable appearance, Lovegrove opted for an aesthetic that’s at once state of the art and sophisticated, with designs connecting back to the high-performance F1 car and driver.

[caption id="attachment_202715" align="alignnone" width="1215"] Celebrated Welsh industrial designer Ross Lovegrove. (Image: Formula 1)[/caption]

Referencing the wishbone-shaped cockpit protection halo cage surrounding the driver that has been divided and mirrored, Fluid Symmetry in 3D-printed blasted titanium is influenced by the car’s aerodynamics to generate a new 21st-century technological-biological design. In gold-plated, 3D-printed titanium, the feminine Agile Embrace bottle features solid, flowing lines that hug the inner core, echoing how a F1 car structure envelopes and shields the driver with anatomic precision, while Compact Suspension in 3D-printed stainless steel has been imagined as a multi-layered space frame with a powerful geometric motif.

Inspiring passion

Ellie Norman, F1’s Director of Marketing and Communications, explains the decision to launch a perfume to broaden the brand’s appeal: “In Formula 1, our focus is how do we grow the fan base and continue to diversify what is already a very global fan base. Part of that needs to be through how we explore different passion points. Fragrance is something that is so emotive, and smell is the most powerful for memory recall, so it made sense for us in such a visceral sport that we should explore how we could partner with the best in the world to create a fragrance inspired by the world of F1. Part of what we are doing within the sport is expanding much more into an entertainment and media brand driven by lifestyle, so this plays perfectly into that aspect.”

[caption id="attachment_202718" align="alignnone" width="1229"] F1’s Director of Marketing and Communications Ellie Norman. (Image: Formula 1)[/caption]

Customers may choose from a collection of five unisex haute parfumerie scents embodying the energy and excitement of F1. “The challenge for a global brand when you’re creating a fragrance is it’s very hard to find one fragrance that works in every country, so we tried to match the territories in which F1 has a strong fan base against the territories that do well in perfumery,” notes Parag Vidyarthi, Designer Parfums’ Managing Director.

He adds: “With five, we had a good mix where at least one would work well in every territory: Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, North America, and a global fragrance that would appeal everywhere but was more suited to Russia. Maybe someone doesn’t like all five fragrances, but everyone can find one or two that they would wear. We evaluated each fragrance for its own merit. It was almost a blind tasting. It was important for us to come up with the best products rather than work with a particular fragrance house or perfumer.”

One-of-a-kind

Inspired by the courage of risk takers, Fragrance I by Louise Turner mixes long-lasting citrus freshness with spicy black pepper and pink peppercorn layered across exclusive Akigalawood set against a sensual background of leather, Indonesian patchouli and Ambroxan. Evoking burnt rubber, smoke, rain-soaked asphalt, a sense of competition and pure emotion, the intense, woody and leathery Fragrance II by Fabrice Pellegrin combines mandarin and bergamot with a salty accord and notes of geranium, green apple and ambergris amplified with the Styrax Vulcain captive.

[caption id="attachment_202721" align="alignnone" width="1100"] Agile Embrace (Image: Formula 1)[/caption]

The only fragrance in the collection made by two perfumers – Emilie Coppermann and Alexandra Carlin, the aromatic and spicy Fragrance III is built around cinnamon, iris, tonka bean, vetiver and guaiac wood with metal pepper de Laire base. Capturing the sweet smell of victory with a podium finish, Fragrance V by Pierre Guerros is based on a champagne accord representing a spray of bubbles. It opens with sparkling mandarin, bergamot and lemon electrified by the zing of Timut pepper and lavender, and contrasted by the powerful Ambrostar captive.

Rich and audacious, Fragrance IV by Aliénor Massenet marries the heat of black pepper and cardamom with the coolness of juniper berries. At its heart, intoxicating narcissus is balanced by soft, mineral orris, which smoothly transitions to a masculine base fusing Madagascan vetiver, leather and sandalwood boosted with Tonkalactone. “F1 is an extremely masculine and luxurious sport, but it was missing perfume, so I was super happy to create one for them,” Massenet says.

[caption id="attachment_202723" align="alignnone" width="1240"] Fluid Symmetry (Image: Formula 1)[/caption]

He continues: “My first idea was that I needed to use ingredients that had a very high impact, with a lot of power and testosterone, but then I thought why not use narcissus. It’s a rare and expensive flower that nobody has played with before and could be very masculine, so I put a lot of spice like pepper, sage, cardamom and cinnamon. There are dry notes and a kind of sweet, fruity coconut from the Tonkalactone, a captive that gives the wow, the vroom – like when the drivers start their engines. It’s a very fearless fragrance. When I created this fragrance, I was very focused, just like how the drivers need to be extremely focused and scared of nothing. For me, this fragrance is that emotion put inside a bottle.”

Made to order, each of the three luxury variants is priced at HK$77,500 (US$10,000) inclusive of local tax, with additional finishes to be created this year. Vidyarthi points out that buyers will subsequently be able to create their own customised resin bottle designs within set parameters because the nature of 3D printing allows for the creation in an efficient way of a single exoskeleton or small series as needed.

This story first appeared on PrestigeOnline.com/sg.

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When you close your eyes and think of your favourite scent, what do you smell? Is it freshly cut grass; a burst of zesty citrus; a field full of lavender; or maybe even bread baking in the oven? Whatever it is, it's likely to be your favourite because it relaxes you. For centuries, ancient cultures have used fragrances and scented oils as a form of aromatherapy to soothe and relax stressed souls. In this sense, not much has changed. Today, we use scents in the form of candles, essential oils and incense to create a calm and relaxed ambiance at home. And since we're at home a fair bit at the moment, we thought it fitting to share our top seven luxury items to light up at home today.

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[dropcap size=small]H[/dropcap]edi Slimane, fashion’s enfant terrible and the creative director of Celine is nothing if not an astute merchandiser. Appointed by LVMH honcho Bernard Arnault to grow the French label into a global moneymaker, Slimane’s latest salvo is the opening of Celine’s first standalone fragrance boutique in Paris, featuring 11 perfumes he conceptualised. (Related: French haute […]

The post Will the fashion industry’s foray into designer fragrances be enough to keep sales up? appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

edi Slimane, fashion’s enfant terrible and the creative director of Celine is nothing if not an astute merchandiser. Appointed by LVMH honcho Bernard Arnault to grow the French label into a global moneymaker, Slimane’s latest salvo is the opening of Celine’s first standalone fragrance boutique in Paris, featuring 11 perfumes he conceptualised. (Related: French haute parfumerie […]

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.

The toiletries and home fragrance industries are tough businesses.  You need to have a thick skin if you are going to make it in shower gels and hand lotions and persuade people to have their bodies and homes smell of whiskey and water and Yorkshire rhubarb. “The main challenge and obstacle was fierce competition in […]

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