vendredi 15 mai 2009

Narciso Rodriguez Essence: Never Mind the Juice, Just Give Me That Bottle


Have you ever heard me rave about bottles? No you haven’t. My template is the Chanel flacon: simple and functional. But somehow, Ross Lovegrove’s design really gets to me – it’s like a molten lab bottle filled with quicksilver. Its blurred contours suggest it’s about to morph or in the midst of teleporting. Lovegrove’s flowing organic lines appeal to my inner geek: if this is the future, I want in.

The contents? I can take’em or leave’em. Not that Alberto Morillas’ work isn’t excellent: he’s captured just what the remarkably consistent Narciso Rodriguez brand is all about – sleek, urban, no frills, very little nonsense. The essence of Narciso Rodriguez, as it were.

After the planetary success of Francis Kurkdjian and Christine Nagel’s Narciso Rodriguez for Her, with its devilishly simple, linear, clean/not clean play on musk and orange blossom, Morillas hooks another car onto the musk train: aldehydes, of the hot iron on linen with a hint of citrus variety – this is what the press kit calls “air notes”, and you can argue with the S.A. until you’re blue in the face that these are in fact aldehydes, she’ll deny it as though her life depended on it. Before asking you what they are.

The pairing of that slight, possibly illusory hint of citrus with the White Linen quote adds two more olfactory references of “clean” to the white musk sequence. Iris is the third: these people have all their bases covered. The rose which is meant to be the main theme (“radiant rose”, says Osmoz) is done with such a light hand as to be practically dematerialized. In fact, Essence could probably waft undetected under the noses of the Halifax Perfume Nazis[1]. I may buy it at the duty-free when I next visit Canada (then I get to keep the lovely, lovely Lovegrove bottle)…


[1] In case you’ve missed that episode: my lovely native country boasts the first city to have prohibited the use of any fragrant product in its municipal buildings, most of its schools and many businesses.


Image: Essay on the Essence bottle by Kurashikinote on Flickr.

14 commentaires:

  1. I had no idea about the perfume police, but I agree with you: that bottle is stunning, and I'm not a big bottle nut. I wish I understood musks better (paging Octavian!) Whatever that "clean" musk is in there and in various Estee Lauders, it smells very sour on me. As I think you know, I'm a recent convert to the cheerful pleasures of regular old NR.

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  2. March, I was finally able to smell the musks in NRfH, like, 3 years later. But I'm trying to think of sour musks... Could be a combination with something else?
    As for the perfume police, there are lots of places that prohibit fragrance wearing in the US and Canada, though usually not entire towns. I call it the Halifax syndrome.

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  3. Olfacta, Halifax is old news: it goes back to 2000...

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  4. I try to be sensitive about not wearing fragrances to places like medical offices and the gym, because I understand how it would bother people. Other than that, I figure it's a free country. Well, sort of. ;-)

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  5. March, I'm a brute. When I put on perfume, the only thought I spare for others is: I hope this will charm him (ok, I only think in terms of "hims"), when there's a him to charm. Otherwise, my line of reasoning is never about offending... But then, I do live in France.

    So, what, no one has anything to say about Essence?

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  6. Ad note 1: what a horror! state employed as I am myself, I don´t know what I would have done if such a policy was reenforced at my university.
    Haven´t tried the scent, but like the bottle; it is like something morphing in Matrix.

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  7. Stella, from what I hear, the anti-fragrance backlash in Europe originated in Scandinavia... but more about that later.

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  8. Hi, D. As a fellow Canadian, I sympathize with you about Halifax. As for NR Essence, I admit I was not taken by it. As I recall, there was an interesting freshly ironed "steam" smell in the opening, but it quickly dried down to dryer sheet for me. Oh well...

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  9. Jarvis, that was probably the artistic intention. Perfectly fulfilled!

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  10. Did a little research, and found that the strongest anti-perfume "force" in Norway, not surprising, are the organizations for people with allergies and different types of disabilities. And what a noise they make on their homepages! But, fortunately, The Norwegian Board of Health Supervision is, according to the info on its web page, against any legally restriction of the use of perfumes. As a curiosity I read that on the formal Christmas party last year, of the Norwegian Christian Party, it was not allowed to wear perfume. But: I have never been a place where perfumes are not allowed. Halifaxation has not happened here.

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  11. Both the perfume and the bottle left me indifferent... but I'm glad it brought you excitement (the bottle, if not the contents). :-)

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  12. Stella... The Christian Party forbids perfume at their party? And what about Mary Madgadalene? Tsk, tsk...

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  13. Tara, some day it might end up being another thing that catches dust on the mantelpiece!

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