Ever since shoemaker extraordinaire Christian Louboutin brought his signature flair to the world of beauty, we’ve been captivated by each and every launch: from his debut nail polish in bold scarlet (complete with stiletto spike lid) to delicately packaged lipsticks and lacquers and three heady scents.
The latest addition to the Louboutin Beauté arsenal is small but exquisitely formed: at the end of the month, these three scents will be re-launched in a purse-friendly 30ml size. Need a quick re-fresher course? Bikini Questa Sera blends jasmine and tuberose; Tornade Blonde has notes of sweet violet, cassis and rose, while Trouble In Heaven mixes iris, patchouli, tonka absolut and amber.
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Scent (and the sense of romance that surrounds it) is clearly an ongoing source of fascination for Louboutin. ‘It is present and then immediately past… There is something very exciting about the way it is there one moment and it leaves a trace,’ he told Grazia. ‘You see a woman walking towards you, she is there alongside you, just a moment, you look across and then she walks by and you are left with just the red flash of her soles and the trace of her parfum.’
For the designer, this sense of narrative appears crucial to the fragrance experience. He’s not the only one who feels this way: a recent WGSN report on the ‘Future of Fragrance’ found that, when shopping for perfume, consumers are increasingly favouring bolder, more experiential storytelling over tired marketing clichés and heavily gendered branding. The bottom line? As Claire Catterall, the senior curator of Somerset House’s major fragrance exhibition Perfume: A Sensory Journey, puts it: ‘People aren’t just wearing perfume to smell fantastic or sophisticated, they’re wearing it to be taken on a journey.’
Teasing the arrival of the 30ml fragrances, he has created three whimsical videos, bringing to life the individual spirit of each.
‘I wanted to celebrate woman and her desires,’ Louboutin revealed. ‘I wanted these fragrances to enhance an aspect of her personality, or perhaps reveal something that no one knew before, maybe not even her, tell a secret, tell a story. In a way, creating these fragrances is like being a film director.’
From the irrepressible, adventurous spirit of Tornade Blonde to the mysterious Firestarter in Trouble In Heaven to the tropical heat of Bikini Questa Sera, each short video encapsulates the distinct personality of the three fragrances, and the women who inspired them...