Perfume Blog

By CHANDLER BURR

Western perfume makers have been selling their scents in China for roughly a decade. But in a few months, Parfums Benetton will introduce two of the first perfumes that have been created especially for Chinese tastes.

United Colors of Benetton and its perfume licensee, Selective Beauty — the company that conceives and produces perfumes under Benetton’s name — signed with a Chinese perfume importer and distributor called Eternal. It was Eternal that suggested that Benetton create scents for the Chinese consumer.

The creative team at Selective Beauty decided on the names Energy Games Man and Woman to play off the strengths of the existing brands — Energy Man and Energy Woman, created last year — and to refer to this year’s Olympic Games in Beijing.

On the bottle, Selective Beauty used the yellow and red colors of the Chinese flag. For the perfumes, it chose two veteran perfumers from a scent maker called Quest (purchased a year ago by Quest’s competitor Givaudan): Christophe Raynaud for the feminine perfume, Olivier Pescheux for the masculine. To guide them, Quest’s marketing team began a major study of scent and the Chinese consumer.

Quest found that Chinese women above all want harmonious perfumes — those avoiding a single strong, identifiable raw material but rather using smooth blends of elements. They liked youthful fruit scents and, even more, flower-petal scents. Brand influenced them hugely. Quest marketers concluded they liked Chanel No. 5 and Paris by Yves Saint Laurent less for their smells than for their brands. And the women decisively rejected powerful, strong-signatured perfumes.

Chinese men liked fresh, airy, fruity scents (above all, apple). Like the women, they rejected scents with one big, strong note.

And so the Benetton team created as its feminine scent a fruity floral perfume with mandarin, lychee, cranberry, peach and — for its pure clean scent — osmanthus. They added synthetic musks, since those molecules are often used in laundry detergent and read as clean notes.

Benetton’s masculine scent was based on a mixture the creative team called frosted lavender, which combines a traditional male classic scent with the big freshness of yuzu (a Japanese citrus), mandarin and a little bit of pineapple. This was reinforced with fresh ginger and, in the base, soft amber and cedar and sandalwood.

Benetton will introduce Energy Games Man and Energy Games Woman two months before the Games begin.

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Luxury perfume signs chic French actress Audrey Tautou

Botox addicts, beware. OD’ing on rat-poison injections could be harmful to your modeling career. Just ask actress Nicole Kidman, who’s being dumped as the face of Chanel No. 5.

The luxury perfume line has named gamine Amelie star Audrey Tautou to replace the pregnant 40-year-old Kidman as their new spokesmodel, beginning in 2009.

Kidman, who has been the face of Chanel No. 5 since 2004, reportedly earned $3.7 million for a three-minute commercial spot directed by acclaimed Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann–making her the world record holder for the most money paid per minute to an actor.

The 29-year-old French-born Tautou previously starred in The Da Vinci Code with Tom Hanks. She now joins an elite group of Chanel No. 5 spokesmodels, including iconic sex symbols Marilyn Monroe and Catherine Deneuve .

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From their Paris offices Chanel have announced that French actress Audrey Tatou will replace Nicole Kidman as the new face of Chanel No. 5, one of the fashion house’s most iconic scents.

A new ad campaign and television commercial will be shot by Jean -Pierre Jeunet, the man who directed Tatou in her oscar nominated role in the film Amelie.

And after the last, spectacular No.5 ad, which had Nicole Kidman starring in a 5 minute mini film directed by her Moulin Rouge director Baz Lurhman we’re expecting something wonderful!

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