khaleej times Friday, December 3, 2010
fashion
16
Fragrance
by the numbers
With my olfactory senses fired up, I nose up to the scent bar that is Le Labo and find out what number is just right for me
Stephanie Rivers
H
ave you been looking for a new scent? Are you bored with your day-to-day fragrance and feel you need to shake things up a bit? If you are like me, you must be tired of the generic sameness that floods the fragrance marketplace at every turn. You are tired of the gimmicks and quirky packaging that give way to scents that are, well, ho hum. Maybe, you just want to click your heels together and not be in Kansas any more, but in a place that you can play at a perfume counter like when you were young and sat at your mother’s or grandmother’s dressing table, spritzing away until your eyes burned. Is that so wrong? Well, no, actually. Perhaps what you have been looking for has been in front of you or near you all along but you just did not know about it. Whatever the reason, you’re in the market for a new scent; I personally just wanted to try something new, chances are Le Labo, the cult scent house born in Grasse, France and raised in New York, with outposts here in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, is all the ‘scent lab’ that you will ever need. The jewel box of a store, with dark wood floors, white walls, white ceramic tiled counters with stainless steel tops and glass
windowed entryway, can seem quite clinical and intimidating upon first sight. One ponders if they have the right clothing on to enter such a pristine establishment, but upon further inspection, it has an open lab feel that lets the consumer know they can go in and play, I mean experiment, to their heart’s content. Imagine being able to spritz, fan, smell and test as many bottles as you can stand without having an over zealous counter attendant shoo you away. Who knew? The niche brand has had a loyal following both here in the UAE and abroad from almost the beginning of its creation. With solid careers in fragrance, the time had come to create an experience and scent category that was missing in the industry, thus Le Labo was born. Edouard Roschi and Fabrice Penot, Le Labo’s founders, set out to create fragrances that were pure, simple (as far as their packaging is concerned), and unique in how the scent was created before your very eyes. Suddenly, fragrance, or the creation of it, was tangible, touchable and thank goodness not just another lab creation with a multitude of notes, accords and the like. Le Labo’s scents are straight forward with names you can pronounce and understand without a language dictionary, as well as being unique and great smelling. The fragrances are ‘handmade,’ one could say, with stamped labels that bare the purchaser’s name and the date the scent was created. Why? For optimum fresh-
WHAT’S IN STORE — KURT GEIGER No matter how many shoes a woman has, there are truly never enough. You tell yourself, or more to the point your family or significant other tells you, that enough is enough, no more shoes. Of course, that goes out of the window the moment you pass a good shoe display. Like a child passing a candy store, you are facepressed against the display window, salivating over the curve of a good heel, twitching at the sight of a stylish new design and calculating in your head just how you can eke out monies for yet another pair. I bring this up because just as I consoled myself that it was for my own good and the betterment of my bank account’s bottom line if I did not purchase anything else, shoe or otherwise, Kurt Geiger’s latest shoe collections pops up in my inbox. Not just one pair that they were featuring, oh no, four different pairs, with each one nicer than the last.
Well, just so I’m not alone in my fixation or frustration, I decided it was only fitting to share the wealth, or shall I say the pain, by featuring what’s hot and what’s in store at Kurt Geiger this season. I know, you can thank me later when the credit card bill comes in. The peep-toe shoe bootie is perfect with a minidress or with a vintage cut-away tuxedo jacket, sequined T-shirt, leggings and an envelope clutch. The platform ankle boot with feather fringe is the perfect edgy anecdote to this season’s menswear-inspired pieces, as well as bringing a little rocker edge to stovepipe jeans and a bolero jacket. The Marigold-coloured conical heels with embellishment on the toe and rear of the heel, are the perfect pop of colour to a monotonal outfit and a great alternative to the black stiletto when stepping out at night in your LBD. — Stephanie Rivers
ness, of course. What it truly means is that the alcohol component of your scent is not mixed with the other ingredients until you are ready to purchase and carry out. This allows the scent to be at its purest form prior to your using it. How many times can you say that about a fragrance? What you see is what you get with Le Labo, especially by the numbers. Each number associated with the fragrance reflects the number of ingredients or components in the scent. Say you desire the Ambrette 9, a light amber scent straight from nature herself, made almost entirely from the Ambrette grain, you know from the number that there are nine ingredients to that scent. Of course, the same is true for the Oud 27, the Fleur D’Oranger 27, the Vetiver 46, and so on and so on. Simple? Yes, and I for one am excited that it is. However, the company’s creation was not by chance or spur of the moment idea, but rather the result of two similar careers and a need to express their ideas converg-
ing on one path. Both Edouard Roschi and Fabrice Penot, worked for top global Fortune 500 companies in managing director positions prior to starting their own firm. Both worked for Armani fragrances and both turned down major promotions in 2005 to start Le Labo. Five years later, Le Labo has boutiques in New York City, Los Angeles, London and Tokyo, as well as store-in-store concepts in London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Chicago, Sydney, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar. An enviable expansion for any brand, not just a niche one. I tested many of Le Labo’s fragrances along my olfactory journey and found many that could become cult favourites easily. I was most impressed with the Oud 27 — a wondrous mix of cedar, saffron and amber notes with a woodsy dry down that was not over powering — which is very popular here in the Middle East; the Ambrette 9 — a light, addictive fragrance composed of Ambrette grain and citrus — that gives off the faintest scent that causes people to lean in closer to truly see if you are wearing a scent at all; and the Fleur D’Oranger 27 — a citrus-infused scent with fresh florals, bergamot, and musk — which is slightly strong at first spritz but softens to a lovely orange blossom scent with a warm musky dry down, sweet but not cloyingly so. Le Labo can be found at Paris Gallery, Dubai Mall (04 3308289) and in Abu Dhabi at Paris Gallery in Marina Mall (02 3308289), with scents ranging in price from Dh590 for a 50 ml bottle up to Dh2,915 for a 500 ml bottle.