These debutantes make you sit up and take note, whether they’re getting your attention through a collaboration with an Italian jeweller, modernquirky packaging, or as a signal of intent in a brand’s fresh foray into beauty.
These debutantes make you sit up and take note, whether they’re getting your attention through a collaboration with an Italian jeweller, modernquirky packaging, or as a signal of intent in a brand’s fresh foray into beauty.
Loewe 001 Woman and Man, $190 each. Loewe’s new, clean, avant-garde aesthetic – courtesy of creative director Jonathan Anderson – has made its way into beauty with two new fragrances, 001 Woman and 001 Man. His first fragrance creations since joining the brand in 2014, they represent a labour of love for Anderson. “This is a very personal project for me. I spent a lot of time working on it because it’s something I really believe in. Above all, I wanted the fragrance to feel credible, an organic extension of what Loewe stands for today,” he says. The flacons, topped by wooden caps and filled with pastel-hued juice, score points for their classy and minimalist design aesthetic. Woman smells like fresh linen, with notes of tangerine and sandalwood and a base of jasmine and vanilla. Man is likewise a clean and fresh scent, but boasts more woody notes like cypress and white musk.
Penhaligon’s Portraits, $400 each. You can usually spot Penhaligon’s fragrance bottles a mile away. The iconic flacons resemble potion bottles, and give off this distinct, charming, old-school vibe. Portraits, a new collection of four scents, looks nothing like that. Instead, the new fragrances, designed by Icelandic artist Kristjana Williams, are topped off with gilded stoppers in the shape of animal heads – a flrst for the brand. The scents represent characters in a fictional tale about British aristocrats (also the first time the brand is using a fictional story to present an olfactive experience). Lord George, a loyal, upright man in the tale, is a masculine and elegant scent of amber and rum. The Duke, a theatre-loving heartthrob, has both floral and woody notes of rose and gin. Lady Blanche, a social butterfiy, is an easy-to-wear green scent of narcissus and ginger flower. Finally, Duchess Rose, demure but passionate, is a woody-rose scent infused with hints of mandarin orange.
Albion Bulgari Legame (Italian for bond), $435. These days, birthday celebrations are a dime a dozen. So are collaborations. To lend weight – figuratively and literally – to its 60th-anniversary celebrations, Japanese brand Albion partnered world-famous Italian jeweller Bulgari to create a true stunner: a 24K gold-plated compact, festooned with handcrafted Serpenti “scales” and a clasp adorned with two ruby-hued cabochons (both Bulgari trademarks). In it is a pressed powder perfumed with floral notes of Bulgari’s Pour Femme perfume. Only 10,000 units of this limited-edition collectible are available worldwide. Fewer than 50 are in Singapore. Priced at $435 each, they’re available from mid-November at Metro Centrepoint and Takashimaya D.S.
