27 November 2018

Avon Life Colours by Kenzo Takada

Alina Ceusan # Beauty # Beauty # News

A few weeks ago I spent three days in Paris to discover the inspiration behind the new Avon Life Colors by Kenzo Takada and the way these perfumes are born in Firmenich laboratories in the same city. If the party that ended our trip to Paris was a fabulous one – and I’m sure you were with us on stories – I must confess that I liked most of my visit to the lab. Something similar happened recently, at Delia’s concert, it was hard for me to focus on the show and   I kept thinking about how much work was  behind this type of performance – décor, dancers, costumes, lights, script … I could find myself again wandering through the halls of the huge Firmenich buildings, where, behinf closed doors, there was a carefully calculated process (half robotic) that produced the two flavors.

Here I also took part in a kind of applied olfactory seminar that was meant to bring us closer to the formulas of the two perfumes, taking me on a visual-olfactory journey. Each element – pear, raspberry, green tea, sweet wood or vetiver – complements the bouquet of the female or masculine fragrance, embracing and emphasizing the main note, from which both perfumes, namely magnolia, started. I started with a magnolia-flavored ceramic disc – the basic aroma, then the lemon in a sort of box with a pomace that released the flavor at a touch … and we got to the sweet wood that was surprisingly represented – in a shot of freshwater infused water. Obviously, colors are very important for Kenzo, so each fragrance has integrated the white of the magnolia, and then comes a color explosion – raw yellow, cardinal red, matte green, powder and the list could continue.

Avon Life Colour was created by Kenzo Takada with two of the most famous perfumers of the house Firmenich, Frank Voelkl and Olivier Cresp. I met Olivier who got us in his office where there was … probably every perfume that comes to your mind in a fast wrap up. You name it, he did it. An entire wall, shelves racked with bottles where you could find flavors of its mark. I found out that he is not involved in the design of the perfume bottles, but often, receiving a prototype of perfume bottles, it is much easier to “prepare” a flavor that is in perfect synergy with what the designer imagines.

At nearly 80 years, Japanese designer Kenzo Takada, the founder of Kenzo brand, is a warm, energetic and very modest person. He was the soul of the party during our last day in Paris, he jumped in the pool decorated with balls (we have a picture together from there, I hope I’ll find it to show it to you too), sat down to talk with everyone and danced. You could not believe he was eighty-eight years old. At the party I discovered the new perfumes and took part in a multi-sensory experience that inspired me back with positivity, color, that so called joie de vivre.

“At one point, I was introduced to the Avon team through Firmenich, a great perfume producer, and after we met, from our conversations, I liked the Avon manifesto that has made a mission to support women from all over the world sustain a job, be independent, and I have resonated with what they wanted – a luxury but also affordable product. It somehow resembles what I did in fashion in the early ’70 when I contributed to the democratization of luxury by launching ready-to-wear collections.” – says Kenzo Takada, about collaborating with AVON.

For Her.

The juicy and appetizing pear will blend with the effervescent magnolia to unleash your positive energy, escorted by the  notes of basmati rice which will leave their warmth on your skin.

For Him.

The refreshing green tea flavor meets the freshness of magnolia in a top note; the vetiver as a base note adds wealth and texture.

The new fragramces created by one of the most famous fashion designers and perfumers, Kenzo Takada, are now available online here, on AVON Space, and can be found on the latest AVON catalogues. Every day is like a blank page. Color it the way you want!