Blue is My Color

Fragrance bottles are often resplendent in black, green, pink or gold. But for fall-winter 2010, designers’ favorite color is clearly blue. Indigo, sky, petroleum, midnight or turquoise… each brand is hoping to impose their own fragrant interpretation of the color blue. It’s true that the color seems to have been lucky for several recent best-sellers.
Report by Nicolas Olczyk

In olfactory terms, blue can be associated with a wide range of ideas. Instinctively though, you tend to think of the sea or the sky, and blue is indeed the hue often used for marine or ozone scents, of which Davidoff’s Cool Water is the best-known internationally.
In 1992, couturier Thierry Mugler had the strange idea of pairing bleu with a gourmand scent. The idea worked like a charm! The success of Angel, with its cotton candy, patchouli and juicy fruit notes, led other houses to “think blue” for their gourmand perfumes, like Chopard’s Wish.

In 2010, blue is one of the major trends noticed among fragrance designers. And not just at Chanel, where the color’s name (in French) is their new men’s fragrance’s namesake. For their latest fragrant skin-care eau, Lancôme was also inspired by the hue: the fresh-floral eau they released this past spring is called Aroma Blue.

In 2010, we’ve noticed plenty of other creations waving a blue flag. Dark blue at Van Cleef & Arpels (Midnight in Paris) and Hugo Boss (Boss Bottled Night). Turquoise blue is the hue for Reminiscence’s new signature fragrance, Reminiscence. The Chrome Sport (Azzaro) and Eternity Aqua (Calvin Klein) bottles are garbed in sky blue, and the color can be found paired with pink in Britney Spears’ Radiance * and Mariah Carey’s Ribbon* .

You can also find some more unusual shades: indigo blue for Belle d’Opium (YSL), gray-blue for Dolce & Gabbana’s The One Gentleman and petroleum blue for Freigeist* from German designer Wolfgang Joop. In 2010, blue, in every shade and hue, is the It color.

(*) availability depends on the country