COTY DIVES INTO NEW CATEGORY
Byline: Laura Klepacki
NEW YORK — By way of The Healing Garden, a new breed of fragrance will surface in the mass market this fall.
Passing up the established selection of earthy, soil-grown flowers and fruits typically used to develop scents, Coty has dipped into another life source — water — for inspiration.
To do so, it has tapped new technology from International Flavors & Fragrances that enables the perfumer to capture essences from hydroponically grown flowers — that is, flowers grown in water.
With a duo called The Healing Garden Waters, available in Perfect Calm and Pure Joy, Coty executives claim that the brand is the first in the mass market to introduce a water-born fragrance and predict that it will trigger a new direction in fragrance development. It is also the first fine fragrance for the four-year-old aromatherapy bath line. Meanwhile, IFF is so optimistic about the future of water-born scents that is has just broken ground on a $1 million greenhouse at its Union Beach, N.J., research and development site to raise hydroponic fruits and flowers.
“This will be the heart and soul of the future of fragrance,” declared Dr. Braja Mookherjee, vice president and global director of natural products at IFF, who asserts that hydroponic flowers produce a more “pure, fresh and energetic” scent. “Hydroponically grown plants provide a totally different odor than soil-grown plants. We have proved that.” He refers to the concept as “hydro-aroma.”
Anastasia Ayala, senior vice president, Global Fragrances at Coty, said that in every focus group Coty conducts, women say they want scents that are “clean and fresh.” Those, she said, “are the buzz words.” In using water-born botanicals, Coty believes it has been able to design fresher scents.
With the Waters fragrances, Coty contends that it has taken aromachology, which refers to the affect of fragrance on the mind and emotions, to “the next highest level,” said Ayala. Thus, the scents are designed to provide physical benefits as well as emotional ones, and have been enriched with vitamins C and E and moisturizers. “The whole well-being movement is creeping into fragrance,” said Ayala.
Perfect Calm, a “soothing” scent, has a top note of water lily, mountain air and lavender flower; middle note of pink lotus, orris flower and clary sage; and base of white amber and cedarwood. Pure Joy, an “uplifting” scent, has a top note of mandarin blossom, green muguet and bay leaf; middle note of pink water hyacinth and freshly brewed ginger; and base of warm sandalwood and cotton musk. Both contain ionized water to hold fragrance on skin longer. The bottle for the Waters scents is simple and sleek clear glass. The juice is clear for Pure Joy and blue for Perfect Calm. The outer carton is sky blue with white clouds and will be cellophane-wrapped.
A 3.4-oz. eau de toilette is $27.50, a 1-oz. eau de toilette is $17.50 and a 6.7-oz bath essence is $12. Gift sets also will be offered and in spring 2002 a bath collection will be added.
The pair of fragrances will launch in September and be supported with a four-page print insert. The advertising tag line reads: “Renew your senses, Replenish your skin.” TV spots will follow. There also will be a direct-mail effort featuring scented postcards. Coty executives declined to comment on numbers, but sources predict the Waters scents could reap sales of $20 million to $25 million the first year.