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Non Fragrancial Sexyness.

post #1 of 9
2/21/09 at 3:26am
Thread Starter 
So, the title might not say as much as I wanted it to say. For me, perfumes will be sorted into categories. There's the commercial group, wich are not unique, good or anything, but just for making money, and we have the One of a Kind category.. I know all perfumes have a part wich brings money, but there's brands that only want money. Let alone, those celebrity fragrances, these, I'd never buy, even if they smell soo good. I personally have a weak for unknown, not common and unique fragrances. For example, Narciso Rodriguez, I haven't seen much positives about it, but it could get a whole new fragrance category for itself. Dior Homme is probally common, but unique. Due to it's sweetness combined with leather etc, makes it a superb and not a common combination. I also just added the new Baldessarini fragrance Strictly Private to my collection. Aswell, many would probally consider this to be to sweet for men, but that's just taste. Fragrances people dislike, I probally do like. The non fragrancial sexyness is a bit explained above, but the package does help aswell.Bottles give a perfume a unique appearance. But I might look in a different way at bottles and packaging as many others do, since I'm student graphic designer.

I'd love to know what your sexyness in a perfume is.
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post #2 of 9
2/21/09 at 7:42am
Thread Starter 
No one would like to talk about this subject? :O
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post #3 of 9
2/21/09 at 8:03am
Please explain the title again, for clarification.
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post #4 of 9
2/21/09 at 8:05am
  • kbe
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All commercial fragrances are marketed to make money, are they not? And even the worst smelling ones in my (your) opinion have their own champions and avid following.

Individual ideas of sexyness do vary and are born from a wide range of physical, mental and emotional stimuli. In my culture wearing neck rings that stretch a woman's neck would not generally fall into the sexy category. In another culture it may be the epitome of sexyness. I imagine it is the same with fragrances, to a much lesser degree.

For me, a number of female fragrances (Shalimar, La Nuit, Paco Rabanne, worn in appropriate amounts and circumstances, evoke a feeling of seeing the wearer in more attractive way and rouse my interest enough to take a second or even a third look..and sniff. Many of those impulses are leftovers imprinted in my memory from previous experiences. Some fragrances catch my interest with smells that I cannot consciously identify as having a reason or experience memory. I don't ask why in those cases, I just let it flow and react accordingly.

Bottles themselves have no effect on me in that regard. None. I enjoy a well designed and innovative package/bottle but that is as far as the effect goes: visual esthetic enjoyment.
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post #5 of 9
2/21/09 at 10:11am
I am bit confused. The title says non fragrance sexyness, but the topic seems to be about what fragrances are, in and of themselves, sexy. Please help me understand.
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post #6 of 9
2/21/09 at 10:59am
Thread Starter 
I want to say, that the fragrance of a perfume isn't all that makes a perfume beautifull for me. Like I said in the first post here, for me personally, perfumes are alot more than just smelling good. Sexyness is a way of history, notes, uniqueness, unknownness etc.
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post #7 of 9
2/21/09 at 11:50am
Thread Starter 
I wrote an article about this subject, wich might clear the empty spaces in this article.

Please visit my blogpost: http://www.fragrancethis.com/?p=506 to see images, links etc. aswell.

Otherwise, I'll quote it for you.

Quote:
I'd love to share my view about my personal taste about commercial perfumes etc. My preferences for perfume have been pretty refined last year. I've been getting interested in them since a year, and I learned important things about recent perfumes and mostly, recent perfume houses, or better said celebrity perfumes. Due to my new hobby, I always got something to do, smell or write when I get bored. So, that's probally a reason why I'd like to share my points in this article. In my opinion, there's a kind of sexyness in a perfume, totally not related to the fragrance in the perfume itself. The fragrance is still the most important thing in a perfume, that's true, but there's more. Let's see, the brand, the history, uniqueness, unknowness, packaging and more. While selecting a new fragrance, these factors play and important role in the definite choice of the next purchase.

Recent years, we had celebrity after celebrity launching their perfumes. Ofcourse, when you had your first experience with the big money, you wan't more. I guess we all would like to earn money bigtime, but do they need to screw up the history of perfumes, just to thicken their wallet with bucks. We now see any singer selling perfumes, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Jennifer Lipez, Jessica Simpson, Kylie Minogue and lot's more. I'm not saying these perfumes are bad, they actually spend allot of money to get a decent creator to get their perfumes, but just the fact they make them purely to make money means allot to me. I know, every perfume has a part that makes money, but these new perfume houses just purely think about the wallet itself.

Perfumes, created with a meaning, with history, with passion and love, that's the sexyness in a perfume you won't find allot these days. I will just refuse to buy, let alone try fragrances like explained above. The package itself, does have it's function for me aswell. But, the following lines might be more common to artists etc. since I'm a student Graphic Design. The bottle isn't just the packaging of a perfume. It's the shell, it expresses many things aswell, as the fragrance itself does. Any color, shape and typografy should be chosen carefully, and with it's meaning again. Anyway, I believe I made myself clear for now.

I'd love to hear your opinion about this subject, so please comment or discuss.

Oh, what do you think of the picture? The font "Fairy Dust" they used is Scriptina, free font, to download at dafont.com
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post #8 of 9
2/22/09 at 12:31am
The design of the bottle is somehow a catchy thing that may draw your attention to try a perfume ... but if the perfume itself is bad how would you find it sexy ... may be you will admire the design of the bottle because you are a graphics designer ...but associating your admiration of the design with the sexiness of the scent is somehow misleading IMO.... but in the end ...its your own taste and if you find sexiness in the desgin ..its Ok
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post #9 of 9
2/22/09 at 12:34am
Well, I think that sexyness may also come, yet all marketing purposes and techniques aside, simply from the sheer reputation a scent has managed to build up over the years, decades or even centuries, or, on the contrary, as a newly introduced scent, responds directly and strongly, yet with more than just it's perfume notes, to a state of mind, a craving, a fashion trend, a series of habits present and dominant in today's everyday life, popular culture or star system, as you well and accurately remarked (thanks to its designers, its fragrance/fashion house and the statements this firm is either being loyal to or, on the contrary, suggesting volatile and far too realistic "change of values"... many times per second, the appeal, especially to fragrance lovers and collectors of its bottles, the ethical and quality- standard aspect of its ingredients and so on). While these factors might have, at least from a "less trained, less experienced" viewpoint, little or no influence on the perfume's "sexyness", many of us tend to buy a perfume in order to buy an image, a reputation, a promise of constant and sustainable quality and elegance, caused and made possible by MORE than the fragrance note (history of the particular manufacturer, famous wearers, international awards etc.), and yes, the thought and the suggestion of sexyness might become more credible, once we know that this particular fragrance or fragrance house has been attracting, like a juggernaut, both entire generations of wearers and entire generations of these particular wearer's significant others, love interests, (secret) admirers.
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