The making of a magical fragrance

MANILA, Philippines - Lux returns to the Philippines and casts a magical spell with body washes and soaps fragranced by world-class perfumers.

In the Lux Super Rich shampoo commercial of the early ’90s, Lucy Torres-Gomez lured tall, dark, and handsome Richard Gomez with hair that shone “like satin and flowed like silk.” In retrospect, Torres-Gomez actually lured him with fragrance. Overlooking a balcony, she tossed him a rose for him to sniff and associate with her beauty from that fleeting moment. She dropped a silk scarf she had been wearing that still smelled of her perfume — or the fragrance of Lux Super Rich shampoo — along with a breeze to carry it to him. Before our eyes, life imitated art, and the reel-life romance blossomed into a real union. But on TV, in between the chase, whenever he longed for her, all he had to do was take a whiff of the rose or the scarf and close his eyes. It was like she was near him again.

A timeless femininity

Lux is a brand associated with a woman whose allure is in her feminine elegance. In its return to the local market with four perfumed body washes and three bar soaps in variants of floral oriental fragrances, in the age of the “it” girl and the “Instagram-famous,” the persona the brand has long represented still resonates with the modern Filipina.

This is best represented by the 21 brand ambassadors, all hyphenates led by international model and college student Kelsey Merritt, actress and painter Solenn Heussaff, and actress and triathlete Isabelle Daza.

Today’s woman is many things (Torres-Gomez herself is a legislator and columnist for The Philippine STAR), and in between all the things she does, she makes time for herself. A perfumed bath product, especially when layered with a similar scent, doesn’t only help make a fragrance last longer for that lingering impression. It makes bathtime a practical luxury, a daily indulgence, whether you are getting pumped up for an eventful affair or to unwind after.

In response to speculation about whether a full range of Lux personal-care products in perfumed variants will be made available locally soon, Lux brand manager Kristine Erni answers, “Not yet. For now, we want to focus on giving Filipinas the experience of bathing with perfume.”

The invisible artist

“Smell has the closest link to the brain’s emotional center, linked to feelings like happiness, love, and nostalgia,” one of the perfumers behind Lux’s body wash scents, Nicole Mancini, says.  “To a woman, fragrance is her personal signature and her greatest accessory. It’s more than smelling good, it’s feeling good emotionally.”

Mancini works at renowned perfume house Givaudin. Her 15-year career’s work has shaped fragrance history with popular, sexy scents for Victoria’s Secret and Calvin Klein. Her psychology pre-med background is definitely an advantage, and she sees her work as a perfumer as like being an “invisible artist.”

“That fragrance is subjective requires artistry and science. Creativity seeds inspiration for a fragrance and you need science to execute it,” she elaborates.

Her penchant for florals comes from nostalgia: “My mother doesn’t wear fragrance, but she always smells so good. She has used Pond’s Cold Cream since I was a kid, so when I smell a mix of geranium and violet (the notes of the cold cream’s fragrance), it is heartwarming and beautiful.”

Mancini doesn’t have a go-to perfume. She and the rest of the perfumers at Givaudin do not wear a fragrance during the week. “When perfumers are at work, we always need skin,” she says, also adding that instead of using coffee beans to beat olfactory fatigue, she and the perfumers simply sniff their bare skin to reset their sense of smell.

To know whether or not a fragrance will work on you, it must be worn on your skin. She explains, “Scents are like living things. Everyone it encounters, it reacts in a different way. Key factors are your diet, ethnicity, and whether your skin is dry or oily, which all interact with each fragrance differently.”

The making of a world-class scent

For Lux, Mancini was given a brief consisting of visual mood boards. “They give us colors. Magical Spell is a deep, rich amethyst. White Empress is white and illuminating. Soft Touch is a fruity pink. Love Forever is red, like a rose,” and she gets to work with a bit of profiling. “What kind of woman would that be? Who is this woman, what are her emotions? If she wears fragrance, why does she wear it? Is it to feel pretty? To be comforted? Or to attract someone?”

On the science side, Mancini used a technique started by perfume artisans like Francis Kurkdjian, who infuse citrus, fresh greens, and spicy and oriental notes into classical florals. It’s a floral oriental which she dubs the “rebel fragrance.”

“It is playful and modern, a meeting of elegant femininity and sensual sophistication,” Mancini says of the combination. “Floral oriental is composed of many different accords in different levels; it’s like music, an olfactory harmony when two notes come together in perfect balance.”

Lux’s Magical Spell opens with the spice of red ginger and citric juniper oil that hooks like the effervescence of gin. At its heart is a bouquet of peonies, jasmine, tuberose, and its star, black orchid. “It represents a mysterious sensuality,” she describes.

Not to mention rare beauty. Givaudin ensures the sustainability of black orchid by using Sintrek technology to harness its oils from its natural environment in Malaysia. Scientists only extract from the head space of the flower while it is still living, blooming, and growing.

From a chemist’s standpoint, Mancini adds that as a middle note, florals have the most sillage, especially in closed spaces like the shower.

Mancini used the warmth of sandalwood and golden amber and the mouthwatering notes of vanilla bean as base notes to form a captivating foundation to the fragrance. It also serves a sensible purpose. “They are also the most long-lasting — warm woods, velvety musk, and addictive edible notes. They linger.”

All together, it simply makes you feel beautiful in the bath. On your skin, it beckons whoever is standing close enough to come closer, if you let them.

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Lux Perfumed Body Wash (P55 for 100ml and P120 for 250ml) and bar soaps (P39) are available at department stores, drugstores, and supermarkets nationwide.