Beauty of the Night: Nina Ricci’s Ricci Ricci
Did you know, that for all the advancements in perfumery right now, it’s technically impossible to extract scent from some flowers? To date, we just don’t have the means to pull out the exact scent a flower produces from the flower itself.
Lily? No scent. Geranium? Nope. Honeysuckle? Not at all. In fact, when a perfume includes any of these notes, it’s kind of made up.
And because of this, some of the most popular perfumes in the world come with imaginary scents dreamt up by great noses with the help of scientists in labs.
My favourite perfume author/journalist, Chandler Burr calls these scents “ghosts”. The great Flower by Kenzo has a really interesting story behind its creation that includes a ghost.
In 1999, the president of Kenzo Parfums, Odile Lobadowsky, was inspired by a photograph by the French photographer Marc Riboud of a girl holding up a single bayonet during a 1967 anti-war protest outside of the Pentagon. So she wanted to create a scent with “a flower stronger than a gun” and suggested it to her creative director, Patrick Guedj.
They came up with the red poppy – Kenzo loved poppies. Only problem was, the flower has no scent.
As described by Chandler in his article on ghost flowers, “Guedj sent out a description of the concept to various perfumers, including Alberto Morillas, one of a handful of star perfumers highly in demand. Morillas showed Kenzo three perfume trials that he’s been working on; everyone liked the one that Morillas had, by chance, dubbed Pourpre, or purple. To create it, he used a natural violet leaf, essence of acacia flower, linalyl acetate, geraniol and citronellol (molecules found in jasmine and rose). To make it smell ‘red’, he mixed pure and synthetic vanillas, a warm molecule called heliotropin and the kerosene-vaporlike scent of benzyl acetate. Flower by Kenzo was introduced in 2000. It is mesmerising as a whisper, a huge commercial success and entirely imagined from a flower with no scent.”
Bet you’re looking at your bottle of Flower by Kenzo differently now, huh?
But that’s the beauty of perfumes – everything is possible – notes can be dreamed up from nothing, and personas created with just a spritz of a scent on the skin.
Which brings me to Ricci Ricci.
This is a scent right out of the movie Twilight. Everything about it is vampy yet romantic - from the rich, deep wine, ribboned bottle, to its heavy floral scent. I’d imagine a punk princess/vampire making this her signature.
Created by perfumers Aurélien Guichard and Jacques Huclier of Givaudan, Ricci Ricci took two years to perfect.
The perfume opens with bergamot and zesty rhubarb, and dries down to patchouli and sandalwood. And at its heart, is the heady belle de nuit, a flower that only blooms and releases its scent at night. (Now how romantic is that?)
It’s a sweet scent – some might find the sweetness a little overpowering. And I can’t help but get reminded me of dark cherries, velvet boudoirs and black candles with every whiff.
Wear it for a late-night rendezvous, or a naughty date with a lover.
Ricci Ricci will be available at major department stores in mid-October at RM178 for 30ml, RM250 for 50ml, and RM315 for 80ml. The Body Lotion, Shower Gel and Deodarant Spray cost RM116 each.
