Paradisone
Ever since it infused Edmond Roudnitska’s groundbreaking Eau Sauvage with its citrus-tinged, floral airiness, Hedione, an analogue of a compound naturally present in jasmine, has been one of the most widely-used materials in perfumery. Paradisone, a captive molecule patented in 1996 by Firmenich, is its purest, most precious and most powerful expression.
The Scent: The Flower of Angels
Paradisone is “the angelic aroma of one million flowers… a storm of delicacy and diffusion,” in the poetic words of the perfumer Arcadi Boix-Camps. In the astonishingly radiant efflor_esce, Frank Voelkl blows its heavenly breeze over an Edenic Sicilian orchard. Touched by the luminous soul of jasmine, the fruit, leaves, twigs and blossoms of the orange tree unfurl their heady, sun-gorged scents. Bergamot adds its peppery sparkle; osmanthus, the yielding velvet of its apricot and suede flesh; tuberose, its narcotic sillage. This is nature, but better: Paradise found.
The Packaging
Like the lab-designed molecules that inspired the fragrances, Nomenclature’s packaging offers elegant solutions to a series of practical problems. Namely: protecting the bottle; showcasing the scent; expressing the concept. The result is a statement of design and modernity: spare, beautifully functional, and unique in the world of fragrance.
The Bottle & Sprayer
The flacon is inspired by the pure, simple lines of the classic Erlenmeyer flask, as a tribute to the chemistry labs where aromatic compounds are designed. As the bottle moves, stunning hologram-like effects rise from the “impossible molecule” patterns embossed at the bottom. To keep the overall design as spare as possible, there is no cap: the brushed stainless steel sprayer is equipped with a coil spring that prevents it from being pressed by accident. The sprayer can be unscrewed, so that the bottle may be repurposed.
The Box
Conceived as a 360° cradle that protects the bottle while displaying it, the box is made up of a white cardboard “shell” that folds around the bottle like origami, held together by a white paper sleeve. No ink, no colors: only essential white. The sleeve is adorned with a metallic logo. To add a tactile experience, both shell and sleeve are debossed with an “impossible molecule” design.
Nomenclature’s Impossible Molecules
The patterns adorning the box and bottle are “impossible molecules” that follow none of the laws of chemistry. These were designed to avoid referring to any specific ingredient, while conjuring the elegant, evocative abstraction of molecular diagrams.
