Archive for March, 2010

CREED Perfumes: A Liquid Palette of Color

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
Acqua Fiorentina Pale

Acqua Fiorentina with white roses and carnations in 2010

“I visited the store, and my favorite CREED fragrance is a slightly different color than I’m used to. Why?”

This is a great question.

Color variations in hand-blended CREED perfumes occur naturally year to year. Why?

Sixth-generation master perfumer Olivier CREED and his son, Erwin, annually travel the globe to buy the best natural ingredients for fragrance, meeting personally with farmers, growers and cultivators of flowers, fruits, woods and spices on virtually every continent of the world.

In a given year, the jasmine, daffodils, sandalwood, cinnamon or other crops the CREEDs buy might vary in color or strength from the prior year because of natural changes in rainfall, soil and sunshine. Always blending by hand, CREED is certain to add precisely the right amount of each ingredient for a result that is a fragrance clients love. Yet a yellower daffodil or pinker rose will, of course, mean a color change in the perfume itself one year versus another.

Many connoisseurs say that CREED fragrances are like fine wine, bottled each year by hand with a new crop of grapes that’s a bit different from the prior year’s crop because of changes such as more or less rainfall. This is a good comparison (although CREED fragrances are to be enjoyed only on the surface of the skin, of course).

Some readers have asked about CREED Acqua Fiorentina, which is lighter in color in 2010 than in 2009. This is a very special case and cause.
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Where is the CREED Boutique?

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

Where is the CREED boutique? Great question.

NY Boutique Counter Front View

The CREED boutique at Madison Avenue at 67th Street in New York, 212.439.7777

CREED boutiques are located in Paris, New York and Dubai. Beyond that, guaranteed authentic CREED products are offered at www.creedboutique.com, at Neiman Marcus (and www.neimanmarcus.com), Bergdorf Goodman (and www.bergdorfgoodman.com), select Saks Fifth Avenue locations, some Nordstrom’s stores, select Bloomingdale’s, a handful of carefully chosen small, independent perfumeries around the U.S. in areas where these major departments stores are not present, and across Canada at Holt Renfrew as well as at Ogilvy in Montreal.

The CREED boutique in New York is the newest CREED location, an elegant place to shop that blends chic touches with classic CREED style. Located on Manhattan’s “Golden Mile” at 794 Madison Avenue at 67th Street (1-877-273-3344 or 212-439-7777), the store offers the widest array of guaranteed authentic CREED goods anywhere in the world, including hard-to-find items such as the final bottles of Vintage Tabarome (sometimes called Private Collection Tabarome or Tabarome Prive) and exciting new items such as Sublime Vanille, Himalaya Hair & Body Wash and new shaving soaps scented to match Original Santal and Original Vetiver. (more…)

Leisure Fuels Work for CREED Family

Friday, March 12th, 2010
Erwin CREED Skiing

Actual photo of Erwin CREED skiing.

Both master perfumer Olivier CREED and his son, Erwin, maintain very active lives when not at work in their fragrance workshop in the French countryside. Many times, their adventurous leisure activities influence their creation of new fragrances for clients.

For example, CREED father and son are avid and competitive skiers, usually in the Swiss Alps. The CREED fragrance Silver Mountain Water by Olivier CREED is intended to evoke the bracing air and crystalline water of the Alpine region, including the towns of Gstaad and Zermatt. Even Silver Mountain Water’s white bottle and silver cap evoke this Alpine feel.

Father and son are skilled golfers as well. Oliver CREED served on France’s national golf team in the 1980′s, and his portrait hangs in a place of honor in the Fontainebleau Golf Club. His loving homage to golf is CREED Green Valley, a fragance that evokes the lush greenery of a fine course just after sunrise, when dew is still on the grass and wind begins to stir the scents of flowering trees and plants that dot the perimeter of play. (more…)

Does CREED participate in Fashion Week — or the Academy Awards?

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
Preparations for Fashion Week 2010

Preparations for Fashion Week 2010

CREED is a niche, family-owned company, of course, and the focus of master perfumer Olivier CREED and his son, Erwin, and their staff of 35 people is the hand creation of fine fragrances for clients.

Yet CREED does offer a limited range of exclusive and fashionable accessories, including travel-grooming kits made from Italian leather hand-stitched in France, perfect for holding shaving gear or cosmetics. CREED also offers leather-wrapped shatterproof bottles, or atomizers, sized at 1.7 ounces, perfect for the traveling fragrance enthusiast. CREED offers clothing only in its Paris boutique and does not show collections at Fashion Week.

In 2010, CREED responded to a request to make a very small gift of fragrance to models participating in a major designer’s presentation at New York Fashion Week. The fragrances offered were CREED Love In Black, Love In White and Acqua Fiorentina. (more…)