Over the past few weeks, I've been looking at the fragrance market, the trends used, the visual language used by designer brands etc. I created a small comparative analysis between two luxury fragrances- 'Poison' by Christian Dior which is an older, more classic fragrance and 'Euphoria' by Calvin Klein which is a newer fragrance.
The first of the Poison collection was launched in 1985 and was followed by four other versions - Tendre Poison (1994), Hypnotic Poison (1998), Pure Poison (2004) and the latest being Midnight Poison (2007). The original Poison was a very strong fragrance and it created a great stir among consumers as women were forbidden to appear wearing Poison in public.
"Moreover, Dior Poison appeared to be the first fragrance of the French House that did not have the word 'Dior' in its name; the 'God Father' of this new fragrance was the French poet Paul Valéry who wrote sometime back that 'perfume is poison for heart'. Provocative and intensive aroma that arouses so emotional responses was called 'Poison' not just for nothing. This bright, charismatic and seducing aroma is difficult to ignore and forget. Rodger Morris, the
President to Parfums Christian Dior, remarked at a time that so conflicting name of Dior Poison perfume was intended purposefully, "I was realizing that we could afford being conflicting to the extent while the aroma seems gracious." (http://www.luxemag.org/skin-body/dior-poison.html)
The bottle shape is inspired by Cinderella's Pumpkin coach, and there are various versions of it. The collectors version of the bottle carries fine tendril shape designs on its surface.
The second perfume I looked at for my analysis was 'Euphoria' by Calvin Klein which was launched in the year 2005. Euphoria was created as a lighter fragrance to suit Asian preferences although it was launched globally. There were many versions of this fragrance as well - Euphoria, 'Euphoria Blossom' and 'Euphoria Spring temptation'. This was targeted at modern young women and was a sweet-smelling, light, floral perfume. The bottle shape is inspired by the orchid flower about to bloom, uses light shades of pink and the collectors version of this bottle was decorated using accents of swarowski crystals.
