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PARIS – L’Oréal is preparing to launch the first haute parfumerie range for Roman fashion house Valentino, the beauty conglomerate revealed to press and buyers at an event in Paris Tuesday.
The line of new scents inspired by Valentino’s haute couture universe will combine traditional perfuming techniques with innovative Italian ingredients like green tangerine from Calabria and Sicilian olive wood.
One scent is set to feature a new tuberose component born from an exclusive partnership inked last year between L’Oréal and perfume supplier Cosmo for its next-generation long extraction technology, which captures flowers’ scent without using chemical solvents or heat that alter their fragrance.
L’Oréal acquired the license to sell Valentino beauty products five years ago, and has since launched perfumes including the hit “Born in Roma” as well as a colour cosmetics range including lipstick, blushes and skin-brightening foundations.
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The new high perfume range, set to be officially revealed to customers later this spring, is inspired by creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli’s couture shows which have sought to rejuvenate and recontextualise the brand’s top-end made-to-measure line. Scents will be bottled in cut-glass bottles sourced from France and Italy.
The announcement comes as L’Oréal works to upscale several of its beauty lines, expanding offers like the Armani Privé high perfume line to balance out a business which has historically been powered by “prestige” products. The prestige segment (referring to the premium fashion fragrances that dominate airport duty-free stores or retailers like Sephora) has bounced back sharply from the pandemic – helping L’Oréal’s luxury division surpass rival Estée Lauder to become the category’s biggest player – but grew more slowly in recent years to the ultra-prestige segment including brands like Creed or Christian Dior’s private line.
How Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli Harnesses the Power of Colour
The designer has turned the use of colour into a powerful brand signifier for the Roman couture house.
