Augmented Reality

My professor showed us a very interesting video in class today. It was about how augmented reality was being used by department stores like Macy’s for customers to try on clothes without having to actually try them on!

This was the first time I had ever heard of augmented reality, hence I was kind of amazed with this concept. So, for the less tech-savvy people like me, Wikipedia defines augmented reality as –

“A technology that allows for computer-generated virtual imagery information to be superimposed onto a live direct or indirect real world environment in real time”

I came home from class and immediately looked up to see if augmented reality was being used for cosmetics and I was shocked to find out it was being used since 2009 or early 2010, and I knew nothing about it.

The first ones to use it were obviously the Japanese. No surprise there, right? The leading Japanese brand Shiseido launched a new technology called the Digital Cosmetic Mirror which is basically a computer screen with an embedded camera that scans your face. Then, using the touch screen, you can choose whatever makeup you want to try – from lipstick to mascara, and also try different shades without having the need to go through the trouble of trying one shade, removing it and then trying the other. And all this, in real time!  After this process of trying different cosmetics, you can take a print out of your final choices. This printout gives you details about the shade number and codes of the products you tried on.

It is one thing to have this technology in stores in Japan, but technology goes to a completely new level to have this feature on your phone. And it does exist. In 2010, Modiface came up with an app for iPhone called MakeUp, which basically allowed you to click a picture of yourself using your iPhone and then test different products and different shades belonging to leading brands like Lancome and Cover Girl on yourself.

Now, you can also find features similar to this on websites. O.P.I has something similar on their website where you have an image of a hand. You can adjust the skin tone of the hand and also the nail length to match yours and try out which of their many shades of nail polish would suit you.

It continues to surprise me as to how these new technologies keep emerging. I mean, what can be cooler that virtually trying on makeup?! These advancements however keep me wondering as to what’s next? What does the future hold for us and how much more innovative can it get?  Guess we’ll have to wait and watch, but for now, my mind is officially blown. 

My Favourite Perfume Commercials

The last course I had was on marketing and we spoke a lot about advertising and commercials in general. It got me quite interested in the subject and I, being the type who has to give her opinion on everything, decided to talk about some of my favourite perfume commercials.

So here goes, in no particular order, my top picks for perfume ads.

At numero un, is Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle ad starring Keira Knightley.

I love how different this one is from the usual, elegant Chanel No 5 commercials. It doesn’t have dialogues like “I’m a daaahncer” or monologues that make no sense yet, because they’re delivered in black and white and someone good looking, make you believe that it’s beautiful and perfect. It is young, sexy, fun and a little rebellious; totally coherent with the concept of Coco Mademoiselle. I love the beige simplicity and I find Keira Knightley to be the perfect face for this perfume “story.”

At numero deux is Egoiste.

Chanel interviewed women and asked them the one word they would use to describe men and the most common reply they got was “Egotistic.” That concept is portrayed really well in this commercial with the women screaming about their rage, despair and betrayal. Not to mention, that’s it is a little bit exaggerated, dramatic and ridiculous, which I love.

At numero trois is L’air du Temps.

I love the fairy tale aspect of this commercial. A light Disney-like story conveyed in less than a minute. The woman, the man, the doves, the setting being sort of like a forest and the flying scarf at the end…just lovely!

Numero quatre is Miss Dior Cherie.

This commercial probably shows what every girl’s dream is. A life full of colour, glamour, fun and to top it off living that life in Paris! It kinda reminds me of one of my favourite movies, Sonam Kapoor’s “Aisha” - the same kind of fashion and lifestyle. And the ending with the girl flying with the balloons and the Eiffel Tower in the background is just perfect!

And finally numero cinq is Dior Homme.

Okay, a little confession. I have no idea what this commercial is about and it leaves me confused every time I watch it. But how can anyone not love something that has Jude Law in it..right? Riight?? *sigh*

What I love about all these and perfume commercials in general is, the capacity to tell a full story in sometimes less than 5 minutes. It’s like a mini-film, it has a plot and characters. Just like the final product itself (a perfume) it captures your attention by targeting your emotions.

  

Idylle!

Everyone has a signature scent. A scent that they love to wear or a scent that they feel defines them.

For me, the three notes that make up my favourite fragrance composition are floral, green and marine notes. I started off liking Pleasures by Estee Lauder. The green floral notes of this perfume are really distinct and it has a freshness that gives a nice petal effect. For the longest time, it was my favourite perfume, until I came to France and smelled something that made me fall in love.

Idylle by Guerlain is my current obsession. I agree it is totally different from Pleasures, but it has some depth, some character that makes me want to wear it over and over again. Idylle, in my opinion, is not completely representative of its family (Chypre Floral). It opens with a soft and subtle scent of rose, that’s not really over powering like Paris by ÝSL. I usually hate fruity notes in a perfume but this has the optimum amount of litchi that makes it sweet, yet not too sickening. The floral notes blended with the musk gives the marine and petal effect that I love in a perfume and the patchouli in the end is the only thing that contributes to the chypre character.

This perfume for me is soft, sophisticated, extremely feminine and moreover romantic – four characteristics that attract the cheesy, sappy and chick flick loving girl in me!

La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo Review

The European life, though completely exciting and new, had a toll on my skin. Whether it was the drastic difference in weather compared to India or it was the change in diet, I don’t know! But, I had a huge breakout on my face that I could not explain. So, my agenda for this summer was to get my skin back to normal. My best friend in this process was La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo. I’ve never really struggled with imperfections and pimples, so I never had the need for any anti-acne products; this was the first one I ever used.

Effaclar Duo claims to contain four active ingredients that act on skin imperfections. It contains Niacinamide and Piroctone Olamine as antibacterial (helps against pimples) as well as Linoleic Acid that helps get rid of dead cells that are responsible for pore clogging. It also contains Thermal Spring Water to give a soothing effect and anti-irritant effect.

I used Effaclar Duo first twice a day after cleansing and fell absolutely in love with it. Although it’s a cream, it has a very light almost gel like consistency. It spreads evenly and very easily over the face. Even with it being like a gel, I'm guessing because of the high humidity we face in Mumbai, it left my skin feeling sticky. Initially when I used it, it gave me a little bit of redness and my skin felt slightly dehydrated around the cheeks. I stopped using it twice a day and went to using it only at night. After my skin got used to the product, the redness disappeared and it worked like a dream! My pimples reduced and now I hardly get any breakouts. My whiteheads disappeared completely and the pimple marks that were refusing to go, started reducing and fading and now, they are hardly even visible!

One thing that must be mentioned is that it would be foolish to expect these results to happen within a few days. It took almost 2-3 weeks before I could see the difference in my skin. But, it is definitely worth a buy for those who have imperfection/acne prone skin.

Price – Rs. 999 for 40 ml.

Where you can find La Roche-Posay products in India – I don’t know about other cities, but in Mumbai, I saw them at Inorbit Mall (Malad) at the Health and Glow beauty shop.

Remember when you were a kid...

I went to Disneyland with my friends last September. Going to this amusement park gave me the feeling of being young; a feeling where you didn’t have to bother about being silly or you didn’t have to worry about anything else other than having fun. It felt so free just dancing on Mainstreet USA to the tunes of the band without feeling stupid and screaming at the top of your voice on Space Mountain. It didn’t matter that Haunted Mansion wasn’t scary enough for us, although this “grown-up” here still got scared by a Cast Member that jumped out from behind a booth. It wasn’t even a matter of embarrassment for my friend and I, both aged 22 by the way, to be licking lollypops the size of our faces as we walked past Cinderella’s castle to find a good place for the Parade.

As fun and enchanting as it was by day, Disneyland was even more beautiful by night. We rode the Teacups just as the lights were switched on. Riding it at night made us feel like we were the only ones present in the world at that moment, spinning in one of Mad Hatter’s teacups, with the beautiful lights swirling above and around us. The trip ended with a 45 minute wait for Big Thunder Mountain which was totally worth it. The sun had fully set by then and the breeze was much cooler. Riding in and out of the tunnels in the runaway train by night was an amazing experience, especially at the point where we reached the top of the mountain and could see the entire Park lit up.

This sudden recollection of my trip to Disney isn’t something that just popped in my head out of the blue. My first year of Masters is done and it makes me feel much older and like I have a lot of responsibilities now. Thinking about past experiences like this makes me feel like a kid again. A time when the simplest things used to make you smile, when fictional characters were your best friends and when you biggest fear was that you’d accidentally kill your Tamaguchi pet or that you’d get yet another Pikachu in your new Pokemon packet. It was a time when imagination and creativity were encouraged and when mistakes could easily be rubbed by the eraser behind your pencil. I miss being a kid. Life was simple. Fun.

Niche Perfumery Visit (Part 2)

The next perfumery on our list was Maison Francis Kurkdjian. Francis Kurkdjian is a young perfumer and is famous for creating perfumes like Le Male from Jean Paul Gaultier and Narciso Rodriguez for her. Located in the same pocket of Paris as the other two, this perfumery had the same chic look and style. There was a bubble machine blowing bubbles right outside the store window and next to the entry were strips of cloth having the brand name on it laced with their best-selling perfume – Aqua Universalis. The lady in charge of showing us around the perfumery took us through all the fragrances and explained in brief the composition of each. My favourite fragrance was APOM pour homme. The first thing you’ll recognize in this perfume is the beautiful scent of orange blossom. It has other floral hints of white flowers and also some woody and ambery notes. But, the main reason I liked this perfume was because it reminded me slightly of Le Male, one of my favourite masculine fragrances.

After, we left the Tuileries area and headed towards Palais Royale to our next stop – Serge Lutens. This perfumery had a mystical black and purple theme. The perfumes were all coloured and I felt like all of them had a potion-like look to them. Out of all of them, the one that stood out for me was Nuit de Cellophane. A floral bouquet with notes like osmanthus, jasmine, orange blossom and lily and also fruity-green sides, this perfume reminded us of a lighter, slightly more refined version of J’adore by Dior.

Our last perfumery for the day, though not a niche perfumery, was one of the exclusive perfume shops in Paris – The Guerlain Shop on Champs Elysees. The entire shop was decorated to celebrate Guerlain’s latest launch – La Petite Robe Noir (Little Black Dress). They had all the employees dressed in black and small mannequins dressed in black dresses. We looked around the shop and tried on our favourites – Idylle, Shalimar, Jicky and Apres L’ondee. One of the employees later took us through some of the exclusive perfumes that were sold only in that particular store along with a limited perfume which was a reconstitution of the Lily. It was perfectly rounded with a powdery white flower note. The employee then asked us if we wanted to try our favourite perfume on ourselves, and obviously we agreed. She generously sprayed us with some of Guerlain’s finest perfumes and we walked out of the store smelling absolutely fantastic, with a smile on our faces having spent the entire day lost in the land of perfumes, ready for our rendezvous with the Eiffel Tower.  

Niche Perfumery Visit (Part 1)

There are so many experiences you face when you’re living in Paris; Eating fois gras and other traditional French food, having to mime everything so that you are understood by the fruit vendors in the open markets, riding bikes along the Seine River and visiting the Eiffel Tower almost every other weekend. But out of all of these, one stand out experience for me was visiting the Niche Perfumeries that are scattered all around Paris.

Niche Perfume stores are in a different league compared to the department stores like Sephora and Marionnaud (in France) and Shoppers Stop, Westside and Lifestyle (In India). The perfumes produced by them are limited and exclusive. The raw materials used are of the best quality. Having this kind of exclusivity gives the perfumer the freedom to use his creativity to the fullest. Generally when a perfumer is asked to make a perfume, he has to stick to a perfume brief that is provided by the marketing team of a company. This brief in a way sets the theme for the perfume as well as the budget and guides the perfumer in creating it. But, for some niche perfumeries, the perfumer is given the full liberty to create what he feels like without having to worry about the parameters set by a brief.

So there we were; me and four of my friends from ISIPCA – Kajal, Rawane, Nishma and Merve. Merve had made an entire itinerary for us with information about metro stations, street addresses of the niche perfumeries in Paris and also the time by which we should finish as we had a date with the Eiffel Tower later on that day. Our first stop was Colette near Tuileries.

Colette is an extremely trendy store selling everything ranging from clothes to books to make-up and perfumes. It’s located in a very expensive quarter of Paris on a street lined with designer stores and boutiques. On the first floor, in one corner of the store is the section for perfumes with brands like Comme des Garçons, Marc Jacobs, Boudicca etc. Kajal and I, being from India, liked the Gardenia and Jasmine accord whereas Rawane fell in love with the Oud fragrance.

The next store in our itinerary was Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle. Once we entered the store we pushed Rawane, the only one of us who was fluent in French, to introduce us to the lady at the front desk. As soon as she heard that we were from ISIPCA, she smiled and said that she was an ex-student of ISIPCA as well. She gave us a warm welcome and asked us which fragrances we would like to smell. We each told her our preferences – Kajal said she liked the white flower note, Merve preferred perfumes created by Maurice Roucel, Rawane said she wanted to try something oriental and of course with Oud and I wanted something with green notes. My favourite perfume was “Dans tes Bras” which had a beautiful green and floral aspect to it contributed by violet. The lady showing us the perfumes was so happy with our interest in fragrances that she let us test one of them in a fragrance evaluation chamber. She put one spray of Noir Epices in the cylindrical chamber and asked us to evaluate it. It was a lovely medley of orange, cinnamon, pepper and clove.

After testing almost all the perfumes in the store, we thanked the lady for her time and walked out with a feeling of enthusiasm and love for perfumes that we had never felt before. With this feeling we got ready to go to our next stop – Maison Francis Kurkdjian.

Chanel

There are many perks of being a student of ISIPCA. Not only do you get to study about the world of perfumes and cosmetics and live in France, the hub of this industry, but you also get a chance to be completely immersed in this world through company visits. My class recently went on one of these visits and that too to none other than Chanel - the most luxurious of all brands.

So, there we were. The 19 girls and 1 boy of my class dressed to impress and with so much Chanel perfume sprayed on that we stood out in Metro 1 that led us to the company. We were welcomed into Chanel with a gracious spread of croissants, pain au chocolat, muffins, juice, coffee and tea. The breakfast spread was in the lobby which was decorated with bottles of the famous Chanel perfumes like Chanel No. 5, Coco and Chanel No. 19. The walls had quotes, both in English and French, by Gabrielle Chanel herself. My favourite quote – “If you are sad, if you are disappointed in love, put on your make-up, give yourself some beauty care, put on lipstick and attack; men hate weeping women.” 

We were then taken to the conference room where they walked us through the history of the company. Coco Chanel was a completely revolutionary woman for her time and had a deep passion for perfumes. She wanted to break free from the norm and create fragrances that epitomized strong and confident women. She believed in the phrase “Less is more” and put more effort into her perfume rather than the bottles and presentation. In the 20’s, when every other perfume house was coming up with ornate designs and crystal bottles, Chanel had a simple square shaped glass bottle with a stopper. When you see a Chanel bottle today, you associate it with simplicity with elegance and style.

One of Chanel’s biggest successes is of course Chanel No. 5. Launched on the 5^th day of the fifth month and laced with notes of jasmine, rose, neroli (the flower of the bitter orange tree) and aldehydes (the ingredient which gives No. 5 its personality), this perfume instantly became an international hit. It was said to be a perfume that smelled like a woman. Marilyn Monroe stated that she used to always wear a few drops of No. 5 before going to sleep.

Visiting Chanel was like an absolute dream. It was inspirational to see this young woman with a vision create a brand that is now linked to pure luxury. It was nothing but her passion and imagination that led the company to where it is today. And in the end, that’s what you need as a perfumer. Perfumes have always been linked to memories and emotions; your grandfathers scent when you used to sit with him and watch his favourite TV show, the smell of your mother when you hugged her as she was leaving for a party, the smell of your boyfriend/girlfriend’s perfume when you kissed them for the first time. As a perfumer you need the ability to capture human emotions and make them come alive in a fragrance. You need to be able to convert a dream into a scent. It is true that when you sell a perfume, you sell an image, a kind of dream rather than the scent itself. Without passion, imagination and a vision, in this field at least, nothing is possible.