Confidential · VENUMENT × IFF
Confidential · VENUMENT × IFF
A focused debrief frame for your Round 1 submission of FOLD, with two additional briefs (READ and DIM) included at the end as reference for further interpretations from your team. Per-sample FOLD olfactive notes will follow later today. A standing invitation for a free interpretation of each brief sits alongside.
The final Phase 1 lineup is now fixed as follows:
The renaming is meaningful: the storytelling each scent is built around has shifted with the name. This is why we are flagging it at the top of the document, before the per-submission notes. Olfactive feedback on each Round 1 sample will appear in the DEBRIEF section under each card. The briefs the perfumers should now be working against are the renamed ones.
FOLD is not a new structure, but a softened state of READ. The structure remains, but the edges are diffused and folded into the skin. It should feel quiet, intimate, and slightly abstract — like the same line, but softened and closer to the body.
“A calm transition where dry woods and incense-like warmth lose their sharpness, settling into an intimate, skin-bound presence.”
Thank you for the sample. The refined texture characteristic of the top-grade LMR materials and a composed, neutral mood came through very compellingly, and we found the sample very satisfying. To bring the fragrance to its full expression, we would like to ask you to check a few details around the diffusion structure.
The overall accord is excellent and could hardly be improved on, but the spicy character at the top lingers slightly longer than ideal, and the composition as a whole is so delicate that the diffusion feels a touch quiet. The connection into the heart's olibanum reads faintly, which gives the impression that the appearance of the base notes is a little delayed. To address that, please consider the following carefully.
FOLD has been conceived as a more neutral version of our perfume READ, and we would also like to invite you to develop samples for READ and DIM as parallel interpretations alongside the FOLD reformulation. We are very much looking forward to seeing how this composed refinement evolves. Thank you, as always.
Alongside your FOLD direction, we would be very glad to receive your interpretation of two additional scents — READ and DIM. The briefs below are provided as reference. Each carries the brand concept and the reference imagery we are building the scent's mood from. Please treat these as a creative invitation, in dialogue with the brand direction. The two briefs sit in parallel with your FOLD reformulation and would each be treated as an additional, standalone submission.
A quiet, focused space — wood, paper, and air. Not naturalistic, not aromatic, but structured and intentional. It should feel like something you can follow — a line, a surface, a clearly defined form.
A warm, dimly lit fabric space — skin, linen, and a soft floral presence resting in still air. A floral that feels closer to skin than bloom, capturing the quiet flow of unconscious time. DIM moves from the interior state of going to sleep (the prior name SLEEP) to the atmospheric light of the hour: dusk, golden hour, the moment before the lamps are switched on.
Thanks for the work to date. What we have seen sits close to what we are looking for, and the gap to the next round should be a narrow one rather than a wide one. Looking forward to the DEBRIEF notes landing with your team.
Best,
Kelvin