Confidential · VENUMENT × IFF
Confidential · VENUMENT × IFF
A focused debrief on your Round 1 submission of FOLD 2, with two additional briefs (READ and DIM) included at the end as reference for further interpretations from your team, alongside the FOLD reformulation.
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 more inward interpretation, shaped by resinous woods and soft balsamic depth, leaving a low-profile trace that stays close.”
Thank you for the FOLD 2 sample. The deep, contemplative residual trail formed by the peru balsam and olibanum in the base is very compelling. Keeping in mind the motif of this fragrance — the gesture of folding the corner of a book, of folding dry laundry in neat stacks — and its design intent as a neutral-feminine version of our existing perfume READ, we would like to ask you to check a few adjustments along the following directions.
Overall the fragrance currently pushes itself forward too forcefully, leaving an impression of olfactive fatigue on the nose. A faintly stinging, cool sensation also lingers in the residual trail of the later phase. We would like the base accord to be softened and pared back into a gentler, more gradual register. Please consider the following carefully.
Our hope is that the early phase reads as a composed texture with creamy warmth, and the later phase adds an elegant, classic fabric touch as it unfolds. Building on the READ connection noted above — FOLD as a neutral-feminine version of READ — 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 the next sample. Thank you, as always.
Alongside your FOLD reformulation, we would be very glad to receive your interpretations of READ and DIM as parallel samples. FOLD has been conceived as a neutral-feminine version of READ, so the bridge to READ is natural; DIM extends the invitation into the dusk register. The briefs below carry the brand concept and the reference imagery we are building each scent's mood from. Please treat them as creative invitations, in dialogue with the brand direction.
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