It's difficult to take a fragrance company seriously when you read their marketing brochures and find yourself confronted with the glaring evidence of just how very seriously they already take themselves. The Puredistance company is pretty much a case study in this regard: stiff photos of the product (often incorporating blandly attractive models), the words "luxury" and "exclusivity" cropping up about every other sentence, plus mentions of Swarovski crystal, 24kt gold plating and an astronomical price tag all converge to create the impression of near suffocating self-regard.
It's enough to make any sane perfume fanatic turn around and walk away -- except for one tiny, irrefutable piece of fact: the Puredistance perfume just happens to rock the green floral casbah.
I know, who'd of thought, right? With a website that features a generic neo-classical soundtrack and PR copy so dry it could have been written by a Hal9000 ("A Crystal Masterpiece made of Swarovski crystal and 24 carat gold-plate encloses the 17.5 ml Puredistance 1 Perfume Spray" and blah blah blah), I was bracing myself for a big sniff of dullsville, but once I sprayed the perfume on my skin, it clicked: the sleek imagery, the clinical prose, the stripped-down high-luxe aesthetic all serve to woo the unsuspecting contemporary consumer into experiencing a piece of genuine perfumery art.
Created for the Vienna, Austria Puredistance company by Annie Buzantian (also responsible for Estée Lauder Pleasures, Tommy Hilfiger Tommy, Ralph Lauren Pure Turquoise and more), Puredistance is said to have been a fragrance that Ms. Buzantian designed for herself: "Originally, she created this perfume as her personal masterpiece, but by coincidence (or predestination) a Puredistance briefing landed on her desk and the whole idea exactly matched the feel she had when she was creating her personal fragrance."
In an interview with OzMoz.com, Buzantian describes her professional perfumery style as "luminous, joyful compositions, fragrances with a very fluid signature," and this is an excellent summation of the Puredistance perfume, a precisely calibrated vision of organic, green spaces. The structure is fixed at its core, yet suffused with grace and verve, like a triangle of meadow-green silk fluttering from a titanium standard.
But I'm not the only one who's impressed. Some other opinions below:
Perfume Smellin' Things: "One of the most attractive contemporary fresh green florals."
1000 Fragrances: "I sampled the precious perfume and I was amazed by its composition and the new twist brought to luxury perfumes . . . It's very american (or what I imagine about NY), refined like modern architecture with no reference to the past."
Perfume Posse: "After reading through all the marketing materials, you really, really want to hate this perfume or at least make fun of it ... but I just can't. It's stunning and beautiful - lush and rich without falling into the uber-rich notes that scream "expensive!" like the Amouages and Hermes 24 Faubourg."
Perfume FAQs: "Whilst Clive Christian No. 1 is the brash, shiny, jewel-encrusted bling of perfumes, with fans such as the flamboyant Elton John, Pure Distance is the ageless, timeless classic which conjours up images of Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Lauren and Princess Grace of Monaco."
Puredistance is offered in several formats -- a pure Swarovski crystal column with a choice of either 24kt gold or stainless steel embellishment, or you just can forgo the pricey crystal columns and opt to purchase the more utilitarian refill spray on its own.
The 17.5 ml (approx. 1/2 ounce) refill, or "purse spray", is packaged in a rectangular white leather box with a weighted, magnetized cover that prevents the box from falling open and spilling the bottle inside. The presentation is plushly minimal (I know, that sounds like a contradiction, but bear with me) -- the refill spray rests in a white fabric cushion, each refill comes with its own signed certificate of authenticity, and the refill bottle is weighted and balanced so that it rests comfortably in the hand and is easy to use (though the base is rounded like a test tube, so it lays flat instead of standing upright). The Puredistance name is etched into a steel collar below the weighted cap, while also screen printed on the refill bottle itself.
My PR contact at Puredistance mentioned that the refill bottle is available with a choice of either a silver or gold cap. He said the silver cap is the more popular choice overall, but that it varies from country to country. I was supplied with both the gold and silver caps for photographing, and I found that the gold cap works more effectively with the stark white packaging scheme, creating a more dramatic contrast while also visually evoking the warm undertones of the initially fresh and sweetly green Puredistance fragrance.
The refill/purse spray is 32% perfume strength (placing it in the extrait/parfum category) and runs 165 euros (approx. $225.00 U.S. at today's exchange rates), which is no more than a bottle of By Killian, and less than a Vero Profumo. Longevity is excellent, lasting 10+ hours, which is usually a sign of high-quality raw materials. At the very least, it reveals the hand of a perfumer who very much knows what she's doing.
The Puredistance company website lists the notes of the fragrance as: tangerine blossom, cassis, neroli bigarade, magnolia, rose wardia, jasmine, mimosa, sweet amber, vetiver and white musk. The amber/vetiver/musk drydown is effortlessly beautiful and extends for hours.
Photographs of the refill package below. The first photo is with the silver cap, the rest feature the warmer gold:
For its chosen target market, it's a well-considered presentation -- it looks expensive and feels like quality. The Swarovski crystal columns into which the refill spray fits are thousands of dollars worth of stunning, though not absolutely necessary if your interest is more attuned to what's inside the bottle than what's sitting on your dressing table. Fortunately, with the Puredistance refill spray option, fragrance consumers on a less than lavish budget don't have to completely sacrifice the original sleek aesthetic for a more affordable piece of the art fragrance pie.
***Note: in my opinion, the Puredistance perfume is feminine in nature, though others may disagree. I like it, and think it's a striking piece of work, but it possesses an abstractly innocent quality that I would rather smell on a woman than on a man. If you're an abstractly innocent kind of guy, however, then by all means!
UPDATE (05/18/09):
Wow, that was fast! The review only went up yesterday.
(click to enlarge)
One thing I noticed about the Puredistance website is that they pay careful attention to all forms of media discussion regarding their product, including blogs. They're eager that consumers understand the Puredistance perfume isn't just a bunch of hype, and I can't blame them. Contemporary consumers have seen and heard so many overblown descriptions that it's now difficult to spot a quality product that actually lives up to its PR.
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