- Feb 5, 2020
- 3 min read

BTS: PERFUMERY VISIT, FRANCE

At the time of writing this, we are sitting on the plane on our flight home to London from Nice and wanted to share with you a few updates from our trip and another look behind the scent. The Côte d’Azur is certainly not a bad place to have a business meeting with your perfumer! We arrived in Grasse, in the middle of the French countryside, and quickly discovered the average wait time for an Uber is c25 minutes(!) so we had some time to explore the region. It is a beautiful little town, and along with the wider South of France region, is now firmly a key pillar in the establishment of THE 5TH, providing for our fragrance's creation. With that in mind we wanted to capture on film a glimpse of the place that has become very important to us:

When we (eventually) arrived at the factory and sat down with our perfumers, we had a number of breakthroughs. Heading into the meeting we had concerns about whether or not we would be able to eliminate a number of harmful ingredients from the creation process used by our perfumer, without compromising the quality of the scent. However, after emphasising the importance of safety and sustainability for THE 5TH, we were happy to hear that not only do our perfumers adhere strictly to the International Fragrance Association* (IFRA) standards, but also go the extra mile and refuse to use many other currently ‘legally safe’ ingredients in their formulas that raise even the smallest doubt as to potential harm.

Next, we started work on our bottle design. After consulting with our packaging specialist and having looked through hundreds of bottle, cap, pump, and packaging samples, we landed on a cylindrical glass bottle as well as a matte black atomiser. Both of these elements have been selected for their minimal aesthetic yet practical design, since we are currently at work to create a bottle cap that serves as the focal piece of art and intrigue. Anyway, for now that’s all you’re getting as we have to leave some element of surprise for the big launch!

We left the meeting with so much excitement and optimism that not even another 25 minute Uber wait, which meant we missed our train back into Nice, could bring us down.

(Our use of transport that day was not as seamless as one would have liked!)

One final update for now... the name of our debut fragrance. We spent hours and hours one evening in Nice trying to whittle down about 200 names. FINALLY, at about 3am we decided on the perfect name for our olfactory scent. HOWEVER, in the past it has changed every time we test new samples and variations of our scent, so we don’t want to completely commit to a name before we have the final scent on our wrists and so, for now, we’re keeping this to ourselves. In the meantime, we want to hear from you… do you have a suggestion that could completely throw our current name idea out of the equation?? If you believe you might, please let us know. All we ask is that they are bold, unique and unexpected. See you on THE 5TH.

H & G

- Jan 5, 2020
- 2 min read

BTS: HAPPY NEW YEAR

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A lot has happened since we introduced you to THE 5TH in December. We have spent a long time choosing the perfect partner to help create our signature scent and are so excited to confirm we will be working alongside one of the most prestigious and respected perfumers in the world. When we started on this journey we had our sights set high and knew that when creating THE 5TH’s olfactory scent we had to do it properly. Therefore, as the world's epicentre for fine fragrance, there is no better place than Grasse in the South of France. After a number of initial discussions with our chosen perfumer, and after aligning our ethos and vision for the brand, later this month we are heading to visit their labs in Grasse. The purpose of this trip is to thoroughly initiate this partnership and to design and define our fragrance palette as we hone in on what we believe will be a safe, gender-free, positively disarming, true representation of THE 5TH and our values. To prep for this, over the last month we have been dissecting lots of samples sent to us by our perfumer to figure out exactly what it is we want to create. We now have notebooks exploding with our ideas on ingredients, scent combinations and anything else that's served as inspiration, providing the foundation we need to dive into this creative process. We couldn’t be more excited to develop these ideas further and refuse to stop until we are convinced we have the perfect balance, ready to bottle for you.

Next, bottle design. At THE 5TH we always have art at the forefront of every decision we make and want to create a contemporary and immersive experience for our customers, at every stage of their journey with us. This is why bottle design is so incredibly important to us. Currently, we are studying shapes, textures, materials, colours, sizes, labelling techniques, and lid designs to ensure we deliver not just a striking scent, but a piece of art. Art so often is the product of collaboration and so we invite you to please share your experiences with different fragrance bottles (both positive and negative) with us. It’s going to be sat on the side in your bedroom or next to the sink in your bathroom; we NEED YOU to love it. In our next blog post (05/02) we will keep you updated with all the details and exciting developments that come from the upcoming visit to our perfumers in Grasse! To be one of the first in the know, subscribe to our newsletter via our website to be notified when it goes live. See you on THE 5TH.

H & G

- Dec 5, 2019
- 1 min read

BTS: OUR NEW BEHIND THE SCENT FRAGRANCE BLOG

We know what you’re thinking. Where’s the scent? Fear not, it’s coming. We are on a mission to create a bold and provocative fragrance that we hope in time will become just as much a part of you as the skin it sits on.

We are just at the beginning of this journey so we thought it might be fun if we introduced you to the brand and brought you along for the ride.

When we began researching the fragrance industry we came across Luca Turin’s book ‘The Secret of Scent, Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell.’ By the end of it, for many reasons, we knew we wanted to create a fragrance that combined both natural and synthetic ingredients. This was a problem... or so we thought, as the trend in the industry seemed to be shifting towards ‘all natural’ scents and shunning synthetics for being unsafe or unsustainable. We would be foolish to go against this, right? Well, the more we read the more we realised it was not that simple, and synthetics are way too important to throw off the shelf. Not only do they enable us to create incredible scents that do not exist in nature, but they can in fact be both safer and more sustainable than naturals at times.

With this in mind, we have set out to create a scent beyond that which nature allows, pushing the boundaries of fragrance to ignite more than just your sense of smell.

New blog posts will be posted here on THE 5TH of every month. We hope to see you then.

H & G

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