ICONIC – an intentionally sentimental fragrance

When we first came up with the idea of Lab Editions, I asked Pia which fragrances from our library she’d like to include.

Her immediate answer? ‘I want to make a perfume of the Iconic Cream fragrance’.

Iconic was originally conceived as an idealised scent memory of an anti-aging face cream from the 80s. The face cream in question had a rose and iris scent, with a tuberose facet. She worked on amping it up, making it larger than life – and in the process, captured memories that felt lost to both of us. Iconic recalls our grandparents and parents, Ponds cold cream and Nivea, face powder and lipstick, all in the most beautiful and nostalgic way.

Iconic Cream was originally designed to go into a face cream, which is how it was displayed alongside the formula at the Institute of Art and Olfaction’s Unveiling the Essence: A Journey Into Perfumery Formulas, an exhibition where perfumers shared formulas and their work spaces.

One of the fascinating things about working closely with a perfumer is the way their brains work – perfumers are able to revisit odours they’ve experienced in the past, and know what made the scent. Familiarity with raw materials and years of formulation means they can draw on those experiences and recreate them in uncanny, hyper realistic ways. Pia calls it ‘magical realism’.

When Pia decided to turn Iconic Cream into ICONIC, the fragrance had to perform differently. It didn’t need to lift out of a cream base – instead, it had to be transformed to work on skin, to evolve over time, and to smell even more idealised than the cream did. She also chose to increase the naturality, adding in real neroli, iris absolute, rose de mai, and tuberose absolute - which weren’t present in the original formula. The result is an even more glamorous version of those face creams and cosmetics, and in my opinion a truly iconic fragrance.

To me, ICONIC is all the women that raised me – the smell of their face creams, powder compacts, and rubbing red lipstick off my cheeks.