Unveiled in New York in March 2007, CK IN2U Her is the women’s version of Calvin Klein’s first duo, designed for a generation that courts by text message. Loc Dong and Carlos Benaïm composed it: pink grapefruit, bergamot, and redcurrant leaves, sugared orchid and white cactus, over a base of amber, vanilla, and red cedar. Stephen Burks designed its glass and white plastic bottle.
At its release, critics were divided: Chant Wagner found in CK IN2U Her a futuristic, controlled strangeness, carried by its “neon” amber, while Robin of Now Smell This smelled only one more sugary fruity floral, pleasant but with nothing new.
Olfastory’s review
An electric fragrance
On March 14, 2007, Chant Wagner of The Scented Salamander said she was pleasantly surprised, especially by the women’s version. She found in it an integrity rare among mass-market fragrances and thought of Comme des Garçons’ explorations of unusual smells, such as an electric light bulb or leatherette.
She describes an orange in a wire cage, a dusty light bulb scented with redcurrant, a warmed magnet. The “neon” amber gives the fragrance an electric, metallic glow, pleasant in her view, and the base remains sensual, woody, and ambery.
She sees it as a technically innovative fragrance that nonetheless stays harmonious and is made to meld into the skin, one that in her view will appeal to urban, modern sensibilities well beyond its intended audience.
One more fruity floral
On March 27, Robin of Now Smell This preferred the men’s version. On a blotter, CK IN2U Her seemed to her already smelled a hundred times over: very sugary fruits, a bright, shrill citrus, indistinct flowers, a woody, musky base, and lots of vanilla.
Once it calms down, the fragrance comes down, for her, to a lightly toasted vanilla sugar and a musk reminiscent of CK One. She finds it pleasant and easy to wear, but utterly unoriginal, and doubts it will win over anyone beyond very young customers.