CK One

The house opens CK One with a burst of citrus and fruit, pineapple, bergamot, lemon, mandarin, and papaya, with cardamom and green notes. The more floral heart brings together violet, jasmine, lily of the valley, and rose, which nutmeg pricks with a spicy note.

The base sets down amber, oakmoss, cedar, musk, and sandalwood, and the house now pairs them with a green tea it wants to be clean. It classifies CK One among aromatic citrus fragrances, over an ambery, musky base.

Cleanliness, according to Ermano Picco

In 2017, Ermano Picco saw in it a composition built around the green tea accord then in vogue, whose fresh-out-of-the-shower effect comes from large doses of Hedione, dihydromyrcenol, and galaxolide, with Iso E Super rounding out the bulk of the formula.

Galaxolide, a cheap musk that has scented laundry detergents and body washes since the 1960s, forms in his view the perfume’s backbone. Citrus, pineapple, papaya, cardamom, and nutmeg dress this laundromat framework to make it more chic.

What stays out

Longer descriptions add iris and freesia, which the house names in none of its current descriptions. They remain outside the declared composition, as do the green notes, spelled out in full for lack of an entry of their own.

What the label declares

The current European label declares linalool, limonene, citronellol, coumarin, geraniol, hydroxycitronellal, citral, and isoeugenol, along with a chelating agent, tetrasodium EDTA, which protects the formula from traces of metals.

Older lists also declared lilial, a molecule with a lily-of-the-valley scent since banned in the European Union.