Invictus: A fragrance for a conquering, invincible man The house of Paco Rabanne has mastered the art of storytelling, of translating masculine fantasies into image and into bottle. With Black XS, rockstar dreams were within reach; with One Million, dreams of fortune and gold; with Invictus, men are invited to dream of sporting glory, of being an all-round champion, adored by the gods and by women.
Paco Rabanne has not hesitated for several years now to create shock perfumes which, beyond their olfactory composition, are entities in their own right. Black XS revealed to the house this idea of total conceptualization of creation, and One Million and Lady Million carried it to its peak. Invictus is the pure fruit of these quests for ideals; its composition, worked like a musical score, is a masterpiece by eight noses and eight hands of genius.
Invictus, or the scented creation of four talented perfumers
According to the designer and creator's wild dream, the new Paco Rabanne perfume was created to carry the dream of the athletic hero from the bottle to the communication. In order to give this hero facets as contrasted as his character, four talented perfumers worked on the project for two years.
The perfume of victory, Invictus, was developed thanks to the talents of some of the greatest French perfumers: Véronique Nyberg, Anne Flipo, Dominique Ropion and Olivier Polge. Indeed, each brought their own specificity to the composition of Invictus, which gave the perfume an original olfactory construction.
First of all, although the perfume wants to be sporty, it does not take the usual shape of masculine sporty fragrances. The citrus-aromatic-woody blend remains a classic of masculine sporty perfumery; Invictus goes much further, offering beautiful freshness but also intense forces presented in an unusual way compared to other perfumes.
Invictus and the contrasting facets of victory
Invictus, this athletic hero, could not settle for presenting common scents, quite the contrary! The meticulous work of the perfumery artists (5000 trials were necessary to obtain the final result of Invictus) allowed Invictus to be built around strong oppositions and contrasts, thus breaking the codes of the usual olfactory pyramid to offer struggles between the different raw materials.
The olfactory construction of Invictus plays out particularly on two grounds that sometimes oppose and sometimes complement one another. Freshness expresses itself in marine tonalities thanks to a calone dosed to become salty, far from the famous ozonic notes so typical of the 90s, such as Kenzo pour Homme or L'Eau d'Issey, which have become classics. Highlighted by a green note and fresh melon, the aquatic freshness carries the senses away.
To answer this soaring of the modern sailor, warm, sensual accords turn to velvet around amber woods but also the animalic forces of cashmeran and labdanum. However, the freshness, nervy this time, of the aromatics and citrus comes to cut through this intense pulse, giving it yet another rhythm.
The Invictus man is made of surprises and pulses that never cease to vary, so much is the sporting challenge at the heart of his being. The perfumers have crafted a perfume that resembles him and beats to the rhythm of challenges to be met.
Heroic fresh-woody.
Two forces: cutting freshness and animal warmth.
Which prevails?
Grapefruit-marine and guaiac wood clash.
The sharp answers the muscular. Double victory. Paco Rabanne, on Invictus.