Libre is about to get more intense. The hit fragrance from YSL Beauté is launching its fourth iteration of the scent, with a “le parfum” level that amps up the facility.
Dua Lipa returns because the face of the fragrance for the brand new campaign, with stills shot by photographer Tyler Mitchell and a brief film from Grammy-winning music video director Jenn Nkiru. Lipa takes on the anthemic George Michael song “Freedom,” updated for the TikTok generation.
Selecting the name “Libre,” which suggests “free” in French, may need been a stroke of luck when it was chosen in 2019.
“We worked on this a couple of years ago, and once you see the best way the world goes today freedom has never been a lot in danger,” said YSL Beauté chief executive officer Stephan Bezy. “The aspiration for freedom has never been so high, so it’s a really aspirational name, a really aspirational concept. There may be very strong desire for freedom.”
Lipa, he said, embodies this ethos “because she’s fierce, she’s daring, she’s free, and he or she’s a wise, powerful, strong, independent woman.” Lipa has been with the brand since before she became the worldwide superstar she is now, “which is completely unbelievable for us,” said Bezy. The newest campaign sees her coming eye-to-eye with an eagle, walking on a deserted beach, dancing within the rain and shouting the long-lasting song title against a backdrop of fireplace.
Bezy clarifies that the fragrance is just not a flanker, but a part of an expanded range of the Libre scent. Libre le Parfum follows the eau de parfum, eau de parfum intense and softer eau de toilette and adds saffron notes to the juice created by famed fragrance master Carlos Benaïm.
This time they took Benaïm to the corporate’s Ourika Community Gardens within the foothills of the Atlas Mountains, 30 miles outside of Marrakech. YSL Beauté harvests some raw materials from the 100 species of flowers that grow on the botanical grounds, but this time they used industry Headspace technology to capture the fragrance of the saffron that grows there. It’s the primary time they used the technique inside their gardens, and the result’s a deeper earthiness to the scent.
Libre has been phenomenally successful for the group. In 2021 financial results, L’Oréal Group chief executive officer Nicolas Hieronimus, YSL Beauté’s licensee, said Libre entered the highest five fragrances worldwide. While results are usually not yet available for 2022, Bezy said initial results are “extremely successful.” Libre fragrances rank second in Germany, sixth in Spain and eighth in France. It’s also in the highest five in China and the highest 10 within the U.S.
Bezy said the fragrance has been successful across regions. “It’s quite spectacular, because some fragrances sometimes are very regional — they work well in a single market but not in one other — and this may be very successful within the U.S. market, the European market and the Asian market as well.” He said all iterations of the scent do well as a consequence of the core fragrance in addition to bottle design, which was created to develop into a “luxury object” in step with the Yves Saint Laurent original style.
Libre is hitting a sweet spot amongst Millennials, he said, though it covers a broad age range. Black Opium skews a bit younger and Gen Z, he added. They are going to roll out body oil, body milk, shower gel and other scented products within the fragrance family.
Asked how much the fragrance sector supports the YSL Beauty business, Bezy wouldn’t disclose specifics, “nevertheless it is critical, as you may imagine. Fragrance is a giant a part of the business.”
The campaign is being rolled out to print, TV and across social. For the brand new fragrance, Bezy hopes it’s going to be as well-loved because the iterations before. “I really like reading the comments,” he added.
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