Unless you’ve been living on Mars you can’t have escaped the momentous decision taken by the BBC to cast a lady as the new Doctor Who. Well, the world is still spinning after Jodie Whittaker’s debut on Sunday 7th October but she isn’t really the first woman to try and conquer space and time. Earlier this year Marina Barcenilla released Out Of This World, a fragrance that brought together the scents of the universe along with a healthy dose of Marina’s imagination. A die hard Doctor Who fan, a space scientist, and an award-winning perfumer, I was curious to see whether Out Of This World would send me into orbit.
Christmas is the season of the limited release with companies trying to reward and attract in equal measure. The thought of acquiring something special from your favourite brand sends gifting budgets rocketing but also means that expectations are seriously raised. Will they live up to the hype? One section of the market that seems to be more successful is the “independent”, possibly because they create in smaller quantities but also because they can make their Christmas offering truer to their own style. Marina Barcenilla Parfums has released three Christmas products this year and every one of them is a winner.
Renaming and rebranding is one thing, but taking your company outside of its original fragrance style is completely different. This is the situation that Marina Barcenilla finds herself in with the release of her first perfume under the Marina Barcenilla Parfums label. Four weeks ago, on 1st November 2016, The Perfume Garden changed its identity but took five of the most popular perfumes with it. With one of these being the FiFi Award winning India there were high expectations for the new company's debut fragrance, Black Osmanthus. Would a new name signal a new style or would it just be a case of "the emperors new clothes"?
