Scent of Africa seeks to put African fragrance on the map
Ghana-based luxury fragrance brand Scent of Africa has undergone a revamp, with a new visual identity, fragrances and packaging. The brand unveiled its first fragrance duo in a six-strong collection earlier this month.
Scent of Africa (Ghandour Cosmetics) is looking to replicate through fragrance the recent success seen by luxury African fashion brands. The first fragrance pair to launch in its new Eternal Legends collection inspired by African mythology consists of men’s fragrance Rakh and women’s scent Nefee.
The brand called on Ghana-born designer Kurt Merki and Paris-based Gazel Design for the packaging of the eaux de parfums. Merki dreamed up the bespoke, droplet-inspired flacons (Bormioli Luigi). Transparent at the base, the flacons are decorated with a graduated glossy lacquer and hot-stamped in gold on the facing.
Black lacquer combines with matte hot stamping for the men’s scent, while gold lacquer and glossy hot-stamping is used for the women’s. The fragrance bottles are fitted with Silgan Dispensing’s XD-11 Maximist pump with invisible dip tube.
The sculptural, weighted caps (Codiplas) are made of bulk-dyed ABS — black for Rakh and a bespoke iridescent gold for Nefee. When viewed from above, the caps depict the form of the African continent. The brand logo inspired by the Sankofa symbol of a bird (Sankofa means 'going back to your roots' in Ghana's Akan language) features in relief at the center of the cap. For the suppliers, achieving a perfect fit between bottle and cap, as well as ensuring color continuity between the components proved to be a challenge.
The fragrance boxes (Grafiche Sabbioni) designed by Gazel Design use Fedrigoni’s Constellation Jade creative paper, with its horizontal texture and silky feel. The boxes are decorated with a combination of printing, embossing and hot stamping; the logo block on the facing is achieved using double hot-stamping and embossing.
Scent of Africa’s fragrances are produced locally, using ingredients cultivated on the continent. Rakh, composed by Olivier Pescheux (Givaudan) is a spicy woody men’s scent with notes of orange blossom, ylang-ylang and black pepper. IFF’s Delphine Lebeau created women’s scent Nefee, which blends tuberose, jasmine and vanilla.
Scent of Africa will roll out two other fragrance duos, in July and October this year, to complete the Eternal Legends collection. Other collections with different designs are also in the works.
50ml fragrance