Article About Olivia Giacobetti: IUNX Is Back In Business {Fragrance News} {Fragrant Reading}

To me, perfumer Olivia Giacobetti is a little bit like the feminine counterpart to perfumer Jean Claude Ellena. Both are fascinated by the element water and its smell. Both are obsessed with transparent, diaphanous textures. Both plow their paths in this perfumery direction in a very consistent, deep manner. Both not just do this kind of perfumery but enjoy less ethereal unusual gourmand accords (in fact both seem to love to eat good food).

To compare their works more closely would be extremely interesting.

The September 2008 issue of the magazine Atmosphères has a 1-page article about perfumer-composer Olivia Giacobetti, who reveals that she "cannot stand not to smell good".

In order to be able to perfume herself while respecting the constraint of olfactory neutrality she needs to have for her work, she reportedly just dabs on two drops of a diluted version of IUNX Eau Blanche on her neck so that it has time to evaporate by the time she reaches her lab...
This biographical detail leads us to the news that the niche brand of perfume IUNX she founded with her father photographer Francis Giacobetti and Fabienne Conte-Sévigné in 2003 and with the help of Shiseido, and which was subsequently closed down in March 2006 has now been reinstated.

IUNX means seduction through the sense of smell or aromas in ancient Greek and also indirectly refers to magic ceremonies of enchantment where a little bird called iunx was used in rituals involving breathing and sprinkling actions.

There had been the beginning of a rumor and a tremor of hope in 2007 about a possible come-back of IUNX.

The new IUNX boutique is now located at Hôtel Costes. They currently carry only three perfumes from the original line of 19 fragrances: Eau Blanche, Ether de IUNX, Splash Forte. The brand announces a fourth re-introduction of Eau Sento No. 2 by the end of November, beginning of December 2008.

Eau Blanche is a floral woody musk perfume with notes of: flax absolute, white iris, teak wood.

Splash Forte is a spicy woody perfume with notes of: cardamom, black cumin, laurel bay, nutmeg, blond coffee, cinchona bark, red cedar, musk.

Ether de Iunx is a woody oriental with notes of: wood breath, cooked rose, sugary wood, myrrh resin.

Eau Sento No. 2 is a woody aquatic scent with notes of: cedar leaves, cumin seeds, cypress wood, yew wood, red algae.

IUNX is still gearing up to come back full-force and we will be following that story.

IUNX at Hôtel Costes
239, rue Saint Honoré
Paris 75001

Photo: Editions de Parfums