Online Perfume Design with P&G Downy Simple Pleasures: Be a Nose! {Fragrance News}

Procter and Gamble have set up a dedicated space for inviting consumers to try their hands at online perfume designing with the tag line, Express yourself. It's simple. There is perfume designer Kavin Morgan who guides you through the different steps. You could be the name behind the next Downy Simple Pleasures scent. Last year, the approach was to ask hand-picked young fashion designers to create clothing inspired by the Downy Radiance Collection. This year, the angle is clever in that it allows to poll consumers' olfactory preferences.

He reminds visitors that every Downy scent starts with an emotion, so you have to select one on a colored nebulous scale, then you move on to choosing one top, mid and base note amongst a selection where each is explained in psychological terms. Pick one you like, have fun.

Morgan even gives advice on how to appreciate perfume. Smell your clothes like you would wine and to try to decipher the various olfactive layers that are found in the perfume scenting your clothes...

The Downy formulas have beads that release with your emotions, as you move, and are touted implicitly as veritable long-lasting "parfums", since it is the extrait that traditionally is used to prolong the scent experience to the maximum.

Is this a way to satisfy the masses by making them love the new simple incarnation of luxury, Downy?

The perfume designer also describes each Downy scent from the collection in the style of a reviewer.

What is equally interesting is to see the Downy products advertised as having connections to prestige perfumery, which is true, but is made part of an explicit pitch here. In other words, there is a breaking of barrier going on between luxe and mass and perfumer and perfume-wearer.

We are indeed, it seems, moving in the direction of a world where doing your laundry would be just pure poetry as names like Water Lily Radiance, Spice Blossom Dare and Orchid Allure allude to.

I have to say that, personally, I have started the new habit, for now, of looking for oriental blends for softeners as they are a little less like softeners and a little more like fine fragrances. It makes the laundry area smell a bit more captivating and layered. I also am curious to see how sophisticated softeners will turn out to be as this trend develops. Still looking for a chypré softener.

You can start designing the next big Downy hit here