Not every day does a global brand release a luxury 14-piece fragrance collection (and one candle) that will undoubtedly blow your mind, and perhaps also break the bank. It’s Gucci we’re talking about, The Alchemist’s Garden being possibly the most outrageously fabulous fragrance outing in recent times.
Alessandro Michele is already known for his incredible eye that combines the past with the future, a sensibility that not only redefined Gucci as a fashion house, but the whole of the style on a global level. There’s hardly any other person in the industry that can say they’re both groundbreaking and commercially successful like Michele can. And without a sign of stopping anytime soon. His latest project is The Alchemist’s Garden, a gender-free perfume concept imagined with the help of famed perfumer Alberto Morillas, who is also the nose behind Michele’s first fragrance for the house – Gucci Bloom.
“It’s the magic of the alchemy,” Morillas talks about the nature of the collection. The Alchemist’s Garden includes seven eaux de parfums, each poetically titled to embody an emotion and reflect a personality trait. The Eyes of the Tiger is a rich amber-based fragrance, while The Last Day of Summer reminisces of Michele’s personal memory of walks with his father. Each of the other five carry the base of iris, violet, oud, rose and mimosa. Morillas described them as “as a bunch of flowers or a travel album where each photo brings its own memory and emotion.”
In addition to the perfumes, the collection also features three perfume waters (acque profumate) and four perfumed oils, all created to be layered on top of the main perfumes. The waters, A Winter Melody, Moonlight Serenade and Fading Autumn, are each based on single notes (cypress, lavender and woods, respectively), and are to add freshness to the original scents. The oils are quite the opposite – once again single-note concoctions that are to intensify the individual tones in the perfume, particularly violet, oud, rose and woods. And each of the products are packaged in a wonder of its own, ceramic bottles embellished with gold and reminiscent of the old apothecary bottles. And then there’s the candle – a ceramic pot with actual gold detailing, housing a burning variation of the violet fragrance and presenting possibly the most luxurious candle on the market.
Rather than fragrance shopping, The Alchemist’s Garden provides an experience equivalent to a wine or cheese tasting. “It’s like a big puzzle and you just add different pieces to it,” said the famed perfumer. There’s 48 potential combinations, based on mixing all the different varieties. And it’s this dedication to individuality that stands out the most, perfectly in tune with the nature of Michele’s fashion designs at Gucci. It’s all part of one big story, simultaneously fuming with nostalgia and futurism. It’s a world we want to be part of, forever and always.
Gucci’s The Alchemist Garden fragrance collection is available to shop from selected stores and online.
