“Dance is poetry made visible, fragrance is a dance of molecules invisible.
Internationally-fêted ballet dancer, Polina Semionova, is Schoen’s creative partner for the new fragrance in the series, Precision & Grace.
“I was fascinated by what goes on in the mind of a great dancer while she’s dancing,” says Schoen, ‘in the precision she must have to express the grace.”
“Without intelligent work, there is no result,” explains Semionova. “even if you have a great gift. The precision only comes with hours of work in the studio. Then, when I go on stage, I don’t think anymore. I release myself to the music. I fly.”
The fragrance is balanced between uplifting fruity notes and powdery florals. “I wanted to have pear and plum because they remind me of summer in the Russian countryside of my childhood,” says Semionova. “When I smell pear and plum it makes me smile.”
The top note of Williams pear springs out of the bottle with its crisp, juicy greenness. The heart of the fragrance is an unusual fruity-floral accord of Egyptian jasmine (the fruitiest of the jasmines) with plum. Harmonising with this key accord are airy florals such as mimosa, freesia and osmanthus (a white blossom with an apricot note).
“For me Precision & Grace connotes lightness, the gossamar layers of the classical ballerina’s costume,” says Schoen, “and then the warmth of the body as she dances.”
The drydown is warm and velvety, based on woods and musks. “I’ve used real sandalwood because it’s more complex and animalic than the synthetic versions, better able to express the heat of the body in motion.”
Schoen’s signature of schinus molle, or pink pepper, also features.
“When you first smell Precision & Grace it’s like a breeze, so light and feminine,” says Semionova. “But then there is this unusual note that I love, the pepper. This adds something deeper that gives a core of strength to the fragrance. It’s like the ballet itself: without the hidden strength, you can’t make it light.”
The packaging is an impression of the meditative state of a dancer’s brain while she is performing.
“The dots and triangles are a series of placements, they represent the precise steps she must take,” explains Paul White of Me Company. The colour flows reflect a different way of mapping balletic gesture. “Dance is precise, but it’s also semi-airborne. The pulses of colour reflect the flux of the dance, almost like motion capture trails. They represent the dancer’s freedom, her joy.” – a note from the brand.
