Close Up Olfactive Studio review

Elegant and vibrant iris with contemporary materials

Close Up by Olfactive Studio

This is jubilar, 10th release by Olfactive Studio. First thing you will notice is that Olfactive Studio has a new bottle design inspired with a camera. The overall shape is rounder, with black metal shoulders inspired by the camera while a circular wave is sculpted behind the glass and appears on the name of the fragrance. Close Up offers contemporary iris with soft, floral background inspired by the mystic eye. 

It's amazing how Céline Varleure, the creative director of Olfactive Studio always fins a perfect inspiration. This time that was a photo by Suren Manvelyan who became a professional photographer in 2006. He is known for landscapes and macro photography. His latest popular series of close ups of a human eye - "Your beautiful eyes", together with a similar "Animal eyes", have had millions of view on the Web. They have been published by National Geographic, Die Zeit, La Republica, The Gurdian and  others.

It's an eye wide open or a miniature world replete with its lands and oceans? The eye is really captivating and perfectly transcending the perfume. 

Close Up inspiration

Annick Menardo, from IFF, is the perfumer this time. She has an excellent reputation and is known for her skills. So far, I don't know any perfume from IFF that I don't like. Simply, they are pushing their research & development department to produce new molecules every now and then. In 2015, I received their discovery set with dozen of perfumes pimped with latest molecules available. What I noticed is that they are all powdery, iris alike, sweet, with resemblance to musk and tonka bean.

This is the same type of perfume - it is earthy iris with brown tones, sweet core that reminds of rose, amber, tonka bean cedar wood and white tobacco. It's so difficult to describe precisely this perfume because it's complex and solid composition. It's really like an eye, it would be even easier to describe the eye than this perfume. There are no layer, no classic pyramid, only the structure where you get all of the ingredients at once.

Close Up is contemporary, ultra modern perfume for trendsetters. I like it a lot because it reminds me of Parisian opulence. To me, it's the scent of perfumeries in Paris - earthy, delicate, powdery and sweet. Sweet enough to be intoxicating and earthy to be interesting. What I especially like about it is the projection from the skin! One spritz and voilà, whole street knows you have it.

I wouldn't miss it because it is really contemporary perfumery, composed of materials whose name wouldn't mean anything to you nor me, unless if you're a chemist. I like that. Let's admire to technology. 

Juraj, BL'eauOG