History in a bottle

The marriage of opulent scent and exquisite packaging made the English fragrance house of Grossmith a luxury fit for Britain’s royalty in the late 1800s.The brand was popular well into the 20th century and a year ago, in October 2009, it made a comeback, already receiving royal attention.

The ‘remastered’ version of Grossmith is stunningly ‘vintage’ in appearance, blends modern manufacturing and hand-made processes and is able to cope with the rigours of global distribution.

For the brand owner Simon Brooke, who is the great, great grandson of the founder, John Grossmith, and his wife Amanda, every packaging component of the ‘special’ crystal collection and a ‘standard’ glass range had to strike the right note. They were minded to create ultimate luxury without compromise to the cost of the materials, using original visual cues and otifs for the new decorative bottle designs, cartons and labels.

For the signature Grossmith crystal Baccarat Flacon range, the family worked with Maison Baccarat and brand design company Holmes & Marchant to create new crystal flacons, reusing the original moulds, produced in 1919 for Grossmith.

Each individually numbered flacon is etched with pure gold in a contemporary interpretation of the old designs. Made to order, the first set was sold to Middle Eastern royalty. The three scents are presented in a white wooden lacquered box, hand-made by Carrs of Sheffield, which in turn is protected by hand-made display packaging by MM Bell. The design was inspired by the faceted shape of the crystal flacons.

Refills for the special concentrated perfume have aluminium packaging.

Holmes & Marchant was brought in to redesign and relaunch the vintage Hasuno-Hana, Phul-Nana and Shem-el-Nessim fragrances, targeting two price points and very discerning audiences.

“We wanted to create something new, clean and modern, inspired by some of today’s greatest perfume success stories where attention to detail is key,” says Andrew Doyle, Chairman of Holmes & Marchant.

“The antique Baccarat bottles were the inspiration for both ranges. Grossmith was traditionally a very fragrant and opulent brand and historically used bright colours on packaging to convey the Middle and Far Eastern origins of its ingredients. “The new colour palette has used predominantly gold, regal blue and white – giving a classic yet opulent feel.

“The Baccarat range that resulted made slight modifications to the original dressing of the flacons, and replaced the labels that had once covered the front with a fine etched pattern using pure gold. Original patterns are replicated on the presentation box lining, too.”

Logos and typeface were inspired by writing found on old fragrance cards and helped keep an art deco ‘feel’ of the old bottles.

The resulting glass bottle was ‘reeded’, creating a vintage, hand-crafted look, while its oval footprint follows the shape of the original Grossmith ‘standard’ bottle.

Each glass bottle has a square label with chamfered corners (technically an octagon), based on the footprint of the Baccarat bottles. The finger cap on the bottle lid also references this shape, as do the display cartons and the blotters onto which the perfume is sprayed for customers to try in store.

Stoelzle (STO) Flaconnage has produced the glass bottles for the ‘standard’ range, in the UK at Knottingley. Each perfume comes in 100ml and 10ml, and eaux de parfums in 100ml and 50ml. The challenge was to produce a prestigious bottle affordably when the production run would be low volume and the budget very tight.

Mark Devonald Smith, Sales Director for Perfumery and Personal Care, explains: “With any project, but particularly in this case, the client has to grasp the parameters of the glass moulding process, what can be achieved, and what the economics are. We at STO have to understand the client’s needs, what is paramount about their product vision and how it can be realised in the finished bottle.

“Thanks to last year’s major investment programme in our West Yorkshire factory, we were able to produce this classic reeded bottle in three sizes (10ml, 50ml and 100ml) complete with chamfered cartouche, within budget.”

An interesting footnote is that Mark Devonald Smith provides a further a link with Grossmith’s past because his father worked with the original Grossmith bottles.

Made in England

Grossmith has mostly achieved its aim to use local, British expertise. The overcaps were manufactured by PlusImage, of Exeter, The pumps are supplied by the UK arm of Emsar, a global company and part of Aptar Group. Barringtons of York produces the perfume blotters and London-based printer Solways has printed the large point of sale blotters with descriptions of the perfume.

Some technologies and skills have had to be sourced in China. Nothing is left to chance and production overseen in person by Grossmith’s agent, Source2Supply.

Paul Elias, director and owner of Source2Supply, is responsible for realising the vision for high-quality rigid packaging. He says it takes more than 50 separate pieces of paperboard, and is ‘by far the most demanding packaging’ his company has ever had to deal with.

Exports account for 95% of sales, with important markets in the Middle Eastern states of Qatar, Oman, Dubai and Bahrain. More recently, Grossmith moved into Belgium and The Netherlands, launching exclusively at Senteurs d’Ailleurs in Brussels, and Lianne Tio Parfums, of Rotterdam, with Italy, Germany and the USA to follow.

Beauty in mind

DuPont’s latest Surlyn resin grades can produce a variety of forms, textures, colours and special effects that suit perfumes and cosmetics packaging.

New technologies include Surlyn 3D overmoulding and new techniques for the cost-effective production of effects such as marble and natural textures.

The colourful effects and luxurious appearance that can be achieved with caps moulded from Surlyn is illustrated by the cap of the new Oriens fragrance from Van Cleef Arpels, an Inter Parfums brand. The bottle’s designer, Joël Desgrippes, modelled its appearance on the design of a ring from the company’s own jewellery collection, with the faceted, Surlyn cap mimicking the pink-orangegreen spectrum of the tourmaline gem set within the ring.

Key to achieving this effect is the clarity and magnifying effect of the DuPont material. The three different colours lacquered on the surface of the Surlyn are reflected by the metallic insert set deep within the thick-moulded cap, producing a shimmering sense of depth and luxury.

Selection of Surlyn also depended on its compatibility with the ingredients in the fragrance. It was also possible to integrate a very small injection gate which could be easily hidden behind the one of the leaves in the cap’s design.

“The cap is a genuinely beautiful creation and we are proud to have worked with the molder Lisi Cosmetics on its development,” says Marion Trossat, Packaging Developer at Inter Parfums.