Parfums Dior Embrace Two New Concepts for the House: Layering & Oils with Les Elixirs Précieux (2014) {New Fragrances}

Parfums Christian Dior are tapping into the cultural practices of the Middle East for further ways of enhancing their library of fragrances with a new collection of perfume oils called Les Précieux Elixirs comprising Oud, Ambre, Rose and Musc...

Part of the LVMH group, Dior are actually reactivating an idea that was first inaugurated by the perfume house of Guerlain, also a sister member of the group, with Oud Sensuel and Garden Sensuel perfume oils as early as in 2007.

If perfume oils are widely used in some contexts, it is not an usual carrier for fragrances for luxury houses. In doing so, they are courting the Middle Eastern clientèle, but also potentially a segment of the American one which cherish the roll-on gesture, as well as admittedly riding on the massive wave of popularity of beauty oils in general. 

Dior have elected to bottle their perfume oils in phials containing a wand for application on pulse points. Each of the four perfume oils corresponds to a perfumery accord and can be used layered within the collection or as bases for La Collection Couturier Parfumeur. 

This is an interesting step as far as the notion of perfumery masterpiece and oeuvre d'art is concerned. In a nutshell, it's a bit as if aesthets were given the opportunity to paint onto a painting, or reproduction of a painting, by, say, Pollock, adding one or two more layers of their own. The integrity of the perfume is not defended, but on the contrary opens up to new, random interpretations. This is consistent with the reality of perfumery creation which is often derivative and commercial in nature and never dead set on direct inspiration from the external world, or the inner world of the perfumer {See review of Dior Gris Montaigne}. 

Via Savoir Flaire