10 things about Elizabeth Arden’s Untold fragrance

By Ashley Kowalewski

1. FRUITY-FLORAL/FLORIENTAL. From a perfume category point of view, Untold crosses divides. It’s juicy and playful with a hint of powder for a more grown-up finish relative to the slew of other fruity florals in the market. But there’s also a hint of musk and wood in the scent that delivers a quiet floriental aspect to the perfume.

2. THE NOSE: Clement Gavarry of International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) designed this spritz with what he calls the modern multi-faceted woman in mind. But how to make a fruity-floral scent new and more grown up, confident, we ask: “You go deeper and more into texture,” he says. “The challenge is make it sophisticated. What is a sophisticated fruit? Black current is sophisticated, like us taking the pear and adding something to it, giving it texture and creaminess. You have to wrap it with something else and make it more refined, that is the challenge with fruits. That’s why I am moving from fruity-floral to fruity-floriental.”

See his inspiration here.

FYI, Gavarry is also the perfumer behind such notable fragrances as Prada Amber, Armani Code (men’s), Alfred Sun Always and various Calvin Klein Eternity summer spritzes.

“Fruits, for me, are part of the DNA of a successful American top seller,” says perfumer Clement Gavarry. “More then Europe; in Europe it’s floral, but here, it is fruits.”

3. THE NOTES: Pink pepper, bergamot, pear, blackcurrant, gardenia, Jasmine, patchouli, sandalwood, amber and musk make up the scent.

4. THE TECH: Arden has tapped IFF’s expertise in its Grasse laboratories to create Untold’s signature blackcurrant bud, Egyptian jasmine and Patchouli Heart essences. They are specially extracted notes created via molecular distillation in order to isolate the precise heart of those respective notes.

5. THE BOTTLE: Untold’s faceted flask is meant to symbolize today’s multi-faceted woman—with a curvy silhouette of course.

6. THE MUSE: An early feminist-minded, modern woman, Elizabeth Arden, née Florence Nightingale Graham.

7. NUMBER 10. Untold is the Arden’s tenth fragrance collection launched under the Elizabeth Arden name since the first Red Door salon opened its doors in 1910.

8. THE PAST. Untold’s fragrance predecessors include Red Door, Red Door Aura, as well as the Green Tea, Pretty, Provocative, Blue Grass, Sunflowers and 5^th Avenue fragrance franchises.

9. THE CANADIAN. Russian-born Canadian model Olga Kaboulova graces Untold’s ad campaign and is shown walking home on a hazy, early morning shot in Manhattan. There’s the implied elegance, but with an edge—she looks, after all, like she’s just returning home from a fun night out; and with a little smile on her face. (Check out the commercial.)

10. THE STUFF. Untold Eau de Parfum retails for $75 (50 ml), and comes in Body Cream and Shower Gel formats as well. At Shoppers Drug Mart, The Bay and www.elizabetharden.com

With notes from Deborah Fulsang.