A perfume capable of making people cry arrives in French Sephora. Focus on a unique story, which proves that the memory of smells is second to none.
Perfumes have real power over our emotions. Some are able to reassure us, others comfort us. A smell can take us back to another time…a particular place or day. A juice has even created a buzz on the Web for a very specific reason: it makes people who smell it cry. Explanations of an extraordinary adventure.
The story is totally crazy: we are in 2022, and a perfume is creating buzz on social networks a few days after its release. Missing Person from the American brand Phlur quickly racked up billions of views, ran out of stock in less than five hours and pushed nearly 200,000 people to sign up for the waiting list. “Missing Person was the very first fragrance we launched with. This was such a special scent for a launch. It really corresponded to a personal moment in my life where I missed someone“, says Chriselle Lim, artistic director of Phlur.
When she imagines Missing Person, she is in the middle of a divorce: “I wanted to bottle something that smelled like your loved one’s skin, that literally smelled like someone was right next to you.“Very quickly, the perfume was nicknamed the “sad girl scent”. But then, how can we explain such success and such enthusiasm for a perfume which, at the time, was only available on the brand’s website? Chriselle Lim has her theory: “I felt so alone at that time. As strange as it may seem, I think almost everyone knows what those moments feel like. What it’s like to feel like you’ve been stripped bare and almost alone in the world.“In a word, smell is unifying. Fragrance is becoming a global phenomenon, people are sharing their own stories on social media about the people or moments they miss.”It’s more than just a scent to them. It truly became a group therapy session.“
It must be said that Missing Person falls into the category of skin perfumes. These are clean, intimate and discreet smells, which only reveal themselves in proximity. It contains musk, bergamot, jasmine, orange blossom, sandalwood oil and blond wood. It can be worn alone, or layered with another perfume. It is both simple and sophisticated, “it’s really the white t-shirt of perfumes, it goes with everything“, assures Chriselle Lim. Her little extra? Thanks to the musk, the final smell is not the same from one skin to another, “it just becomes a slightly amplified version of you.”
From May 18, Phlur arrives in France and will be distributed in Sephora stores. The opportunity for the French public to discover this nugget and perhaps connect to Missing Person in the same way? “This perfume made me understand that human beings are more similar than we think. We all have different experiences, but we go through the same emotions. I believe this is what binds us to each other.“
