Apr 5th, 2019, 12:15 PM

Akro Fragrance: The Smell of Addiction

By Tahira Talout
Akro Fragrance's homepage shows their sensual aesthetic. Image Credit: https://akrofragrances.com.
Six fragrances built to resemble each of our six deepest addictions.

The fragrance market has been declining for the last two decades. Since the rise of cosmetics and skincare, consumer preferences have shifted to this segment of the beauty industry. Fragrance companies and manufacturers have been stagnant, and as new fragrances hit stores, hardly any have offered any innovation to the fragrance market. None but one: Akro is a London-based fragrance line created by a Parisian architect, her British husband, and her father, well-known Firmenich perfumer Olivier Cresp.  

Released in January, Akro consists of six fragrances, all modeled after a human addiction. From coffee and chocolate to alcohol and cigarettes, the fragrances are not direct replicas of the substances's scents but rather a graphic and sexy facsimile. The scents provoke the feelings of these addictions while still being wearable on skin. It took Cresp two years to perfect all six scents, with his family as the ultimate jury. In an exclusive interview with Women’s Wear Daily, he admitted that this project posed more stress than any project he has done for his clients at Firmenich, simply because he wanted to prove to his family that he is as a good a perfumer as he has been ascribed. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A puff, the first. Like the first breath of life.

A post shared by A K R O (@akrofragrances) on

The campaign for Akro Fragrance's newest collection. Image Credit: Instagram/@Akrofragrances.

The Akro website itself gives consumers a good idea of the almost provocative brand: “addictions become perfumes, bottled, without restraint or moderation, a concentration of excess.” Clearly striving for a dark and mysterious aura, their social media accounts parallel the surreptitious imagery. 

The fragrances are offered in individual 100mL bottles. For the more vigilant consumer, Akro offers a Discovery Kit with 15mL of each fragrance, to see which one he or she likes best. That is another innovation that the brand brings: all the fragrances are genderless. Cresp believes that all fragrances should be. In the same interview with WWD, Cresp says that making perfumes specifically for men and women is like making scents for young people or elderly people; it is nonsensical. Cresp imagines that fragrances should be made available for any individual who simply enjoys the scent.



Akro Fragrance Discovery Kit. Image Credit: Akro Fragrance Website.
 

With the fragrance industry on a decline, Akro is a fresh take on the fragrance market. Perfumes that tell your story: will this perhaps open the floodgates for other unique fragrances to become a trend?