L’Eau d’Issey by Issey Miyake, an evident surprise

Issey Miyake explores every angle of creativity, generating surprise through simplicity. In 1992, his imagination and vision of enhanced nature led Issey Miyake to create his first fragrance: “the most beautiful and purest fragrance in the world: the scent of water on a woman's skin.” L’Eau d’Issey is not a fragrance like any other, it first takes you unawares, and then the comforting softness and familiarity work their magic. L’Eau d’Issey shakes up the  essentials. An outpouring of emotions, crystal clear and universal water, it opens with a burst of freshness that is as aquatic as it is botanical. A new expression of nature.

First the top notes, the wet scent of the Rose water and Cyclamen accord blossoms into a shower of captivating freesia. Expressive and light Peony and White Lily punctuate the beats of the spicy Carnation heart. Then the floral middle notes interplay with a base impregnated with precious woods, with the unsettling accords of Musk and Osmanthus echoing the warmth of Tuberose.

Its name is “Eau”, French for water, and yet it is a concentrated, sensual fragrance with a generous trail. It is clear and transparent yet its freshness exudes warmth. Like a bursting spring of life, its bottle is the ultimate in simplicity, bringing new luxury to extreme refinement. L’Eau d’Issey surprises. Interests. Attracts. Moves. Seduces. Fascinates.

L’Eau d’Issey Pure, the source of L’Eau d’Issey.

In 2016, Issey Miyake is breathing new life into L’Eau d’Issey by opening the second chapter of its story. The source of L’Eau d’Issey is one drop, a single drop. Rare and precious. Faced with the inexorable passing seasons, Issey Miyake rekindles his love of a nature that takes time, its own time, to begin moving, revived by water. A water that is born, then flows peacefully. Pure water that creates moments suspended in time, dreams and escapism, timeless moments of serenity and fulfilment.

The purity of a drop of water on a woman's skin.

Transparent and yet deep; fluid and yet enveloping, L’Eau d’Issey Pure is full of contrasts. Incarnated by the salty sea breeze of Maritima* combined with Ambergris, L’Eau d’Issey Pure derives from a new aquatic story. Maritima*, an exclusive IFF molecule, evokes cool clear waters, while Ambergris, with its mineral and animal inflections, brings sensuality and breadth to the fragrance. A floral bouquet sparkles, as if floating on a wide expanse of sea. Crystalline Lily-of-the-Valley responds to the brightness of Orange Blossom. Plunge into their delicate white trail.
Then come other, denser flowers. Essence of Rose Damascena once again imbibed with the morning dew from when it was picked, brings with it opulent Jasmine in a heady explosion of petals. The ocean crossing continues. In the base notes, the call of Cashmeran* rings out, with musky and woody resonance. Pure and powerful, L’Eau d’Issey Pure reaches far-off shores at the touch of a single drop.

And the drop became bottle

A slender, conical and iconic figure is the signature of the famous L’Eau d’Issey glass bottle. The structure of the L’Eau d’Issey Pure bottle, its main codes and refinement ranging from the minimalism of the glass to the brushed silver cap are borrowed from L’Eau d’Issey. But there is one detail that is different: the crystalline ball that adorns its top has slid to the bottom of the L’Eau d’Issey Pure bottle. This artistic decision was made by the American designer Todd Bracher, who expresses a return to nature through sincere poetry.

“L’Eau d’Issey is what all other perfumes are not. L’Eau d’Issey evokes the genuine simplicity and purity that exist around this idea of water. For L’Eau d’Issey Pure I believe we have captured the most basic image of water, a droplet. The droplet symbolises the fragrance and becomes the bottle.” Todd Bracher. L’Eau d’Issey is purity personified, from the beauty of its bottle to its unique fragrance, right through to this suspended moment, captured through the lens of Daniel Jouanneau.