27 Apr 2023
Carolina Herrera continues a blooming exploration of contemporary womanhood with the release of Good Girl Blush Eau de Parfum, a daring explosion of contrasts that forms a uniquely powdery expression of floral femininity. This fresh chapter in the Good Girl story is an exciting counter-agreement between the energy and forceful power of two different extractions of a sensual vanilla base with the pastel romanticism of a Peony note, at the centre of which are two distinct uses of a brilliantly radiant Ylang Ylang.
Glowing beauty Karlie Kloss returns as the personification of Good Girl and everything she stands for. In a resplendent pink dress designed especially for the campaign, her radiant energy and mischievous smile delicately reveal the contrasts of Good Girl Blush and its sustainably sourced ingredients.
The central tenet of the Good Girl personality is a spirit of duality. An olfactory expression of the interior universe contained in every woman, it’s about her ability to be at once sensual and strong, instinctive and intelligent, romantic and empowered. For this new edition, perfumer Quentin Bisch worked with his colleagues Shyamala Maisondieu and Christophe Raynaud, finding instant visual inspiration in the iconic Good Girl stiletto bottle itself, which is interpreted in pastel pink with a dynamic gold heel: “It instantly brought to mind the Vanilla bean. The heel is the strength of the shoe, and I imagined the Vanilla as the strength of the fragrance.”
Using differing extractions of the same ingredient was an ingenious way of delving further into the story of Good Girl. Not only did the perfumers create a sunny explosion of fragrance by contrasting ingredients with each other, but they also found a way of creating complementary notes within each ingredient. “We were already working with the gourmand side of vanilla in previous incarnations of Good Girl, so using an additional powdery extraction was the ideal way of articulating a blush,” says Quentin Bisch. When it came to Ylang Ylang, “we had the luminosity of the flower petal itself, and by using an Absolute in addition, we were able to play with the deeper, more narcotic and sensual side of this alluring flower.”
To create the petal-like effect that Peony brings to the voluminous floral bouquet of Good Girl Blush, the perfumers worked with scientific molecules blended with up-cycled rose water. Remaining faithful to the scent of natural Peony, this technique allows its note in the fragrance to reach its fully blooming potential, while strengthening extended long wear on the skin.
The symbiotic play between facets becomes a dance between ingredients, and for the perfumers, the Ylang Ylang as the other flower at the heart of the fragrance was a natural progression from the white jasmine that played such an important role in the original Good Girl. All fragrances in the Good Girl range feature an explosively empowered femininity in the form of the stiletto that can crack glass with its sheer strength, and in the world of perfume, white Ylang Ylang is considered to be the exotic sister of the jasmine flower. Seductively sunny with some spicy facets, it evokes faraway voyages and escapist fantasies: a brightly luminous, radiant re-invention of Good Girl.
It’s a timely reminder not only of the distance these precious ingredients travel to be transformed into perfume but also of the expertise of the local producers, which in the case of both the vanilla and Ylang Ylang of Good Girl Blush come from Madagascar and the Comoros Islands in Africa. For this fully vegan formula, Carolina Herrera has partnered with leaders in the perfume industry Givaudan and their sustainability program, Sourcing4Good. A foundation whose actions have a direct impact on the workers who source ingredients, it’s a joint effort whose investment in the resources and processes of extraction brings a fragrance such as Good Girl Blush to life.
