Anja Rubik's New Perfume Is Everything But Average

Remember when literally everyone and their mother smelled like Dolce Gabbana’s Light Blue perfume? The gentle smell was very easy easily adaptable to all natural scents—well, that’s the total opposite of Anja Rubik’s perfume, Original. The beautiful Polish model has advertised different fragrances in the past, but she told Vogue that, “it wasn’t really me doing it — I’d embody the vision of a designer.” So this time, Rubik wanted to create a scent that she felt was entirely hers, “something that [is] 100% me.”

She started by creating mood boards that represented her. It quickly filled up with a lot of Anthony Vaccarello fashion and Robert Maplethorpe’s photography. But out of all of Maplethorpe’s photography, one particular subject stood out to her — “his black and white images of lilies. I love lilies — the smell and how delicate and innocent and white it is whilst at the same time symbolizing erotica. There’s a huge contrast, which is something I think every woman has inside of her.” Feeding off her own inspiration, Rubik put in lily, green tea, amber and pink peppercorn notes into Original, creating a fresh, spring scent with wood undertones.

Rubik continued to explain how she wanted her scent to be more than just a fragrance and more than her embodiment as a product. She wants her scent to engage with her consumers on a more meaningful level. “Scent can really put you in a state of mind. You might smell one and think of your childhood, or your mum, or you pass by someone in the street and you think, ‘Oh, my previous boyfriend wore that,’ and then a whole emotion comes,” she said to Vogue, “So I thought it would be interesting to create not just a beautiful product, but one with a message behind it.”

With each bottle of Original, there is a printed message inside the box that calls everyone to, “follow your own path and spirit.” This fragrance is definitely not your average Light Blue, but Rubik, “didn’t want to put something out that everyone would like. Something easy.” So if you’ve been searching around for a new spring scent to rock that's anything but boring, Original is most definitely a must-try.

Image: originalbyanjarubik.com