Applications: Colorful Candles
Fragrance house Bond No. 9 introduces the newest additions
to its New York Cityinspired collection
By Jennifer Kwok, Managing Editor
Laurice Rahmé, president of fragrance house Bond No. 9 New York, once described her feelings for New York as a "big love affair." It was Rahmé's idea to create signature fragrances in homage to the different boroughs and neighborhoods of New York. Now, Rahmé has introduced the latest from Bond No. 9—scented candles corresponding to each of the brand's neighborhood fragrances. For the packaging, Rahmé made sure to include elements from the fragrance packaging that make the brand so upscale. In fact, the candle packaging is so detailed that it took six months to develop.
The stock glass candle container was sourced from Libbey Glass (Toledo, OH). Because each Bond No. 9 fragrance is assigned its own signature color, Rahmé decided to decorate each candle's glass container in the color of its fragrance. She outsourced the job of coloring the glass to decorator USS Corp. (Newark, NJ). The glass was frosted in the custom colors.
USS Corp. also printed a gold icon representing an old New York subway token that is featured on all of Bond No. 9's bottles. "The printing was difficult to do because there is a lot of detail in the design of the token itself," says Rahmé.
The candle features a heavy, solid-metal lid. "Traditionally, upscale candles would always come with caps," says Rahmé. "The reason is that upscale candles have very expensive perfumes in them and a cap keeps the scent from evaporating. Nowadays, however, most candles don't have caps because caps are too expensive. When candles do have caps, they're usually made in Asia and are of very cheap quality. I wanted our lid to feel like a heavy token, so it had to be made from heavy metal." Abdalla Casting (Providence, RI), a jewelry-making company, created the lid. It was molded with the image of the subway token.
Rahmé is betting that these candles will appeal to younger customers. "One of the reasons we're developing candles is because we're finding that younger customers are really into candles," she says. "These customers don't necessarily have a lot of money to spend on expensive perfumes, so a nice scented candle is a good alternative."
Knowing that younger customers who buy the candles could become the next generation of Bond No. 9 fragrance fans, Rahmé strategically put sample vials of the brand's fragrances in each candle's carton. The luxurious carton, which is modeled after a chocolate box, is made by Plaza Packaging (Bronx, NY).
Rahmé says that by the end of the year, she hopes to have a candle to correspond with each of Bond No. 9's 21 scents. So far, candles have launched for the following nine fragrances: Eau de New York, Little Italy, Nuits de Noho, Chelsea Flowers, New Haarlem, Riverside Drive, Wall Street, Park Avenue, and Madison Soirée.
As candles become trendy line extensions for cosmetic and personal care brands, more companies will be looking to ensure their candle packages are consistent with the rest of their packaging. If you ask Rahmé, she'd say that attention to detail makes all the difference.