Bijenkorf Perfumes — Fragrance for Every Occasion, for Everyone

Date: 2018 | Amsterdam
 

Some occasions deserve a scent made specifically for them.
 

In 2018, De Bijenkorf — the Netherlands' most iconic department store — commissioned two limited edition fragrances for two of their most significant annual moments: Pride and Mother's Day. Both projects shared the same underlying challenge: create a scent that feels personal and meaningful, for an audience that is everyone.

Eau de Tolerance

Inspired by the rainbow as a symbol of inclusion and diversity, Eau de Tolerance was built by mapping fragrance ingredients to colour. Each colour suggested a character, a mood, a note. The result was a fragrance that moves — light and floral on the surface, with a confident spicy warmth underneath. Suitable for everybody, by design.

Eau de Mama

The brief for Mother's Day was both simple and complex: create the one fragrance for every mother. The answer was found not in trying to please everyone, but in going back to something universal. Softness. Warmth. Comfort. The fragrance was built around vanilla — a note found, remarkably, in mothers' milk — combined with powdery and sweet accords that evoke safety and unconditional closeness.

Both fragrances were sold with proceeds going to charity.

Scent with intention

What made both projects meaningful was the conceptual rigour behind them. A fragrance commissioned for a cause needs to do more than smell good — it needs to communicate something, create a feeling, carry a story. That is a fundamentally different design challenge than commercial perfumery, and one that requires both technical skill and conceptual clarity.

Looking to develop a fragrance for a campaign, a cause or a special occasion?
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