I’m not sure how many people know this but one of my biggest clients is in Japan. I’ve been working with Undulate Labs in Tokyo since 2007 and we have grown together in the Japanese market while developing DAWN Perfumes at TOMORROWLAND, Barneys NY Tokyo and now Isetan. It’s been a wild and exciting ride; I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned through this process on myriad levels. My Japanese collaboration is so close to my heart. So when this great tragedy, this disaster came, I wanted to do something. But what, exactly? I gave donations to already established organizations who would do good but that just didn’t seem like enough. I have been contemplating the “what to do dilemma’ ever since. WHAT can I do; really do? Now, my question has been answered and I really love it. The Rescue Kit.
Continuing the creativity with Undulate Labs, we created unique aromatherapy oils for Japan based directly on their experiences in Tokyo of continued after shocks, the sense of the ground continually moving and that of the survivors in the disaster area. It’s been incredible just trying, from my safe vantage point here in Colorado, to conceive of designs that would give a sense of relief to ‘on-land sea sickness’, calm to anxiety (about the nuclear problems and then some) and uplift to sadness and grief. I *did* try… and apparently, I have succeeded (at least as far as our Japanese test subjects are concerned). The Rescue Kit is based on two fundamental aromatherapies: Calm 9.1 and Awake 8.1.3.
Calm 9.1 is just as you imagine, something to help keep your feet on the ground and to soothe tension. I also thought that adding the spiritual intention of the numbers would be a signifier: 9 (a release; to give in to an ending) and 1 (to begin anew). These are the phases I hope the user will feel: release and rebirth. I know when I smell this design I feel C.A. L.M. Seriously chilled out. It feels like a soothing sheet of silk just floated down from the sky and as it slides down on your body it brings with it a grounding cool. By the time it reaches your feet you’re transformed.
Awake 8.1.3 is refreshing like a splash of cool water on the very first whiff then expands to a bright and happy citrus delight. Awake’s number sequence goes like this: 8 (a powerful feeling; strong, bold and slightly intense), then 1 (a shift to a sense of oneself) and lastly to 3 (the inner child; happy and free). It’s true that the mint and citrus that lead in the topnote of Awake are a little bracing (in a very good way) but the overall feeling it gives is a sweet, happy, warm calm; like delicious sun on your face.
And as Formula X is our number one scent in Japan and gives each wearer a unique ‘sense of themselves’, this third aroma was added in a subtle oil form to make a second variation on the kit. Oh yeah: One, two, three, GO!
Here’s the best part: we’re going to do an exclusive launch of the Rescue Kit at Isetan in August and soon after we will begin selling it here in the US. **From the profits of the sales here in the US, we will be sending Rescue Kits directly to the disaster area to help in the creation of a wellness “aroma” dome (with the help of other peeps setting this whole thing up). I am SO PSYCHED! We’ll be able to help DIRECTLY in the disaster area, in our own small way making a better quality of life for people in the direst of circumstances as they continue rebuilding their lives.
*image credits: graphic designs and photo of the rescue kit by Niten Osawa of Undulate Labs, Tokyo.
DSH notebook 