Conspiracy line – Wealth by Perfume Sucks

Andreas Wilhelm, the founder of Perfume Sucks, fetched Pratchett’s “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, took the number that answers to “the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything“, cut it in half to get 21, and then embedded it in formulae of his new perfumes, as a measure of the golden cut.

Complicated? It always is, if we hitch-hike through the maze of our global reality, without asking the right questions, quite satisfied with the served answers.

The result of creative questioning is a three-part Conspiracy collection of 3 perfumes: Flash, Fuel and Wealth.

Flash? Yes, the drugs suck, a big time.
Fuel? We all know how much it sucks.
Wealth? Ummm… yep, I can agree that the money actually sucks, too.
Except, these questions are the answers, and still – what is the ultimate question?

Wealth

I particularly liked Wealth: on a first sniff, it doesn’t suck at all, quite the opposite: it seems gentle and fitting for almost anyone’s perfume wardrobe. But, there’s also a cutting dryness of a stunning money paper accord that prays beneath the tender and soft violet opening... Wow!

Andreas Wilhelm debunked the scent of money in all of its attractive cosiness, and in all of its unnatural, man-made dryness.

The last time I encountered a typologically similar concept, that was based on socially provocative and engaging correspondence between the olfactive creation and the narrative, and that, as a result of two contrasting layers within the perfume, gradually builded strong emotional impact, and that relied on the well-known, (pop) cultural reference, ELDO was at the peak of its full creativity.

I wasn’t even aware of how much I’ve been missing that!

There is more: the labels of Flash, Fuel and Wealth (de)materialize a truly iridescent message: when I brought their labels under the direct light, the central eye disappeared.

You may interpret that as a clear indication of conspiracy, or as the common denominator of the drugs, fuel and wealth. But, the disappearing eye made me wonder if, outside of Pratchett’s fiction and the discourse of the conspiracy theory, the ultimate question also disappeared from our sight, or if we just haven’t figured it out yet.