Project Touch 2020

Why „Touch“

“We wanted to reach out to niche perfume brands and lovers, and in this fun way help a brand to launch a new perfume in 2020 in spite of everything – minus one part of the usual financial costs. „Touch“  – as interaction, exchange, closeness as opposed to social distance…Touch as touche, as a perfume blotter. Touch…as a perfume touching your skin, as the 5th element necessary for any perfume to flourish, to touch our souls!“

“We joined forces: unrestrained creative spirit + thoughtfulness + authenticity+ hyperactivity, and Project Touch was born!”

Touch Project 2020 – Elena Cvjetković and Miguel Matos for Kajal Perfumes

“Touch! Of corse… what else? Could it be more logical, more natural?”

At first, when the name of the project touched me, I instinctively nodded. And when I found out what it is about – I jumped! In a time of Covid19 isolation and a series of imposed restrictions, just to preserve the essentials – life and health, touch has become an unsecured luxury at almost all levels of our lives. The live social touches, the business touches, sudden and unplanned encounters that enrich us spiritually and brighten our day, the touches that shape our social beings, touches which result in creative ideas and business opportunities have become so sparse that I sometimes feel like a thriving plant without the sun — surviving, but not entirely. For months now, I’ve been watching perfume people’s activities decrease, and I’m almost convinced that business caution has a smell, it penetrates through the screens I use to – get in touch. This smell touches me. It smells almost as if it comes from the skin of blocked, passivized personalities, and that smell is everything but perfume.

Of course I jumped! It touched me differently!

Two professionals whose profiles complement each other harmoniously and multi-dimensionally, also the people I appreciate, have decided to turn the game around!

During this April, around the time Exsence was cancelled along with presentations of numerous perfume novelties, in the dense atmosphere of increasing uncertainties and common worries about our future businesses, the two perfume soulies did not surrender – on the contrary! Through their screens, in a communication that – knowing one of them personally and the other virtually – must have been wiggly, bursting with witts, hyperactive, but also clear, deeply grounded in reality and analytical, the essence was born: Touch, and then the project took a shape.

Perfumer Miguel Matos and Elena Cvjetković, creative director and a marketing professional, joined forces and decided to offer their specific knowledge and know-how gained through years of their professional practice in order to enable the selected brand production of a new perfume – free of charge!

A public call was made last week and a total of 10 niche houses and brands applied for the selection. The Matos-Cvjetković tandem chose Kajal. We now know everyone involved, including C de la Niche, a laboratory that provides full support to the Touch Project at all stages of perfume production. You can read a more detailed description of the project on The Plum Girl, Elena’s blog, here.

These days we are all aware that special circumstances require us to find special solutions, and we witness that they are not always a win-win. The first thing that makes Project Touch special is that this is truly a win-win for everyone involved: professionals and active members of the perfume community invest their knowledge and time in creating a product – not for themselves, but for someone else. In these challenging times, the perfume house gets financial relief, and perfume lovers – in the end – a new perfume.

Project Touch seems to me even more important and special because of the crystal-clear message it managed to shape:

We all touch. We all depend on each other.

The key word was emphasized by the creators of the project themselves, and I will move it to the next line – it should be enveloped in a clear, white frame:

Thoughtfulness

Compared to many bloggers/perfumers or bloggers/brands cooperations, this one is completely different. But, it was also created by really special spirits: Miguel Matos grew out of the perfume community and remained deeply rooted in it, and Elena Cvjetković – although primarily perceived as an award-winning perfume writer and blog author – has led a successful marketing career for more than 20 years. Now, for the first time, she has put her least-known and strongest trump card into the game – for perfume people.

It is important to highlight that the authenticity of both project creators stems from the breadth of perspective. The capability of viewing the same thing from multiple angles is an invaluable asset. In this project, the possibility of thinking from the perspective of perfume manufacturers, but also from the perspective of perfume lovers and engaged members of the perfume community is further enriched with valuable personal sensibilities. Then, it is masterfully reduced to one keyword, and I will repeat it again: thoughtfulness.

In struggling times, before Elena and Miguel teamed up and became creatively hyperactive together, these established professionals analyzed and thought about others – the perfume people – and decided to offer their best skills and knowledge and their professional time – for free.

Yes, Project Touch 2020 is special.

In the end, there is an overview of everyone involved in Project Touch 2020. I will continue to follow the project carefully and with a high dose of affection:

Project Touch 2020

KAJAL, brand

MIGUEL MATOS, perfumer

ELENA CVJETKOVIĆ, creative director

Over the next few months, we have the opportunity to be touched, too: following the development of the project and the process of creating a new perfume creation is a real treat for passionate perfume lovers! And once we smell the creation itself – the first in Project Touch – in the heart of the fragrance we will smell something special:

The scent of giving one’s best. The scent of thoughtfulness.

The scent of touch.