evolu – celebrating 15 years of beauty & celebrating life

I was lucky enough to be a guest at New Zealand skincare company evolu’s birthday celebrations last week, during which they toasted an incredible 15 years in the business of natural beauty and a celebration of life with a very special charitable intitiative in the form of their first limited edition fragrance – adolescent.

Unveiled for the first time to guests at the party, adolescent represents the “shift in years for evolu, and brings evolu's cheeky side into play,” founder Kati Kasza told me. “For me, fragrance is all about feeling good – it's the last thing you put on before you head out into the day and is something that lingers with you,” she adds, “and releasing our own is the ultimate celebration of evolu coming of age.”

A fresh oriental fragrance that is incredibly easy on the nose, it has everything from sharp peppery notes to spices mixed with sensual jasmine and rose flowers, with warm undercurrents of amber, vanilla and tonka bean. Kati has been dreaming of the end result for some time now, finally and collaborating with a French perfumer to create the final beautiful product. She also handpicked the very fabulous bottle and handmade box (pictured) to complete the fragrance’s journey.

As for the special initiative, the company will donate all of the profits from the launch of adolescent to the charity Sweet Louise, who work on a daily basis helping improve the quality of life of those battling secondary breast cancer. “We'd like those who purchase adolescent to feel good not just by spritzing the fragrance on,” says Kasza, “but also by knowing that they are giving to Sweet Louise to help those who may not be feeling quite as good about the days ahead.”

The fragrance is in store June 1 at the very special price of $79.99 (usually $139) for an 100ml eau de toilette for a limited time, and I recommend you pop into your nearest evolu stockist and have a sniff. It does good and smells great – and it doesn’t get much better than that!