MILAN — After scoring big locally last year with the launch of a fragrance licensed by two of Italy’s favorite soccer stars, young Italian beauty company Medicea is back.
Its newest scent, a women’s fragrance called Billionaire The Dream, is inspired by Billionaire, a nightclub on the island of Sardinia owned by Flavio Briatore, who is one of this country’s famous billionaires. He’s also managing director of auto manufacturer Renault’s Formula One racing team.
Medicea, a three-year-old division of supermarket distributor Conter, unveiled Billionaire The Dream during the women’s collections in Milan in February. The disco-inspired scent will be rolled out to 1,200 points of sale in Italy this spring and will be shown to international buyers at Cosmoprof, which begins on Friday.
Billionaire The Dream is Medicea’s second scent. In March 2004, the firm introduced a women’s fragrance called Sweet Years — which is also the name of a clothing brand owned by soccer stars Paolo Maldini and Christian Vieri, who play for two division-one teams in Milan: AC Milan and Inter Milan, respectively. The Sweet Years scent, aimed at young women, was launched in 1,200 doors last year and has been distributed in six countries, including Russia and Japan.
Filling out its portfolio, Medicea has a one-year-old bath and body line, called Voglia di…(“Want of…” in English), and makeup lines for women and men that were launched in 2003 under the moniker Daniele Renica Noè, who is an Italian makeup artist.
According to Massimo Bedin, commercial director of Medicea, Billionaire The Dream is another step toward becoming one of Italy’s up-and-coming, selective beauty and fragrance companies.
“We are searching for new licenses — and ones that have a story behind them — that fit in with the youth drive of our company,” said Bedin. “They have to be innovative [but] they don’t have to be Italian.”
The idea for Billionaire The Dream was born out of the spirit and liveliness of the Billionaire nightclub, according to Bedin.
“It captures the club’s emotion, its carefree, fun nightlife,” Bedin said. “The club is one of the most exclusive in the world. We didn’t want to embody it in a luxury fragrance that typified the 90 euros [or $116.60 at current exchange rates] entry fee and the 300 euros [or $388.70] you would pay for dinner there,” Bedin added. “Instead, we wanted to show what it was like to be on the dance floor.”
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With that concept in mind, Medicea approached Briatore, and the fragrance license was signed last year. Billionaire The Dream is aimed at young women; the company plans to launch a second scent, a men’s counterpart, next year.
Created by International Flavors & Fragrances, Billionaire The Dream’s floral-fruity scent features olfactory accords of iris, freesia, cedar wood and musk. The pink-hued scent is bottled in a clear glass flacon, which was designed by Italian bottle stylist Luigi Bormioli. Italian advertising firm Artea shot the print advertising campaign.
The eau de toilette will be available in two sizes, a 30-ml. bottle for 22 euros, or $28.50, and a 50-ml. version for 28 euros, or $36.30. A 200-ml. body lotion, for 16 euros, or $20.70, and a 200-ml. bath cream, for 11 euros, or $14.25, will round out the fragrance collection. Industry sources predict the scent could garner as much as 3 million euros, or $3.9 million, in-first year wholesale sales.
Medicea, which is busy preparing to launch its next Sweet Years scent in October — a fragrance for young men called Drogare del’Amore (“Love Potion”) — expects to have 6 million euros, or $7.8 million, in revenues this year.