June Jacobs, one of the indie pioneers of wellness in the Nineties, has come up with the unusual concept of launching a romantic evening fragrance in spas.
Called Better Love, it was conceived as “a seductive, sexy, nighttime fragrance and something that nobody else has,” said Jacobs, who is chief executive officer of the June Jacobs Spa Collection, and president of Peter Thomas Roth Clinical Skin Care, the brand upon which Jacobs originally built her company.
Along with Roth, she was one of the innovators of the Nineties indie generation. Jacobs continued to break ground in 2002 by introducing a retail spa brand under her own name. In 2003, she added a fragrance, called June Jacobs Citrus, as a daytime scent.
Better Love, which was developed by Takasago and inspired by scents reminiscent of nights on the Mediterranean, has top notes of bergamot, lemon and mandarin. The heart includes rose, jasmine petals, pink pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg. The base contains notes of cream, cedar, musk and amber.
As the second fragrance under the June Jacobs Spa Collection banner, it will be rolling out next week throughout an international network of high-end spas, such as the Greenbrier Spa in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. From the end of this month to mid-November, distribution is expected to include the Peninsula spas in Chicago and New York; Camelback Inn in Scottsdale, Ariz.; Claremont Resort and Spa, in Berkeley, Calif.; Ojai Valley in Ojai, Calif.; select Ritz-Carlton spas; Four Seasons in Mexico City; Plateau- Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong; the Bellagio in Las Vegas, and Canyon Ranch-Venetian in Las Vegas. Harvey Nichols in Hong Kong is the only store in the launch lineup.
The new fragrance will be sold in only two sizes, a 1.7-oz. eau de parfum at $90 and a 0.5-oz. travel size at $40.
Jacobs said she decided to do the fragrance without adding ancillaries because the scent is compelling enough to stand on its own, saying ancillaries could be added later. She also wanted to avoid cluttering up the issue, she said.
She declined to break out sales projections, but industry sources estimated the new fragrance could generate about 10 percent of brand sales, or roughly $3 million at wholesale. That roughly is the volume of her first scent, but that line has four products, not one, as Better Love does.
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Jacobs also is adding to June Jacobs Spa Collection, which was launched in 2002 to plug a perceived market gap with products designed to provide the esthetic qualities of a consumer brand with the efficacy of a professional treatment line. Now a peppermint collection is being added. A Peppermint Hand & Foot Polish will retail for $38 in a 3.7-oz. size. A Peppermint Foot Therapy will have the same price tag and a Peppermint Moisturizing Foot Mist will retail for $36 in a 7- oz. size. The products will also be used as treatments in a number of spas. Jacobs is also introducing two scented candles, in Citrus and Cranberry, that will retail for $40 apiece.
Jacobs entered the business by teaming up with Roth and launching the Peter Thomas Roth skin care line in 1993 that became an early leader at Sephora. Now, Roth has developed a new persona as TV pitchman. He appeared on QVC in May and August and this Tuesday, selling his new Un-Wrinkle, antiaging serum that is designed to ease wrinkles while boosting natural production of collagen and elastin. The Tuesday appearance was brief since Roth was one of a panel of experts; nevertheless, it resulted in a sellout. Roth declined to discuss numbers, but industry sources indicated that QVC sold 3,736 units Tuesday night, at $120 each, for $448,320. He is scheduled to return tonight for another two hours and the network has another 3,000 units ready to move.