Uncommon Luxury Perfume Lands in Town

The luxury niche perfume brand Clive Christian recently visited Lagos to launch its exclusive Absolute Collection, thanks to its ongoing partnership with Seinde Signature, a renowned luxury Nigerian niche perfume store. Vanessa Obioha captures the cosy event

Despite the usual traffic on the Lekki/Victoria Island axis, Nigeria’s luxury consumers made their way to Ikoyi, where Clive Christian, the globally renowned perfume brand, was unveiling its Absolute Collection— also known as the pinnacle of the Clive Christian brand.

As the guests trooped in, they were greeted with soft music, signature cocktails, and curated finger foods, all designed to reflect the premium ethos of the brand. At the heart of the event, held at the Centre Point Luxury Workspace, was a bottle of Absolute perfume, grandly displayed on a table. Surrounding it were other iconic Clive Christian collections, including the Anniversary, Noble, Original, and Crown series.

Originally established as Crown Perfumery in 1872, Clive Christian has built a reputation for creating some of the world’s most luxurious and expensive fragrances, including bespoke scents for the British Royal Family. It remains the only perfume brand authorized to use the Royal Crown in its branding.

This event marked the second collaboration between Clive Christian and Seinde Signature, a notable name in Nigeria’s niche perfume industry. For this partnership, Clive Christian’s Director for Europe and Africa, Tate Torongo, and his team spent a week in Nigeria taking bespoke orders.

“The Absolute collection is very rare,” explained Torongo. “It’s actually not available all of the time. You can only buy it in very few places, not more than 10 places in the world. The idea behind it is that it’s not the kind of perfume that you can walk into a store and leave with.”

The collection allows consumers to customize their orders to their specific preferences.

“You have the opportunity to make some bespoke choices to create a perfume that is just right for you. And then after you’ve made your choices, it takes our craftsmen about four months to make the product. So you make your choices today, and in four months, you get your perfume because this perfume is not currently sitting in a warehouse somewhere.”

Olaseinde Olusola, the founder of Seinde Signature, noted the exclusivity of the Absolute collection. “The collection caters to individuals. You can choose to personalize the bottle with your name, or even add diamonds, gold, or emeralds. It’s truly unique to you.”

True to its name, the Absolute Collection offers a highly personalized perfume that’s exclusive to each consumer. Its packaging alone is something perfume connoisseurs would covet. The bottle, designed by Clive Christian in 1999, features a crystal stopper modelled after the British Imperial State Crown, and the transparent crystal bottle reveals every ounce of the 100% perfume oil inside.

Nigerians, according to Torongo, are the second-highest consumers of the Clive Christian brand in the U.S., U.K. and Dubai. This observation, he said, influenced the launch of the Absolute collection.

“I see that the Nigerians really love what we do. They love our products and we love them. There’s a real good synergy between what we do and Nigerians who appreciate luxury and quality products.”

“I’m very confident that we have a consumer in Nigeria, because we’ve seen it, and we’ve seen how much they gravitate to our brand in other parts of the world and also here as well. I think that Nigerians are luxury consumers,” he added.

Torongo also praised Seinde Signature for its work in positioning niche perfumes at the forefront of Nigeria’s luxury market.

For Olaseinde Olusola, the partnership has marked one of the milestones achieved this year by the brand, whose growing reputation reinforces its dominance in the niche perfume industry in Nigeria. Some of the notable faces at the gathering included fashion designer Mai Atafo, and banking veteran Mary Akpobome.