Aboard the luxury ship MSC Splendida, passengers will now experience the delicate aroma of a fragrance exclusively developed for MSC Cruises: MED by MSC. The fresh, fruity and warm scents of fig, almond and vetiver will gently infuse select areas and linens on the cruise ship, creating a welcoming and inviting ambiance and an enhanced sense of well-being and luxury.
— From the press release MSC CRUISES: CREATING THE ESSENCE OF MEMORY.
This is very cool! Dressing gowns in each cabin rinsed in fabric softener infused with fig, vetiver and almond? Home fragrance sprays and candles available in the gift shop? “Little bursts” of subtle scent here and there on the ship, but not in the restaurant to spoil the scent of my Sauternes? The Scent Police are mercifully absent.
Not to mention the fact that the scent itself sounds heavenly. I’ve never been one to argue with fig and vetiver. 😉
But what if you’d booked a 2 week cruise, and got there and detested the scent, and the darned stuff followed you around everywhere?
Signed, glass half empty
Typical. 😉
You know, seriously, R, I bet you that the stuff is barely, barely perceptible, just as the copy says. In fact, that would probably be any perfumista’s complaint: “Where’s the damn fig, almond and vetiver, you guys? Pump up the volume here!”
That is actually a more likely outcome…that it smells like something pale & generic & hardly noticeable.
Signed, managed to keep glass half empty
That’s progress. 😉
Ha!
If fig, almond & vetiver are indeed the predominate notes and it’s done ‘gently’ as they imply, then what’s not to like?
Signed,
Glass half full
I don’t know. I’m not into this sort of thing. I’d rather scent my space the way I want it scented, and not have it chosen for me…they’re doing this all over the place now, esp. in hotels, so if you like it, you’re in luck!
Choosing your own is certainly a good point!
Definitely! While this sounds like lovely fragrance, i don’t like the idea of an ambient fragrance for the masses. I like to choose my own, thank you. Reminds me of those big highrise office buildings with no windows and only one thermostat whose setting is determined by a dictator. 🙂 I know some of you probably work in such places, but I don’t think I could stand it!
Yep, I’ve worked there before!
I have to agree that having a scent thrust upon you (even a nice one) 24/7 would become a bad thing. However, the idea is not without merit. Perhaps your stateroom/hotel room could have an individual control so you could turn the fragrance on or off if you preferred. (the tiny Isaac Asimov in my brain has awakened!)
Now, see, what *I* want in my stateroom is a control panel with about 50 volume dials, so I could amp up the fig, tone down the vetiver, throw a little incense in the mix, add a big blast of carnation about halfway through… Oh, and I’d like to be able to program it so I wake up to the scent of fresh lilies and hot croissants in the morning.
Yes! Now you’ve got me interested.
you had me at Hot Croissants….
Me, too. 🙂
My glassware looks like Robin’s….
I’ve had allergy issues for years and have to be careful when trying new perfumes. The thought of having something pumped throughout a ship from which there is no escape would make me think twice before booking a cruise.
I’d rather make my own selection!
Serious allergies must be hard to deal with these days with the amount of fragrance being pumped into stores, hotels & the like.
Our family could never go in such a ship or hotel. It would be a horror trip for a few of us. The same with scented candles or perfume oil diffusers, it is impossible. I am always very carefully with new perfume, first I see that I get a sample, when this is not possible I let it spray on my arm (but very few of it). I let them smell at home (from a distance), if it is OK than it will be on my wishlist.
Many hotels are scented now…
Thank you or the tip. We mostly hire a small vacation house (special for allergics/astmathics) during our vacation. It is the same with fabric smell in cloth stores and sharp cleaners.
Well, maybe it would be OK, if the scent would be very subtile, but one “wrong” ingredient, and that would be it. It is not worth the risk. But hey, Robin, feel free to remove my comments. It is only one (my) opinion, and for a lot of people it would be great.
Many people here are saying they wouldn’t like it…no need to remove your comment at all.
I wonder if they got the idea from Costes?
You’ve got be really careful with these public scents. I remember about fifteen years ago, travelling round the western US and noticing that every ladies restroom smelled violently of the same vanilla cleaning product. I loathed it; it made me feel truly nauseous. Within a couple of years, it was here in the UK also. Loads of hotel toilets now smell of it (what IS it?). I think I must have learned to screen it our, until I got back from utterly scent-free Japan, and came off the plane at Heathrow and it was like walking into a wall of vanilla, almost an assault.
One woman’s yummy fig/vetiver is another woman’s nightmare sticky jam!
Screen it ‘out’ that is, rather than ‘our’! Oh, for an edit button.
Costes must have been one of the first to market their scent outside of the hotel, but gosh, they couldn’t have started the whole practice (? — asking, really, I don’t know)
Well, looks like the nays have it. And on a fragrance blog, yet! It’s becoming more and more difficult to keep this glass of mine half full, lemme tell ya. 😉
Hugs,
But I am Nothing if Not Determined
LOL! But I think it is exactly on a fragrance blog that you’d find people like me who don’t want such a thing — we want to choose our own.
Yeah, Rob, but you’d never get a choice as it is anyway — you’d get the same crummy harsh-smelling el cheapo industrial-strength detergent, soap, shampoo and fabric softener every other cruise line and hotel uses. This way, at least your stuff smells a little nicer, and probably is kinder on your skin and hair. 😉
Love,
The Girl Whose Bath is Half Full and Smells Like Fig, Almond and Vetiver, So There!
THAT is quite true! I just hope they got Laudamiel to come up with the fig + vetiver + almond, and that he wasn’t stingy with the vetiver 🙂
Yeah. 😉
I was going to post, “Well, what’s the difference between an official infusion of scent all over the ship and those violently scented cleaning products you smell everywhere?” and, of course, the answer is, not much. I’m with Nina, there’s already too much scent in public places as it is. Scented bathroom cleanser in hotels, scented soap in restaurant bathrooms, disinfectant in office buildings. . . it’s getting really tiresome. Sorry, another glass half empty.
I think it’s not just that it’s tiresome in general, but that it also hurts the fine fragrance market in the end. When half of the things you smell in Macy’s remind you of things you smelled in washrooms, that’s an image problem for the industry.
I really hope it’s subliminal and they did studies- but that is probably wishful thinking. “All I could think about my whole vacation was fruit and nuts, isn’t that weird? “
LOL! Perhaps people will eat more at the buffet.
They should totally have innundated the ship with the first 10 minutes of MKK.
HA — can you picture the people jumping overboard?
Hrrm. I haven’t read the piece yet, but I’m with Robin R (thank goodness for superheroes). First, it sounds nice, but more importantly, as has been mentioned, it’s probably so subtle that it’s no more (or less) offensive than generic laundry scents and cleaning products that would be in any hotel-type setting. And even with cleaning products, if you weren’t smelling a citrusy musk, you’d be smelling some far worse chemical odor.
And now I’m being a bit mean, but sometimes I think people who are “hypersensitive” (to all kinds of things) should probably just stay home where they can control ev-er-y-thing.
Maybe I’m just railing against memories of my dad, who basically forbid anything other than Ivory soap in the house.
Also, I forgot to mention that my first reaction was that “Splendida” sounds like an infection caused by artificial sweetener.
LOL — so it does!
I think if the scent is subtle, it might not be such a bad thing. After all, if the cruise holds a special significance i.e. honeymoon or something along those lines, I’d personally love a candle/room spray to bring home that reminded me of that magical and original vacation when I use it in the future. I’m apt to pick up a bottle of something when traveling to keep as a souvenir as it is, and think bringing home an item that smells like the sheets my sweetie and I lounged in while eating breakfast or the wrap I wore while looking out over the moonlit ocean would be nice. Particularly if a talented perfumer was hired to create the fragrance.
You’re right, it just might be nice if done just right.
Hey, think of it this way. Instead of fig, almond and vetiver they could have gone with pink pepper, melon and fluffy caramel marshmallow accord. We just might have dodged a significant bullet here. 😉
Ok, ok. So the glass is a leetle teeny bit full. LOL — lot of work, though, wasn’t it?
Worth every drop. 😉