According to Latin historian Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus, Boudicca, the queen of the Iceni people who led East-Anglian tribes in a revolt against Roman invaders, had a terrifying appearance. She was tall, had a fierce look in her eyes and usually wore a multi-coloured tunic and a thick mantle. Her favourite accessories were a large golden necklace, a brooch and a spear and, apparently, she also used a blue paint to look more ferocious during battles. Boudicca killed herself by swallowing hemlock when she realised the Romans had won. The Iceni queen’s fierceness, cobalt blue paint and hemlock are just three of the main elements behind design duo Boudicca’s first fragrance line that features the Eau de Toilette Wode and a Wode scented blue paint.
Named after the isatis tinctoria or woad plant, a source of blue dye, the perfume was created by perfumer Geza Schoen of Escentric Molecules together with fragrance consultant Susan Aurora Irvine and with oils from the famous manufacturers International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF). The perfume contains black hemlock extract, raw opium, tuberose absolute, tonka bean, tree moss, synthetic castoreum and cistus ladanum. What made perfume lovers and fashionistas absolutely go crazy about this new product is that, thanks to a thermo-reactive invisible ink, when Wode Paint is sprayed, it leaves a vibrant blue dye on skin and clothes. The effect is temporary and the colour disappears after a short while.
Wode, dubbed by Boudicca’s Zowie Broach and Brian Kirkby as an “Art Fragrance”, is packaged in a spray paint can and is accompanied by an ambitious advertising campaign. Boudicca’s fans had a preview of the perfume at Colette during Paris Fashion Week, while the fragrance will be more widely distributed from October all over the world.
But, Broach and Kirkby warn, Wode is not just a fragrance: soon it will turn into an indispensable item for Boudicca’s fans as the duo is going to create a collection of garments with details that can only be revealed by spraying them with Wode Paint. Modern life is a constant war, what better than facing it with that ferocious and mythical look that Boudicca had while advancing in battle?
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