The Herrera family photo album is more than a photo collection; it’s a captivating journey through time and space, unveiling incredible places, vibrant personalities, and cherished moments.
This album serves as the inspiration for The Herrera Confidential collection, a fragrant tribute to family memories. Carolina A. Herrera, Beauty Creative Director, crafted this collection to honour her mother’s style, life story, and achievements since the debut fashion show in 1981. This olfactory homage encapsulates the high-voltage elegance of the House’s seasonal fashion collections in a fragrance form.
In putting together this collection, she delved into the narratives and tales shared by her parents, Carolina and Reinaldo Herrera––revisiting past travels and experiences in the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and the family’s Caracas residence, Hacienda La Vega. The outcome is a passion-infused, luxurious, and ungendered collection that captures the admiration and hearts of many around the world. Now, for the first time, the secrets behind this collection are revealed.
The collection serves as a narrative of the Herrera brand’s history, unveiling the influences, individuals, and locations integral to its identity. It provides essential insights into the origins of other Herrera Confidential collections.
The Signature Collection summarises the key coordinates to Carolina Herrera’s universe: family memories, elegant and fascinating personalities, New York’s vibrant social scene, and her travels around the world and consequent discovery of the Middle East, particularly its culture and its traditional perfumery. They also serve as the starting point for the rest of the Herrera Confidential collections: The Gems Collection, which delves into the designer’s passion for jewels and other lucky charms, and Eastern Treasures, a love letter to the Middle East.
THE SIGNATURE COLLECTION
MYSTERY TOBACCO by Carolina Herrera 100ml, RM1220
Mystery Tobacco awakens the memory of Pepito Herrera, uncle of Reinaldo Herrera. An exquisitely elegant and well-travelled man who used to smoke blonde tobacco in the pipes he collected from his travels, he ignited in Carolina Herrera a desire for discovering other worlds. This fragrance evokes the scent of the tobacco plant through exotic notes like patchouli, ginger, vetiver, and tonka bean.
BURNING ROSE by Carolina Herrera 100ml, RM1220
Burning Rose draws inspiration from the floral arrangements that Carolina Herrera, an impeccable host, would create every morning during her stays at Hacienda La Vega, and which in 1973 so captivated Princess Margaret of England. In this perfume, Damask rose combined with fiery, spiced, and enigmatic notes like black pepper, ginger, cinnamon, patchouli, and myrrh.
OUD COUTURE by Carolina Herrera 100ml, RM1325
In the early 2010s, Carolina Herrera and her daughter travelled to Saudi Arabia, where Princess Haifa Bint Faisal Bin Abdul Aziz presented them with a bottle of oud oil. This ingredient, the most prized and luxurious in Eastern perfumery, took on unexpected nuances when, weeks later, Carolina A. Herrera decided to sample it again in New York. From the contrast between two worlds and the dreamy evocation of the encounter emerges this perfume, which also contains saffron and benzoin.
NIGHTFALL PATCHOULI by Carolina Herrera 100ml, RM1220
Nightfall Patchouli evokes the fabulous New York of Studio 54, the club where Carolina Herrera immersed herself in the most vibrant and creative social scene of the 1970s, and where, years later, her daughter Carolina A. Herrera fell in love with patchouli for the first time. This ingredient, popular among the bohemians of the day, captivated her with its extravagance, and in this perfume it blends into unexpected melanges thanks to bergamot, cinnamon, rose, and labdanum. It’s a fragrance that is a jewel in itself, a lucky charm at the heart of our Gems Collection.
THE GEMS COLLECTION
SANDAL RUBY by Carolina Herrera 100ml, RM1220
At the origins of Sandal Ruby lies a red dress that Carolina Herrera gave to her daughter, Carolina A. Herrera, on the occasion of her 18th birthday to match another gift from her father: a ring with a small ruby set into it. The fragrance is elegant, bold, and passionate, with a youthful touch courtesy of sandalwood, the core ingredient, and then embellished with tuberose and spices. This perfume pairs perfectly with the designs of Wes Gordon and Carolina Red from Carolina Herrera Beauty.
SAFFRON LAZULI by Carolina Herrera 100ml, RM1220
Saffron Lazuli draws inspiration from a powder compact made from lapis lazuli and diamond that Reinaldo Herrera gave to Carolina Herrera for their 50th wedding anniversary. This homage to their love story is also a tribute to the creator of the compact, the legendary aristocratic jeweller Fulco di Verdura, who from 1939 was the owner of the most exclusive and magical jewellery ateliers in Manhattan. The fragrance plays with saffron, an unexpected top note, before giving way to ingredients like iris root, rose, vanilla, and tonka bean.
EMERALD MUSK by Carolina Herrera 100ml, RM1220
In 1979, Carolina Herrera and Andy Warhol agreed on an exchange: a gold and diamond minaudière for a portrait. In this work of art, Carolina Herrera poses wearing a beautiful pair of emerald earrings that had belonged to Carolina Uslar, a legendary woman of Caracas and grandmother to Reinaldo Herrera. Years later, she posed with the same jewels for Annie Leibovitz: they are no doubt her lucky charms. Carolina A. Herrera drew inspiration from them when creating this perfume, which pays tribute to the fabulous story of her mother. Its aroma is of rose, leather, iris root, musk, vanilla, and amber, while the top notes conceal a spark of pink pepper.
IRIS EMPIRE by Carolina Herrera 100ml, RM1220
Iris Empire encapsulates in a perfume the fascination and mystery that enshroud the black diamond, one of the rarest and most unobtainable gemstones in the world. The olfactory notes include iris, spices, patchouli, leather, and incense.
AMETHYST HAZE by Carolina Herrera 100ml, RM1325
The amethyst, the stone of creativity, is the common thread in Amethyst Haze, a perfume that recalls a ritual shared by Carolina Herrera and her daughter, Carolina A. Herrera: visiting the antiquities galleries in the Met in New York. There, standing before a set of jewels from the 19th century and Roman medallions made with engraved amethysts, Carolina Herrera’s creative director of Beauty learned the value of raw materials and creativity. This fragrance, made from exceptional raw materials like cardamom, lavender, coffee, and cashmere wood, recreates the sweet warmth conveyed by amethysts.
STALLION LEATHER by Carolina Herrera 100ml, RM1220
Carolina Herrera was just a girl of 15 when she received Balaclava — a horse that she came to consider her lucky charm — as a birthday gift. A beloved gem for Mrs Herrera, Balaclava’s natural strength and beauty has inspired the new scent, Stallion Leather. With an aroma of ginger, floral, and rustic notes, the Stallion Leather fragrance evokes a feeling of nostalgia, natural elegance, a vivacious spirit, and the power of a beloved childhood memory, with a potent hint of smoky leather calling to mind the brand’s leather tanning workshops.
EASTERN TREASURES
TRUE OUD by Carolina Herrera 100ml, RM1220
True Oud encapsulates the perfumes that fill the air during the oud burning ceremony, a centuries-old ritual performed in Middle Eastern homes that revolves around this valuable and aromatic wood, one of the world’s most prized ingredients. Carolina A. Herrera, creative director of Beauty, wanted to recreate this experience as an olfactory oasis capable of helping us restore balance in our lives. The formula combines sustainably-sourced oud with floral notes like freesia and jasmine, all framed by sensual woods and resins: myrrh, sandalwood, and patchouli.
GOLD INCENSE by Carolina Herrera 100ml, RM1220
Gold Incense pays tribute to two elements that left an impression on Carolina A. Herrera during her first trips to the Middle East: the golden colour of the desert at dusk and the ritualistic presence of incense in Arabian culture. In their olfactory translation, these memories are expressed through marigold, angelica seeds, labdanum, and cedar wood, alongside a surprising incense with hints of vanilla.
PLATINUM LEATHER by Carolina Herrera 100ml, RM1325
Platinum Leather stems from a memory: in 2010, during their trip to Saudi Arabia, Carolina Herrera and her daughter were able to witness a stunning shower of shooting stars in the desert. The perfume encapsulates this moment and pays tribute to other characteristic elements of the Gulf countries: the leather used in the goods sold in the bazaars, jasmine, and spices like pink pepper and the sweetness of dates.
The Herrera Confidential collection is available exclusively at Seibu, The Exchange TRX (Ground Floor).
