Downy Launches the All-New Perfume Series

When Monday holidays were chosen by a few to snuggle on their lazy covers, I was dashing off to the Manila Peninsula doing my makeup, removing my pincurls, and jumping on to my shoes while wearing a tiny black dress inside a Nissan March as the car zoomed past the quasi-empty streets of Metro Manila. A hotel event would be to start my day, an event I made sure to RSVP via SMS and email as soon as I got it.

At the middle of the frenzy of me packing my metal makeup kit and equipment and fixing my hair, my phone rings. It's Arpee, telling me that he's already at the venue (ahead of me, darn) and what seat are we in. That and the rest of the guys were there already. I told him I'll be there in a few minutes. "Naglaba pa ko e!"

As soon as I got there, I asked the staff of the Manila Peninsula where the Rigodon Ballroom was. It was quite easy to spot since all I had to do was follow the scent of flowers, fruits, and clean laundry. That day was the unveiling of Downy's all-new Perfume Series in an event they called "Scents To Remember".

After registry, I grabbed a glass of wine and then looked for the guys. I was able to spot Arpee a few tables near the stage. He was already there with Jane, Kell, Jonel, and Carl. After I sat down, We were offered red iced tea. I then noticed that there were tags at the base of the glasses, which described the ingredients infused in the drink. Much of the menu descriptions could be found here. A scent museum was also displayed where the guests were able to see some of the ingredients in Downy's Perfume Series.

The program started with a dance number with an instrumental version of Lady Gaga's Alejandro.

The event was hosted by Christine Jacob-Sandejas. She was joined later by P&G's Hector Esquinca and Shingo Ishii, who developed the scents in Downy's Perfume Series. She asked the ladies in the audience what scents they were wearing. The first one she asked was me. I was wearing D&G Light Blue at that time, and Shingo broke down the scents for me and the audience. D&G Light Blue is a light and citrusy scent that smells clean and fresh instead of overpowering. It's usually worn more of as a day fragrance and it's described as having notes of Sicilian citron, bluebell, Granny Smith apple, jasmine sambac, bamboo, and white rose before it fades to the bottom note of cedarwood, amber, and musk. Shingo describes it as something you would wear if you're happy or want to feel happy. No wonder it sorta put me in the mood to be all giggly and upbeat, and that's not the rose wine. :P Maybe the Alejandro song.

After that, they described to us what Downy Perfume series was. Hector Esquinca created the fragrance of Passion.


I had the chance to take a whiff of Passion days before the event when we were asked to take the scent challenge, which I blogged before. Passion had a fruity floral scent, a scent which reminds me of home. Passion's scent is sweet and vibrant. It takes its inspiration from things yummy - fruits, French pastries, and flowers. Apple blossom, pear, raspberries, and vanilla are some of the ingredients so the smell is sort of sweet and comforting.

Here's Shingo Ishii describing the scent he created, Attraction, which takes its inspiration from the gardens of Grasse, France. Coincidentally, this is also the perfume capital of the world. Attraction is more floral with different flower notes like jasmine, ylang-ylang, rose, and iris. It fades off to an Oriental woody scent as its bottom notes. It was also said that Attraction takes its inspiration from a very beautiful and elegant French actress.

Sniffing the two variants, the scents are a bit more elegant than the original clean Downy we're used to. Prior to this event, I was able to use Downy Attraction in my laundry and the smell is quite floral instead of fruity. Floral not in a dead way, of course. Anyway, I did notice though that aside from the fabric being softer than being washed with just laundry soap, the scent lingered on even after being inside the closet for quite a while, while my other clothes lost the clean fresh laundry scent, even though they were still clean, hence that's why I often spray my clothes with linen spray. This is due to the Perfume Microcapsume Technology, which gives the clothes a long-lasting fragrance. In fact, these capsules slowly release more fragrance upon contact so we get fresh bursts of fragrance all day. This I proved when I accidentally dropped a bit of Downy Attraction on my slacks one time and the scent did last almost the entire day.

I guess my towels and makeup bags would be smelling nicer the next time I get to dump them in the laundry. And guess what? You could also use Downy when washing wigs and deodorizing new brushes as soon as I purchased them. I washed some of my wigs with Downy and they smell really nice. Another thing I also used with them that after I washed some of my shawls, instead of throwing away the water I used to soak the clothes in use it to wash garage floors or rinse off dirty flipflops.

The choice of fabric conditioner scent would be up to you. Arpee and Noreen prefer Downy Attraction's floriental scent. Here at home, the comforting fruity sweet scents of Downy Passion was the scent our laundry had the following day. Me personally, it really depends on my mood. At first, I like Attraction when I'm feeling all elegant and pretty. Passion would be if I want to snuggle under the covers on a lazy rainy morning or just be laid back.

A Little Nose Exercise and Special Surprise from Downy

I don't know if it's just me but I'm the type of girl who likes to get high on fabric softener. If you're rolling your eyes or raising eyebrows at the thought of me getting high over a grocery item, probably you could relate when you get your laundry and sink your face on the clean sheets and sniffing the scent. I'm one of those individuals too. When I lived in California a few years back, my favorite chore was doing the laundry. Everytime it's laundry day, I get all excited. I didn't mind the slight handwashing before I dunk everything in the washer. My favorite part was getting them babies out of the dryer and folding the towels and linen and I'd sniff through those sheets.

Whenever I'm in the grocery, I'd sniff through the bottles of fabric conditioner. I admit the household has had its favorite scents and brands. Among them though, Downy has been a household staple already since they were washing my baby clothes up to my short shorts now (:P) We'd have a stock of these iconic blue bottles with the pink cap and I'd have an occasional boo-boo of staining white towels with the blue liquid. Downy has evolved from the original scent to other variants. Imported ones have an aromatherapy line and we even have our local varieties.

Okay, so you guys might find it funny for me to be talking about laundry stuff when this is a makeup blog. Actually, here's a little thing: I wash my makeup bags, towels, and (fabric) brush rolls myself. My work stuff is actually a separate load from the house linens so as not to involve a mixup.

And speaking of laundry, I was doing the laundry this afternoon when this pretty little basket came for me:
I guess it's with Downy's promotion of the Perfume series with two new scents: Passion and Attraction, which smells almost as if you're wearing luxury perfume when it's actually just fabric softener.

Anyway, the pretty basket is actually a challenge for us bloggers. The first challenge asked us to take a sniff between the two towels provided in the pack. One of them has been sprinkled with perfume and the other one was washed with new Passion from Downy. As soon as I pried the basket off the protective plastic wrap, I got too excited I almost mismatched the two plastic wraps from the two protective towels. Good thing the scent sorta lingered through the plastic. Whew!Here are the two test subjects - towel #1 and towel #2. Both smelled absolutely fantastic and I was sniffing through them a good deal (getting high 8-}) hahaha. As I'm typing this, towel #1 is right by my nose because I couldn't stop sniffing. Addict...

It was quite hard to test as both smelled really good. After weighing my choices and deciding, I decided to go with these guesses:

Towel #1 as the one being washed with Downy Attraction
Towel #2 was the one sprinkled with perfume.

Anyway, question #2 also checked out knowledge on the perfume notes and how sensitive our noses were. It was given that Passion (i.e. the red variety) has jasmine, ylang-ylang, and soft musk. They made us guess the fourth ingredient between the three choices: a) cinnamon b) rose and c) lavander. I'm guessing rose here. (Crossing fingers hoping on getting them right). It was quite tricky for me though, since I was bordering on rose and lavander but I thought rose. Anyway, I do hope I get it right (*fingers crossed*)

The pretty basket also came with an invitation for me to an event at the unveiling of Passion and Attraction. :) This looks pretty exciting too!