So we all know Calvin Klein's CK One, yes? It launched in 1994, and I am sure I am not the only woman who smelled it, thought it smelled sort of like men's cologne, and found to my surprise that I liked wearing something that smelled sort of like men's cologne.1 (Men especially, do comment and tell us what it smelled like to you!) When I reviewed it back in 2006, I duly thanked Calvin Klein for helping me to figure out, eventually, that I could not only wear unisex fragrances, but I could wear whatever I wanted — hello, Eau Sauvage.
CK One took the youth market by storm. Not to downplay the achievement, but of course that was infinitely easier in 1994 — it was not so hard to capture consumer attention when there were only around 100 new fragrances a year, and when most media consumption was from a limited number of traditional platforms.2 Calvin Klein followed up with CK Be in 1996, and then a bazillionty flankers.
Fast forward to 2007, when there were about 800 new fragrances launched, and social media usage was rising, and we get the CKIN2U (NOT unisex) duo, which as near as I can tell utterly failed to take the youth market by storm. Instead, the brand's efforts to interact with their target market via social media engendered a fair amount of ridicule and negative press coverage.
So, 2016. We're back to unisex (oops, sorry, still NOT unisex, but "gender-free") with CK2, "an extension of [Calvin Klein's] overall brand strategy to reach a younger consumer base through modern, authentic storytelling".3 As near as I can tell it has not engendered any ridicule, or indeed much press coverage of any kind outside of the usual beauty publications. The CK2 hashtag, #the2ofUs, does not appear to be trending anywhere. Now that we're at 1400+ fragrances a year, and even old people are using social media and getting their news from a variety of traditional and non-traditional outlets, it's not so easy to get noticed.4 Then again, the official launch is not until next month. Maybe the media frenzy is still to come?
The idea behind the juice is reportedly that it "balances two opposing forces: the strike of spicy electric freshness and the warmth of magnetic woods."5 I won't argue with the description, but I will say that it probably gives you an overly optimistic impression of CK2's impact. There's a nice tingle of citrus and wasabi in the opening (the notes include wasabi, mandarin, violet leaf, wet cobblestones, orris, rose, vetiver, incense and sandalwood) but once that fades CK2 is a very quiet fragrance, with minimal sillage, and while you'll make out the other notes if you try (especially the violet leaf and "wet cobblestones"), it's mostly a blur unless you actually press your nose right up to your skin, in which case you'll also find a subdued rose-y floral — way too subdued to tip the scales towards feminine — and a smidgen of powder. It's sort of watery and sort of airy and sort of clean, but it's quiet about those things too.
Verdict: My expectations were not high, so CK2 mostly surprised me by not being dismal. It's perfectly wearable and even pleasant, at least, what there is of it. CK One in its original formula had some decent sillage — you really could smell it on the street. CK2 is entirely office-friendly, and indeed if it makes any statement at all it would seem to be that young, gender-free people should not make too much of a statement with their fragrance. I would not mind if young people everywhere were wearing it — most likely I'd hardly notice. I myself usually forgot I was wearing it; when I remembered to pay attention, I found it just fine. More than once it struck me that it would be a perfect spa fragrance: casual and relaxing, clean but not too clean, pleasant without calling attention to itself. I have no idea how it will sell, but any spas out there still using green tea fragrances might consider updating to CK2.
Calvin Klein CK2 was developed by perfumer Pascal Gaurin. It is available in 30 ($44), 50 ($59) and 100 ($75) ml, and in a card-shaped 20 ml pocket spray ($20) or 10 ml rollerball ($18).
1. I never bought a bottle, but I found the little metal canister samples easy to come by, and in a foreshadowing of future events I simply used them until they ran out, and then got more.
2. I don't know the exact number, but if my notes from the various sources that quote Michael Edwards' counts are correct, there were 101 new fragrance launches in 1992, and then even by the year 2000 we were only at 389.
3. Quote via Women's Wear Daily, 10/26/2015.
4. As of today, the CK2 commercial has been available on YouTube since late November, and it has been viewed 41,221 times and inspired 20 comments. In comparison, the Johnny Depp / Dior Sauvage extravaganza has been viewed 23,600,644 times and has 621 comments. (Even Justin Bieber wearing Calvin Klein underwear has over 10 million views.)
5. Quote via Macy's.
…”an extension of [Calvin Klein’s] overall brand strategy to reach a younger consumer base through modern, authentic storytelling”. Imagine if someone actually spoke those words out loud. Calvin Klein marketing flunkies, probably well-paid, just shut up.
Ha! But in all fairness they’re saying it to Women’s Wear Daily, which is where people do in fact say such things in print. I’m sure they’re not saying it for public (consumer) consumption.
CK has been very careless with how they’ve chosen to update the line. How can something rebel against the gender binary (which has been called out in numerous copy by their team), but be called 2? And that’s just the beginning. And don’t ever think of losing the cap…
Clearly they are rebelling against some part of the gender binary, but not at all against the idea of pairs — the whole commercial is about pairs / couples. So just a new kind of traditional, maybe 🙂
I found it extremely strange that modern gender freedom was best expressed by girls flashing their boobs to strangers on a freeway bridge, and then running away to hide. But I’m old.
Exactly. Heteronormative fantasies and heteronormative coupling. Supposedly queer aesthetics repackaged and “sanitized” (a hem, gender free) for a heteronormative audience. A warm, bright, and arguably smart idea (ck one) has been made colder, wetter, and now sexless. Is that supposed to be progress?
Well, gosh, I do not go looking for progress, gender or otherwise, from the fragrance industry. They just want to sell perfume.
Now I’m really going to sound like a ‘revolutionist’ but this seems to suggest that capitalism is bound to impede social progress…
And no, i will not redistribute my perfumes!
You could certainly make a larger argument that capitalism impedes social progress, but I don’t know that I’d make that argument based on product commercials. The state of social progress, I hope, is sometimes reflected in, but not dependent upon, product commercials.
Yes, I’v seen some really disturbing old ads that are just horrifyingly sexist in a way no one could get away with today! I do think that the relationship is slightly more complex though in that ads reflect but also re-inscribe various conventions. So they reflect what we admire, as a society but also go some way in shaping our views as to what is admirable. I’d agree that there isn’t any strict causality at work – luckily!
Well I hope so. If I see a rash of young women flashing their boobs on the freeway, I will blame Calvin Klein.
With same sex marriage now a reality, and a plethora of queer representation circulating throughout all avenues of mainstream media (good and bad), isn’t it time to stop making excuses for the fragrance industry when it comes to problematic representations of sex and gender. It’s safe to say that the larger cultural conversation has shifted exponentially since 1994 when ck one was released. Of course, there are lots of other factors at play when analyzing a brand such as Calvin Klein (i.e. the move of the license, diminished involvement from Calvin Klein, tired narratives of desire…), but I hone in on the gen/sex issue specifically because they are asking me to in all of their marketing and ad copy (it is the core selling point). And in honing in on it, there’s just too much wrong with the underlying message to not comment. Niche fragrance gets it (too many examples to list here). Even functional fragrance is making an effort (Tide anyone). A big missed opportunity IMHO.
Who made excuses? I just said I did not go looking for progress from the fragrance industry, I didn’t say that was as it should be. IMHO, there is a great deal wrong with the underlying message of nearly every fragrance ad I see, and I’d include an awful lot of niche pr copy in that category, even if they don’t tend to do video ads.
Robin, please don’t say you are “old”. We can all try to look our best but even those who get plastic surgery still get older. There is only one alternative to getting older which will eventually happen to all of us, including the young girls flashing their boobs (who will not be “girls” forever either). In the interim, we will smell great! Most of we perfume lovers are seldom influenced by T.V. or magazine ads. The ads are only about making money and trying to get younger women interested in perfume.
Certainly one is never too old to flash ones boobs on the freeway! 😀
And if I can blame ads for doing so – all the better :p
Ha, don’t worry, I don’t really think I am old although it’s a huge surprise every time I see myself in the mirror 🙂
But mostly what I meant is that these ads (very like the original CK One ads) are SUPPOSED to leave the older generation either offended or shocked or shaking their heads and saying “those darned kids”. It would hardly be a successful ad given what they’re trying to do if it didn’t. I still think they “got it wrong” but my point was that I wouldn’t necessarily know if they “got it right” — I’m not their intended audience.
“…and indeed if it makes any statement at all it would seem to be that young, gender-free people should not make too much of a statement with their fragrance.”
Soooo stinkin’ safe. There’s money on the line, people! We must stay safe!
I am definitely planning to sample this one (sounds like it shouldn’t be too difficult to locate, lol). I like a safe frag for work for particular situations. There are times when I want to create a buffer between my feelings and others, and sometimes having that layer be a completely neutral boundary helps me keep it separated (cue The Offspring earworm!). Having a fragrance I love (Natori, No 5 edt, Ivoire, etc) in between me and a stressful work environment sometimes allows the stress or tight feelings to gets caught in my scent associations and the scent experience acts as more of an absorbant layer than protective shield.
Thanks for the review, Robin! 🙂
On the one hand, it is indeed a very safe fragrance, on the other, I don’t really know if that’s the same as a “safe marketing choice” in the sense we usually mean it? CKIn2U definitely went with what was trending at the time, but not sure this one really does, if anything, I don’t think “gender free” or “unisex” or whatever you want to call it has ever really caught on in the mainstream stores. You sure don’t see a lot of them at Macy’s even all these post-CK-One years later.
What you said, Robin. I remember Khloe and Lamar had a show and they were making their unisex fragrance on an episode. They perfume company told them how risky it was because there has only been one successful unisex fragrance, which was CK1. There’s still a stigma about wearing a fragrance your girlfriend or boyfriend can wear.
And others have tried (Jean Paul Gaultier to name just one example).
By the time CK One launched, I had been shopping both sides of the aisle for about a decade, so I didn’t worry myself about unisex versus gendered scents.
I liked CK One well enough when it was launched (I read it as a radioactively bright, scrubbed-clean floral that definitely veered masculine) but like you, I had so many of those little aluminum milk cans that I never needed to buy an actual bottle. And then CK Be came out, and I liked that well enough too, and there were so many more of those little aluminum canisters, this time in matte black….
I *must* have tried CK Be but I have no memory of it. Those aluminum cans were genius, though — can’t think of any other sample packaging that has stuck in my mind in the same way, and for so long.
And adding — agree with “radioactively bright” — CK2 is SO much milder.
The only thing that comes close for me is the Catalyst for Men samples: the bottles were modelled after laboratory glassware, and the samples were in tiny little stoppered test tubes. I mean, really they were just sample vials with rounded bottoms, but still, that’s how you commit to a theme.
Ah, never saw those!
I think I might fare better in this hobby if there were only 100 a year! 1400+ a year means that 99.876% of them will go completely past me, without even a sniff…..
At least with just 100, you could claim trying a bigger percentage and feel like you’re really in the know! 🙂
I was ok with 400-500 a year. There was enough new stuff to talk about (and sustain a blog, LOL) but not so much that you felt you couldn’t keep track. When we hit 800, that seemed too much, and since we’ve gotten over 1000, well, whatever. I used to rail about it more than I do now. I just figure a big percentage of it is going to pass me by, and I don’t even pretend that I announce everything anymore (not even interested in trying — half of these brands are going to disappear anyway), and I don’t assume I’ve tried everything worth trying.
Anyone think the pendulum will swing back to 1,000 or less?
I thought the global financial crisis might do it, but apparently it will take far more than that. So maybe the constellation of events that would take us back to less than 1,000 is not a constellation of events we actually want to live through.
I would rather it be only a couple of hundred a year and even if that was all, I doubt I if I would be familiar with all of them. That’s why I am especially drawn to the “best” of lists. It narrows them down. I have bought many perfumes because the list of notes appeals to me, or I admire the work of the perfumeur, etc. , but sometimes I buy a perfume on a gut feeling or whim, and most of those times I am delighted with the fragrance. I was astounded that I owned several of the perfumes on the “best of” lists this year and I owned them from the get-go not because of them being on any lists. However, long live the “best of” lists!
One a day would be something to look forward to without being overwhelmed, maybe? But doesn’t matter, we’re going to get way more. And don’t forget, Michael Edwards’ counts don’t include everything! There’s all sorts of indie stuff he doesn’t include. So the “real” figure is even higher.
Doesn’t sound much like my kind of thing, but then neither was cK1. Just wanted to say thanks for the sentence “CK2 mostly surprised me by not being dismal.”
Glad to oblige 🙂
It sounds like its worth trying – like as good as a meh perfume can get 😀 The notes look interesting, but as always it’s the execution that makes or breaks.
What is dispiriting is how necessary it is for companies to use celebrity marketing in order to get noticed at all.
I don’t know that that’s true — look at Marc Jacobs Daisy, or La Petite Robe Noire, or anything by Tom Ford. There are lots of examples.
Celebrities help, to be sure, but you can sell tons of perfume without them if you play your cards right, and more than one celebrity-fronted perfume has failed dismally.
(Which is all my way of saying that in this particular instance, I’m not at all sure that Calvin Klein has played their cards right.)
Guess we could compile a rather long list of solid meh scents 🙂
Yawn on this one, but man, did I love CK1 back in the day. It was all over our junior high and most demographics were able to justify waring it. I even liked CKB, though recall it being a bit more floral and feminine in feel than the original.
Honestly, I haven’t liked a CK frag since the original Euphoria, and doubt this one would move me much, either. But if it finds an audience, good on them and I hope it does well.
I thought Reveal was decent (and the best they’ve done in a long time) but yeah, as a whole, CK is not generally a favorite brand.
Downtown was just such a disappointment. Edgy Rooney Mara and every association we have with ‘downtown ‘ – hip clubs, wind through the buildings, kisses in alleys – and it was such a miss.
I liked Truth and mourned its loss. I like Beauty but it just seems wrong for me.
My modest contribution to the CKOne memory bank: When that fragrance was being introduced, I went to the movies at the multiplex near my apartment and the ticket taker gave me a sample vial of CKOne in return for half my ticket. I sniffed it and it did not register as either masculine or feminine — it smelled entirely like gin and tonic, which I don’t think of as having a gender and which I quite enjoy, whether in a glass or in a bottle. 🙂 I had no desire to smell like it, though.
They were even giving them out at the movies! No wonder I had no trouble getting my hands on them. You don’t usually see that sort of widespread sampling these days.
But makes me think of a plot line for exposing a random sampling of society to a powerful gene altering drug that turns its victims into superheroes or giant bugs…
Okay. I shouldn’t be reading fragrance reviews after my second glass of wine!
Thanks for the review Robin.
LOL!! Or the rest of us should drink more wine 🙂
hi Robin (or anyone reading this in general). i stumbled upon your website today because i was trying to dig through the internet for this perfume my friend mentioned to me today. however, she has no clue the perfume brand, much less the name of the perfume. the only thing she can (barely) recollect is this ad she saw a while ago on youtube. i tried searching through your new perfume list, but jeez that is such a long list 🙁 and i wasn’t 100% sure if it would still be up there since you stated older perfumes are removed (it came out around summer of 2015 apparently). so i was wondering if you (or anyone) can help me because its truly irritating me. according to her, the ad featured two french men in a cafe talking about this american girl and the slogan had something to do with “its better in america” (don’t quote me on it because its most likely not exact). i don’t know much about perfume so i was wondering if you maybe would know a little bit more and guide me on my trek as I’ve been looking so thoroughly on the internet with absolutely no results (3 other friends have been too with no luck as well). thanks in advance!
Hello Shea, so sorry but that rings absolutely no bells for me at all, in fact, if I’d seen it I’m pretty sure I’d remember it. Have to say it sounds like a very unlikely fragrance ad, and while I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, there are tons of “fragrance ads” on YouTube that are for products that don’t exist, and they’re not always clearly marked as such (they often turn out to be things like projects for college communications classes). But who knows, there could be such an ad, and I wish you luck finding it!
Sorry – didn’t see your response!
Don’t be sorry, you actually came up with a possibility!
My only thought is Prada’s Candy. They released two flankers last year and some of the ads involve two men and a pretty girl. However, I very much doubt there would be any references to America…
Oh, good call — the Wes Anderson ads for Prada Candy. Worth a shot.
I haven’t smelled CK2 but will look to try it for no reason other than the discussion it generated here. I hope someone at Calvin Klein notices, perhaps some lucky intern. I will say I am happy to see they are marketing CK2 in 30 ml and smaller sizes. The 20 ml pocket spray looks like something buyers would find interesting simply because of the novel package.
I wish more fragrance companies would catch on to the smaller is better idea. Just today I was daydreaming about Hermes fragrances in 30 ml sizes.
As a child I used to swipe dabs of my father’s Old Spice because it reminded me of my grandmother’s carnation scented body lotion from Avon which I often filched from her dressing table. Heh. I was crossing age and gender boundaries and didn’t have the moral sense to worry about my thievery. 🙂
Calvin Klein makes nearly their whole masculine line in that pocket spray now. The women tend to get rollerballs, but I do think smaller sizes are catching on everywhere in mainstream (mostly in rollerballs), less so in niche. But you do know Hermes makes nearly their whole line in 15 ml, yes?
I’m glad the smaller bottles are catching on. It makes sense. Hopefully more to come!
I absolutely love the 15 ml bottles, and would love 30 ml bottles even more, especially if Hermes would sell them solo rather than as a set.
I am so fond of the 15 ml I hate to wish for anything else…would be very sorry if they ever gave up the 15 ml!
And oops…was testing the comment subscriptions and used the wrong name…the above comment was from me!
I’m intrigued by this but sad to hear it has poor sillage. I never was part of CK1 but I liked CKbe. I am looking for something fresh for every day. In any case, Macy’s has a promo now that if you buy $75+ of CK2, you get a free mobile splitter. It looks like a little silver charm. I have NFI what it does.