THE RABANNE NAME has always signified victory. The legendary fashion designer-turned-olfactory entrepreneur made a name for himself in the ’60s by incorporating atypical materials and avant-garde elements in his styling, disrupting the industry. Rabanne knew what it took to break up the status quo. His distinctive techniques paved the way for decades of innovation and aromatic brilliance. But most importantly, he knew what made a winner.
Rabanne understood that to become a champion, you need to push beyond limits—including personal limits and those imposed upon you by others. Since Rabanne’s early days of disruption, the brand that bears his name has cemented his legacy and extended his philosophy. In no case is that more evident than with Rabanne’s latest fragrance: Invictus Victory Elixir.
Invictus Victory Elixir is designed to push victory to its zenith, with a powerful, long-lasting aroma. The scent combines spicy woods and biting freshness in an intense reimagining of a classic Rabanne fragrance that epitomises invincibility. We would expect nothing less, because after all, Invictus is Latin for invincible.
The same qualities of victory and invincibility propagated by Rabanne’s new fragrance are currently on full display at the Australian Open, where, to attain immortality as a Grand Slam winner, competitors must overcome extreme adversity, even when their bodies—and weary onlookers—tell them to stop.
To achieve victory at the Australian Open is to become invincible. To emerge as a winner, players must endure a gruelling two-week stint where post-midnight finishes and five-set matches become the norm. By overcoming these challenges and besting seven consecutive opponents, Australian Open winners write their names in the history books, personifying the essence of victory and Invictus Victory Elixir.
In creating Invictus Victory Elixir, Anne Flipo, one of three master perfumers responsible for the fragrance, strived to preserve the heritage of the original Invictus scent, while honing the elements that made it successful into a refined, concentrated and intense experience. “Its strong DNA is still present in Elixir while offering a new, irresistible darker facet,” Flipo said. The result is a fragrance that blends notes of amber, wood and spice into a single, high-impact scent.
The creation of Invictus Victory Elixir was a global effort, as elements of the scent have been sourced from around the world. We begin with notes of lavender from the French region of Provence, accompanied by black pepper and green cardamom. Then, our olfactory senses are taken across both boundaries of the Indian Ocean, where woody tones of Indonesian patchouli combine with incense harvested by hand in Somaliland.
For the coup de grâce, the concentrated nectar of a tonka bean meshes with Madagascan vanilla. “For this new opus, I worked the tonka bean like a liqueur in order to concentrate its most noble aspects”, said Domitille Michalon-Bertier, another of the fragrance’s master perfumers.
That all makes for quite the list of ingredients, but be assured, all the natural ingredients of Invictus Victory Elixir are responsibly sourced to ensure environmental sustainability. In sum, the fragrance is 100% vegan and 90% natural.
It is fitting that—attuned to the spirit of victory and the intensity on display the Australian Open—the Invictus Victory Elixir is enclosed within a grand trophy serving as a bottle. A golden V for Victory is engraved on the bottle’s surface, a testament to the scent’s standing as an incarnation of winning. Crowning the trophy is a glossy black cap which is flanked by a pair of gilded Invictus wings.
This weekend, a lone winner will emerge victorious from the men’s singles final at the Australian Open. Whether it’s a seasoned veteran who knows how it feels to capture the taste of victory at a Grand Slam like Novak Djokovic or Daniil Medvedev, or a rising force eager to stake their own claim on invincibility like Jannik Sinner or Alex Zverev, remains to be seen. But all of these men embody what it means to be a winner. Each possesses unrivalled determination, grit and resolve, and it doesn’t get more Invictus than that.
Related:
How does Carlos Alcaraz compare at 20 to tennis’ all-time greats
