'Oriflame' fragrance lingers on as market leader

by Jayampathy Jayasinghe

The teenage girls draped in colourful costumes walked the length of the catwalk to the delight of the audience. The Latin American music blended perfectly with body contortions of the contestants as they paraded. It was the "Oriflame Look of the Year" fashion contest organised by Oriflame that kept the audience glued to their seats till the end.

Oriflame's Managing Director, Per Gunnarson said out of the range of Oriflame products available worldwide, 741 products were available in Sri Lanka. Oriflame founded in 1967 in Sweden had expanded to 60 countries making it the market leader in 30 countries.

However he declined to reveal the market share of Oriflame products in the country, but said there was a tremendous growth over the past year.

He said the latest range of perfumes including Casual Cutie, Miss Punk and Lady Vintage which were designed to blend together in order to create seven scents altogether.

The multitude of costumes worn by the contestants portrayed the look of a "Punk, a casual cutie, and a lady vintage," in keeping with the rules of the competition. The three top winners were later crowned as "Casual Cutie, Miss Punk and Lady Vintage" in an exciting fashion contest.

The informal clothing worn by Casual Cutie contestants had a down-to-earth look, which was a stark contrast to what contestants for Miss Punk wore. Theirs had a more rebellious outlook. Meanwhile the Lady Vintage draped in victorian garb depicted fashionable clothes of the bygone era.

The selection was done by a panel of professional beauticians and fashion designers and the winners walked away with more than Rs. 100,000 in prizes.