96 Last Call: Spirit Forward
Armed with barrels and bitters, Wynn mixologist christopher Hopkins ushers in the season of transformation with new takes on classic cocktails.
Wynn teams with Molton Brown to launch a new line of bath and body amenities that are as indulgent as they are exotic.
onka beans are not native to Las Vegas. Nor are coconuts, for that matter. But inside Wynn and Encore, you may catch yourself lingering on a subtle tropical fragrance that captures a luxurious oceanside vacation, courtesy of both ingredients—the starring players in the exotic new amenities you’ll find at Wynn and Encore. Like everything else at Wynn, getting from concept to reality took years of research and in this case, even journeys to Brazil to get the scent right. Unlike other from-scratch initiatives here, this one also required a team of “noses,” both professional and avocational. “We went out to study every luxury amenity line we could find,” says Wynn Executive Vice President and General Manager Brian Gullbrants of the process that resulted in the evocative new amenities. “They were all too fancy, too masculine, too feminine. So we decided to create our own line by aligning with a brand that really understood our clientele.” That brand: Molton Brown, toiletry supplier to the British Crown. Vanessa Prudent, parfumeur for the prestigious Argeville fragrance company in Grasse, France, was selected to work with Steve Wynn on finding the best aromatic expression of the Wynn brand. Prudent and Nigel C. Brown, Vice President of Global Marketing for Molton Brown, flew to Brazil to source the ingredients that would eventually wind up in the bottles you find in your rooms. “From mooring at charming little villages along the Amazon to visiting the stunning white beaches of Praia de Fazenda, our journey of discovery led us to these ingredients, which perfectly capture the blissful
Texperience of a stay at Wynn,” says Brown. The top note is coconut, whose milky, sweet scent is synonymous with a summer holiday feeling and a seductive sense of escape. Next comes the complex tonka bean; in Brazil it is widely believed that holding the bean in one hand while whispering a wish leads to its fulfillment. “This really sparked the idea of wishing you were on a blissful getaway,” says Brown. Mark Johnson, president of Molton Brown Global, recalls that the brand’s only other custom scent, Orange & Bergamot, was created in 1973 for the Grosvenor House Hotel on London’s fashionable Park Lane. It remains the company’s number one scent today, yet it has taken 40 years to convince Molton Brown that another hotel was up to its standard. This collaboration raises the bar on bath and body amenities, from its scent and texture to its luxurious lather and even the packaging’s understated color, shape, and typography. Gullbrants tells how in a shower without their glasses, it can be difficult for guests to tell a shampoo from a conditioner. “Mr. Wynn wanted the experience to be easy for our guests,” he says. “So we used the largest font we could fit on the package, simply a word or two telling them what the bottle contains: Body Wash, Shampoo, Conditioner.” Inside these small packages are indicators of a very special product, indeed. “Scent plays such a powerful part in our memory,” says Prudent. Her goal was to harness that power in an enticing, delicious, moving fragrance. After all, the fragrance and texture were specially crafted to remind guests of their truly luxurious travel experience.