Russia ‘Sexual Harassment’ fragrance sale halted

The firm sold perfumes named Gypsy Blood, Courtesan Intrigues, Windsor’s Temptation

Moscow, March 23: Sexual harassment is an offence punishable all over the world. However, till the other day, a Russian perfume company was making money by selling a fragrance under the brand name ‘Sexual Harassment.’

Expectedly, as the fragrance created a revulsion and widespread backlash, it is being pulled out of the shelves.

Nikolay Eremin, who runs the small company, Nimere Parfums, has felt remorse and apologised for his mistake.

The firm, which has been

selling eccentrically named perfumes such as ‘Gypsy Blood,’ ‘Courtesan Intrigues,’ and ‘Windsor’s Temptation’ since 2015, had released ‘Sexual Harassment’ last year.

Nikolay Eremin has admitted that he made a mistake in giving the fragrance such a provocative name.

Writing on Instagram, Eremin said even though he had not intended the name to mean literal harassment, it was still wrong and ‘not thought out.’

“My mistake was that at that moment I did not think about the real victims, about the people who really faced this tragedy,” he wrote.

He said he was only thinking about his own ‘creative freedom’ and ‘ego,’ Eremin added in his mea culpa online.

“Yes, creativity should be free, but only if it doesn’t hurt anyone.”

Eremin said the backlash over the perfume’s controversial name prompted him to look into the statistics of how many women suffer from harassment and had realised “how wrong I was.”

Rather than quietly removing the perfume from sales to avoid embarrassment, Eremin said he wanted to ‘loudly’ apologise for his mistake and seek forgiveness from anyone hurt by his decision.

But for fans of the fragrance, he had good news: the smell would soon be released under a new, less inflammatory, name.