From Rugby Star To Fragrance Designer - Remix Chats With Dan Carter On His Second Fragrance Launch
Whether you grew up watching him play rugby on the big screen, had posters of him on your bedroom wall, have followed his charitable endeavours or marvelled at his Louis Vuitton collaborations - Dan Carter needs no introduction. Following the successful launch of his first foray into fragrance last year with DC10 Sport, Dan Carter has continued on his journey into scents with the launch of the second fragrance, DC10 Signature.
Remix Features & Lifestyle Editor, Nina was invited to sit down with Dan at Auckland’s The Hotel Britomart, where they chatted about his latest creative venture, his beauty regime, and if a third fragrance is on the horizon.
Congratulations on your second fragrance release, DC10 Signature. How does this fragrance differ from your first, DC10 Sport?
I never thought that I would be making a personalised fragrance, but we did last year with DC10 Sport. Then to be doing my second edition is mind-blowing. The fact that we had success with DC10 Sport gave us the confidence to do DC10 Signature. DC10 Sport obviously used the sports analogy. It was more focused on motion and movement, so we wanted to be a little bit safe with the selection of fragrance. We wanted something very fresh and citrusy, and it worked really well. It was a great scent. With Signature, we wanted to be a little bit more masculine. I still think it's unisex, but a little bit more masculine, that embodies the perseverance and dedication of my rugby career. We wanted it to give the wearer confidence, so it's slightly different in terms of the scent and the notes you get from the scent. More black pepper, orange zest, and lavender, but it still smells extremely good.
People were quite surprised, like, "Actually, it smells really good". It's like they were expecting it to smell like a rugby changing room. Some deep heat or liniment. But working collaboratively with The Chemist Warehouse team, they really specialise in luxury fragrances, so they've helped me through the process to make sure I don't make a fool of myself. We also wanted to make it accessible to everyone's price point as a lot of luxury fragrances will set you back over $100. You can buy this fragrance at Chemist Warehouse for $49.99.
Walk me through the design process and what each element on the bottle represents to you.
So the bottle has 18 rings, which represent 18 years of my professional rugby career. The back of the bottle is the years that I actually played professional rugby, from 2003, my debut year, to finishing in 2020. So it's a cool-looking bottle, and being part of the design process is something I really enjoyed. Since I finished playing rugby, I've designed a few things, from things like personalised Adidas rugby boots to coffee table books to the merchandise I sell online, and of course, DC10 Sport and DC10 Signature. The creative side is something that I really enjoy.
Would you call yourself quite a creative person?
I never really was, but I'm enjoying it. I have a great team to bounce ideas off, in terms of things like having font, style, colour and design of the bottle even going into the little bits of detail. I really wanted it to come in a cardboard box with little bits of detail, like my signature that gives it a personalised feel.
Coming from a background quite far removed from designing fragrances. What have you found surprising about the process when designing a scent?
How hard it is! Because what you like is really personal to where you are in your life. So people's taste and favourite scents change over time, depending on where they are. What I like is not necessarily what other people like and going through the process of deciding what scent I wanted to choose, I wanted to have input from other people to make sure that it resonated well.
How did you land on the final scent list for this fragrance?
Something I’ve learned is everyone likes different things and different smells. I started with a big list of scents to choose from, I would rate them, and then I would get my friends and family to do the same, and realised that everyone had different favourites to mine. Then you'll mix one with another one and then you rank them, and then there is the process of elimination, you’ll finally come to two or three options. Then you repeat that process and talk with your team about what they like. You also need to tell the story behind the scent as well. So the fact that we wanted it to be a throwback to my career, and we wanted to differentiate it from the original DC10 Sport.
Are you a skincare guy? Do you have a beauty regime?
Yes, for sure. Especially when it comes to wearing SPF, as a sportsperson, it's not something you grew up knowing 20 years ago. So now I'm realising the damage that playing and being outside for so long has had on my skin. We used to hate sunblock because when you'd sweat, it would get in your eyes. But now, I’m sort of playing catch up a little bit.
I love a good moisturiser and a good organic sunblock, but that's about it really. And of course, having a good scent when you’re going out. So having a good fragrance part of your routine is important.
Do you foresee more iterations of the fragrance coming out?
I mean, if it sells as well as our initial one? Yeah, potentially! I guess you look at other athletes like David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo, who have launched their own fragrances, and they've continued to add to their range over time. I wasn't sure whether I would do a second one but I had confidence knowing there was an appetite for it, and it sold well. We actually sold out, which was incredible! We had to restock for the Christmas months last year. So we'll wait and see. I don't want to look too far ahead, I’m just living in the moment. But you know, there's a good base there to grow the brand.
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