• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, May 6, 2013

Estée Lauder says it is about to unleash its biggest fragrance marketing effort in more than a decade, with Modern Muse hitting stores this September. “It is our first big fragrance launch in 10 years, since 2003 with Beyond Paradise,” a spokesperson tells Marketing Daily in an email. “We will have a TV and print campaign, and the product will be sold at all Estée Lauder counters.”

The new-product introduction is the latest sign of health in the prestige fragrance business, which NPD Group says grew 5% last year, with U.S. sales reaching $2.9 billion.

Modern Muse is scheduled to go on sale in September in the U.S., and will be introduced with a campaign shot in New York City’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. It stars model Arizona Muse, announced as part of the Lauder lineup earlier this year. The company describes the fragrance’s positioning as an appeal to a woman who is “an independent spirit, a force of creative energy, and a true inspiration to others.” 

Calling it a fragrance of “dual impressions,” the scent includes florals such as jasmine and honeysuckle, as well as woody notes such as vanilla, amber wood and musk. The company tries to carry that duality into packaging, with blueish pinks and navy blue, as well as a bottle that’s both “strong and tall but soft and rounded.”

And while the company describes it as “ultra modern,” it also has some throwback elements: It says a key element of the bottle design is a bow, a nod to Youth Dew, Lauder’s first women’s fragrance, launched back in 1953.

The ad campaign was created by Lloyd & Co., and the TV spot directed by Craig McDean, who also photographed the print effort.

Last week, Estée Lauder reported an overall 2% gain in its fiscal third-quarter sales, rising to $2.29 billion. Sales of its fragrances, which include the Jo Malone and Aramis line, rose 1% to $233.2 million.