The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Impalpable by Michael Cinco launched in 2012 as part of BENCH/PH's Designer Scent Collection. The collaboration paired the Filipino lifestyle label with the famous designer known for his couture work, a partnership that brought two distinct sensibilities into a single bottle. The face of the campaign was Allison Harvard, recognizable from America's Next Top Model. The fragrance itself carries a specific intention in its name. Impalpable. Almost too light to land. The juice had to prove otherwise, and it still circulates more than a decade after launch. That longevity says something about how the composition landed with buyers. The opening is sharp and immediate: mandarin sweetening into bergamot's bitter peel, with blackcurrant adding a dark fruit counterpoint beneath.
Galbanum in the base gives the composition a resinous green backbone you do not usually find beneath a mandarin-bergamot opening. Green tea in the heart stays clean rather than leaning aquatic, maintaining a dry, leaf-like quality that reads as herbal more than as moisture. The result is a structure that smells fresh without smelling like a shower gel. That tension between accessible top notes and a more unusual base defines the composition. The mandarin and bergamot offer immediate recognizability, the kind of citrus most buyers know and trust.
The evolution
The opening belongs to bergamot and mandarin, and they are not shy. The mandarin carries a sweetness that the bergamot's bitter peel cuts back. This is not a whisper of citrus. It announces. Blackcurrant arrives underneath, adding a dark fruit note that deepens the brightness. Green tea appears as the composition shifts, and the scent cools. The air around the fragrance feels different now, calmer, less sharp. As the wear progresses, galbanum takes over the base, and the green tea heart starts to smell like crushed stems rather than brewed leaves. The musk settles in close to the skin, carrying the woody notes with it. What lasts is a clean musk-woody trace, the kind that surfaces when you move your wrist. The galbanum maintains its presence through the later hours, still faintly bitter when the scent has otherwise quieted.
Cultural impact
Impalpable holds a recognizable place within Filipino fragrance retail. The BENCH/PH Designer Scent Collection positioned the release as a collaboration with a couturier, and the Allison Harvard campaign connected the scent to America's Next Top Model, a show with broad visibility across multiple markets including the Philippines. The fragrance itself, a green-fresh composition built around mandarin, bergamot, green tea, galbanum, and musk, offered local buyers a fresh scent with structural complexity that moved beyond simpler citrus-and-muscle formulas.
The House
BENCH/PHBENCH/ is the fragrance division of the Philippine lifestyle and fashion brand founded by Ben Chan in 1987. Operating under parent company Suyen Corporation, the brand has become a familiar presence in Filipino fragrance culture, producing accessible scents sold alongside its clothing lines. Its portfolio spans celebrity tie-ins (Daniel Padilla, Michael Cinco), hashtag-branded colognes (#Swag, #Chill, #Dope), and culturally rooted collaborations, making it one of the most widely recognized local fragrance labels in the Philippines.
The Creator
Michael CincoCinco approaches fragrance the way he approaches a couture sketch: with a clear silhouette in mind before the first ingredient is selected. His debut, Impalpable, announced a preference for compositions that appear weightless yet project with authority, a paradox he returns to…
