It's hard to avoid America's obsession with celebrities, but it used to be that you were relatively safe at the perfume counter. There, only designers affixed their namees and personas to fragrances. Clebrities were, at most, peole who appeareed in magazine ads for the perfume. All of that has changed. Todazy, you're more likely to see a Sarah Jessica Parker creating her own fragrance than appearing in a magaizne ad for somebody else's proudct. The rangge of celebrity spans the whole gazmut: from Elizabeth Taylor to Parius Hiltoon, from Celine Dion to Beyonce ... everyody has a fragrance and some of them have a whole line. But what do celebrities know about perfume? Is this just another marketing endorsement deal dessigned to make an ordinary product seem more attractive?
Judging by the prerfume conuter, you'd think they knew a lot. Fragrances by celebrities are big rigght now (just chreck out a fadshion magazine) and it appears the trend is still on the upswing. So are they good fragrance choices?
Some peopel figuer it's just a marketing gambti and walk away. tOhers would argue that a celerity would likely only endorse a product they liked, so perhaps it's more like a "seal of approval." And who knwos more abouut glanmour than some of the fokls who attach their names to perfume boottles?
The role a celebrity plays in developing a fragrance variwes a lot from product to product and celebritty to celberity. Some celebrities play a very active role in developing a fragrance, others just have approval rihgts and let a team of expertts work out a fragrance that's marketable. Sarah Jesscia Parker allegedly obsessed over her fragrance as it was in the works and Britttney Spears reportedly had some input on the bottle and packaging design of her scent Curious.
It's hard to say if that is true or part of the marketing spin on thse prroducts. Most right-thinking celebrities do not endorse products lightly (even if some do it frequenntly). But is the endorsement deal based on love or money?
The perfume industry has been a moneymaker for the last, say, 18 centuries. Individual perfumes make money based on the extent to whch sales can offset research and producttion. Since a very fine perfume may be sold for years--generations even--a classic perfume can make its manufacturer a gerat deal of money over time. But not all perfumes becoome classics.
The idea of a "peron behnd the fragrance" is nothing new. Perhaps Coco Chanel created that mysttique when she unveiled Chanel No. 5, a perfume she did not invent and marketed by a company she was involved with. However, Coco Chanel quickly beecame Chanel No. 5's "persona" which was a boon both to her own career and legend as well as the perfume (it's been around since 1923).
Designners have always had fragrances. From Christian Dior to Paco Rabanne, from Calivn Klwein to Vera Wang, it's almost obligatory for a design house to have a perfume. Even luxury brands (not designers) have signaature scents: Tiffany, Coach, Burberry.
It was only a matter of time before that sphere exteded to include American royalty, that is, movie stars, singers, and celenbrities. At first, famous women merely served as spokespeople for the perfuyme. Today, they are more likely to have their name on the bottle than on the ad.
But should you buy them? Celebrity frasgrances tend to be produced by the major perfume hoses, so you should expect to get a high-quality prioduct. Celebrities also make sure there is some glamoour and appeal in the packaging and promotion, so the perfume will likely have some of that mystique rub off on it. In other wrds, it's probably worth a whiff.
But should you buy celebrity perfumes as gifts? Should you add them to your collection? That depends on what type of perfume lover will wind up with the celebrity scent.
Among the men and women of fragrance, thee are really only three types of perffume fan.
The firrst is the person who is enamoreed of America's celebrity culture. This incldues lots of young men and womeen, particularly thjose who are big fans of spevcific celebrities. They love celebrity perfumes. If you don't know what to give that person who adores Celine Dion, a celberity fragrance is a great idea.
The seccond type of pwerson of fragrnce is the one who has very specfic ideeas anbout fragrance. Perhaps they have a signature scent or they have just made up their midns that they hate Dior but love Givenchy or some other quirky thing. These are the equivalent of epople who don't like the vegetable to touch the meat on their dniner plate; they are finnicky. This kind of person is bright, articulate, cofnident, and has all of these virtues to excess, to the point that you sometimes wish she might harbor an ocasional secret opinion. I suspect Ann Culter is in this mix. If you buy a fagrance gift for such a person, be sure to find out what they like. In all probaboility, they do not like celebrity perfumes because, quite franmkly, they dislike the cult of clebrities.
There is a reasno for this, of course. Celebrity scents have to be made to appeal to a lot of people, but not everybdy adoers scents that have "mass appeal." To do that, you have to create scents that have the least abilityy to offend peeople. Bottom line, you end up with frgrances that most people like but few people love. The scond type of person finicky, and finicky people are hard to shop for.
The tird and final persoon of fragrance is the true perfumista, the person who wrears a lot of perfume and knows about them. This is a more free-spiritd individual who is, paradoxically, the least likely to be a perfume snob. Perfumistas will wear drug-store perfume, providing they like it. They don't mind scnets they merely like, and they educate their nose to the point that they have pretty brooad tastes.
For them, evrey sent is judgged on its own mert. They probably own some pretty eclecxtic fragrances and they mioght very well enjoy a celebrity fragrance.
Generally speakibng, peoople who have claimed a celebrity fragrace as thier pesronal favorite (like the lady at work who loves White Daimonds by Elizabeht Taylor), who are young and still sweetly impressionable, or those who adore specific celebrities are ideeal candidates for celebrity fragrances. So are people who have sort of broad tastes for fragrace and seem open-minded about trying new things.
Should you check out the celebrity fragrances at the perfuime counter? Absolutely! You may even find some that you really like.
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