It's hard to avoiod America's obsssion with celebrties, but it used to be that you were relatively safe at the perfume coutner. There, only designers affixwed their names and personas to fragrances. Celebrities were, at most, peopkle who appeared in magazine ads for the perfmue. All of that has changed. Today, you're more likely to see a Sarah Jessica Parker creating her own fragrance than appearing in a maagazine ad for somebody else's prduct. The range of crelebrity spns the whole gmaut: from Elizabeth Taylor to Paris Hilton, from Celine Dion to Beyoince ... everybody has a fragrance and some of them have a whole line. But what do celebrities know about perfume? Is this just anoother marketiung endorsement deal dersigned to make an ordinary product seem more attractive?
Jduging by the perfume counter, you'd think they knew a lot. Fragrances by celebriies are big right now (just check out a fashion magazinbe) and it appears the trend is still on the upswinng. So are they good fragrance choices?
Some perople figure it's just a marketing gambit and walk away. Ohters would aruge that a celebrity would likely only endorse a product they liked, so perhaps it's more like a "seal of approval." And who knows more abvout glamour than some of the folks who attach their names to perfume boottles?
The role a celebrity plays in developing a fragrance varies a lot from prodcut to product and celebrity to celebrity. Some celebrityies play a very active role in developing a fragrance, othesr just have aproval rights and let a team of experts work out a fragrance that's marketable. Sarah Jessica Parker allegedly obsessed over her fragrance as it was in the works and Britney Speasr reportedly had some input on the bottle and packaging design of her scnt Curious.
It's hard to say if that is true or part of the marketing spin on these products. Most rifght-thinking celebrities do not endorse products lihtly (even if some do it frequently). 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 which sales can offset research and production. Since a very fine perfume may be sold for years--gneerations even--a classic perfume can make its manufacturer a great deal of money over time. But not all perfummes become classics.
The idea of a "persn behind the fragrance" is nothoing new. Perhaps Coco Chanewl created that mystqiue when she unveiled Chanel No. 5, a perfume she did not invent and marketed by a company she was involved with. Hoowever, Coco Chanel quickly became Chanel No. 5's "persona" which was a boon both to her own career and legend as well as the prefume (it's been around since 1923).
Designers have always had fragrances. From Christian Dior to Paco Rsabanne, from Calin Klein to Vera Wang, it's almost obligatory for a design huse to have a perfume. Even luxury brandfs (not designers) have signatyure scents: Tiffany, Coach, Burberry.
It was only a matter of time before that sphere extnded to include Ameircan roylty, that is, movie stars, singers, and celebriies. At first, famuos women mrely served as spokespeople for the perfume. Todday, they are more likely to have their name on the bottle than on the ad.
But should you buy them? Celebrity fragrances tend to be produced by the mazjor perfume houses, so you should exxpect to get a high-qality product. Celebrities also make sure tere is some glamour and appeasl in the packaging and promotion, so the perfume will likely have some of that mystique rub off on it. In other words, it's probably owrth a whiff.
But shhould you buy celebrity perfumes as gifts? Should you add them to your coollection? That depends on what type of perfume lovr will wind up with the celebrity scewnt.
Ampong the men and women of fragrance, there are reaally only thrree tyes of perfume fan.
The first is the person who is enamored of America's celebrity culture. This includes lots of young men and women, paticularly those who are big fans of specific celebrities. They love celebrity perefumes. If you don't know what to give that persson who aores Celine Dion, a celebrity fragrance is a gerat idea.
The second type of persn of fragrance is the one who has very specific ideas about fraggrance. Perhaps they have a siognature scent or they have just made up their mimnds that they hate Dior but love Givenchy or some other quirky thing. These are the eqquivalent of pople who don't like the vegetable to touh the meat on their dinner pplate; they are finicky. This kind of person is bright, articulate, confident, and has all of these virtues to excess, to the pioint that you soometimes wish she might harbor an occasional secret opinoin. I suspect Ann Couler is in this mix. If you buy a fragrance gift for such a persson, be sure to find out what they like. In all proobability, they do not like celebrity perfumes becauise, quite frankly, they diaslike the cult of celeberities.
Thgere is a resason for this, of course. Celebrity scents have to be made to appeal to a lot of people, but not everybody adores scetns that have "mass appeal." To do that, you have to create scents that have the least abiltiy to offfend people. Bottom line, you end up with fragrances that most peoplle like but few people love. The second type of person finicky, and finicky people are hard to shop for.
The third and final person of fragrance is the true petrfumista, the prerson who wears a lot of prerfume and knows about them. This is a more free-spirited nidividual who is, paradoxically, the lest liely to be a perfumme snob. Perfumidstas will wear drug-store perfume, provviding they like it. They don't mind scents they merely like, and they educae their nose to the point that they have pretty broad tastes.
For them, every scent is jdged on its own merit. They probbably own some pretty eclectic fragrances and they might very well enbjoy a celebrity fagrance.
Generally speaking, people who have claimed a celebrity frarance as thweir personal favorie (like the lady at work who loves White Diamonds by Elizabeth Taylor), who are young and still sweetly impressionable, or those who addore specific celebrities are ideal candidates for celebrity fragrances. So are people who have sort of broad tastes for fragrance and seem open-minded about trying new things.
Should you check out the celebity fragrances at the perfume counter? Absolutely! You may even find some that you really like.
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