How Does a Z-List Celeb Perfume Smell Like? How to Choose a Good Celeb, La Part des Anges de Mugler, $13 Smells Nicer Than $5000, L'Oréal's Trademark Battle Brought to the European Court of Justice {The 5th Sense in the News}
Simon and Yasmin Mills are having a bit of fun at the expense of the dazzling celebrity fragrance culture. From A to Z, how do you manage to develop a celeb fragrance with no star power to speak of and none of the usual corporate resources?
"There’s a brilliant bit in Woody Allen’s 1980 classic Stardust Memories, where the neurotic director nuzzles up to Charlotte Rampling. “Mmm, you smell nice,” La Rampling says seductively. “That aftershave. It just made my whole childhood come back with a sudden Proustian rush.”
“Yeah?” Allen replies. “That’s because I’m wearing Proustian Rush by Chanel. It was reduced. I got a vat of it.”
Celebrity fragrances are provoking questions and thoughts in all corners of the globe and a Canadian newspaper, The Province, reacts on the topic as well,
"Steve Mormoris, senior vice-president, global marketing for Coty Beauty, explains that it takes more than just celebrity to make a star a good perfume subject.
"We look for someone who is famous, exudes luxury, has style, is a trendsetter and is sexy," he says.
Subjects are chosen, he adds, based on "awareness [by the public of their celebrity status], their looks and their desire to help create a fragrance that will bear their name."
The most successful seller today, says Mormoris, is the "Beckham House of Fragrances, followed by Jennifer Lopez House of Fragrances."
A further quote and short article on La Part des Anges de Thierry Mugler, about which we reported earlier on,
"Une idée audacieuse a germé chez Thierry Mugler... « Nous avons osé faire vieillir Angel dans un fût et le confronter à l'air, au bois et au temps, comme nous avons osé, il y a quinze ans, transgresser les codes de la parfumerie, en lançant le premier parfum gourmand », explique Pierre Aulas, consultant olfactif pour Thierry Mugler Parfums."
Good Morning America conducted a hilarious street (blind?) perfume test once you know the result of it. Yu by Mane ($5000) turned out to be snubbed by the majority of the Hoi Polloi and a $13 perfume turned out to be the winner. We did mention recently a desirable "middle-class accord" in certain perfumes,
So "Good Morning America's" Elisabeth Leamy took the two perfumes to the street and conducted an old-fashioned sniff test.
Despite a few exceptions, most people preferred the $13 perfume — results that would shock the perfume critic!
L'Oréal has lost its appeal with a London court regarding its legal battle with Belgian copycat perfume manufacturer Bellure and the case will now be brought to the European Court of Justice,
"French cosmetics giant L'Oreal lost the latest round of its legal fight to stop a company from selling "smell-alike" copies of its perfumes on Wednesday.
Three judges at London's Court of Appeal said consumers were unlikely to confuse genuine L'Oreal products with cheaper imitations, even if they smell similar."
More information available in Fashion Mag.fr for subscribers.
Oh, darnit! No reference to the $13 scent! I suspect it's a feminine scent just because they gave it softer colors to distinguish one from the other, but that's making too bold an assumption. I'll just assume it's Shania Twain, or some Adidas scent.
Yes, it would be interesting to know what perfume was able to elicit a consensus on the street:)