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Celebrity perfumes

post #1 of 33
11/5/06 at 4:08pm
Thread Starter 
Okay, let me get this off my chest, here. What is up with celebrity fragrances? I mean, I KNOW that Paris Hilton, and Sarah Jessica Parker, and Hilary Duff etc. etc. etc. are NOT perfumers, or "noses," or whatever.
It seems so fake to me.
Not to be negative, but what are others' thoughts on this?
Come to think of it, what about Vera Wang, or other designers?
Does it just boil down to money and hiring good noses and slapping your name on the label?
Am I in a cynical mood or what?

PS: I honestly don't mean to offend anyone who loves celebrity fragrances. I am such a novice IMO, just asking the question...
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post #2 of 33
11/5/06 at 5:00pm
I usually disagree with celeb scents except...well, I'm a Gwennabe, I rock my L.A.M.B bag and wear my Holla Back Girl shirt There I've admitted it. I can't wait for Ms. Stefani's stink-juice to hit the market
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post #3 of 33
11/5/06 at 10:22pm
In a nutshell: celeb frags is the only scent group I boycott.

And I don't care much for the use of celebs as "faces" for fragrances, either.
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post #4 of 33
11/5/06 at 11:35pm
To be frank: I tried and tried again. I just did't want to be prejudiced. And now I stop even trying them, certainly after that sample of Paris Hilton 'Just me'. I can safely say I will run from the SA's for Britney Spears, Naomi Campbell and so on. I don't want to smell like these women, I don't like the greedy hype that is created. I want beautiful scents, made with love and dedication (and Guerlain: you better listen as well!!)
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post #5 of 33
11/6/06 at 3:23am
I have never ever smelt a celeb fragrance that was anything but a clone of every other fragrance on the market.

As for the designers I once read it was for people who could not afford to buy the clothes, it was a cheap way of them feeling they belong to the brand.

The only designer who fragrances I really like is Donna Karan but not her DKNY range at all. Chanel I do not include as they had a master Ernest Beaux create their classics. NO Allure and Chance are not classics in any shape or form.
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post #6 of 33
11/6/06 at 3:31am
Lovely is one of my favorite fragrances on my girlfriend. Truely amazing. I can't see how you can put that one down my friends! *sob*
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post #7 of 33
11/6/06 at 4:07am
The topic has been discussed many times, just pasting links would take up a lot of space. Please, locate Search button (between New Posts and Quick Links), type in "celebrity" and search in Forums.
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post #8 of 33
11/6/06 at 4:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by donna255

As for the designers I once read it was for people who could not afford to buy the clothes, it was a cheap way of them feeling they belong to the brand.

Also true of handbags.
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post #9 of 33
11/6/06 at 9:49am
I think Lovely really is lovely, but in general, celebrity scents make me cough, hack, gag sometimes.... I think even if a good "nose" designs it, it goes through so many focus groups, so many bureaucratic cubicles, so many "marketing meetings" or whatever...that by the time it comes out the factory, it's, to quote someone I can't remember, just elevator music.
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post #10 of 33
11/6/06 at 10:14am
I agree with shifts and Elf here; I absolutely love Lovely! In fact I have a 50ml edp bottle that's half full, and just last Friday I picked up another 100ml edp bottle. I know I'll go through it so why not?! I love the stuff.

In fact I guess I just don't care enough about who markets the fragrance after all, or how it's advertised. I know that Chanel has hired Kate Moss on a few occasions to be the model in the advertising campaigns for their fragrances... they've also hired Nicole Kidman; both celebrities but again it does not bother me. Guerlain hired Hilary Swank for their last launch with Insolence... so what does that actually mean?

Yes, we've got JLo, Hilary Duff, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton... and countless others... but what does it really matter...
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post #11 of 33
11/6/06 at 11:14am
I have tried so few celebrity scents. I get out to sniff so rarely that I don't usually like to waste the opportunity on them. But now I'm thinking I might make a day of testing and sniffing nothing but celebrity scents. Make it a theme day, just to see if there's anything there that I really do like.
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post #12 of 33
11/6/06 at 11:38am
I have absolutely no problem with celebrity fragrances. It is just another form of endorsement, really, and not some Machiavellian scheme to conquer and dilute the fragrance market with industrial swill.

Because most of these scents are geared towards a younger demographic, they simply don't work well on or for me. I had a bottle of Lovely, but there was a harshness to it that turned me off (same trouble with NR). I did think this was well done and didn't pander to trendiness or youth culture.

Celebrity fragrances really are the fast food of the perfume world. I always get the feeling that it is hoped they have some longevity (Glo, for instance), but if they don't there is always that next menu item in the planning stages. It's sort of analogous to the initial premise of American Idol: A year and then on to the next.
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post #13 of 33
11/6/06 at 12:50pm
I think you really hit on it Paisley with celebrity fragrances being like the fast food industry. They don't smell bad at all, but I haven't found anything special enough to buy. There are only 365 days in a year and so many others that I do want. Also, I wonder if they really wear them themselves or is it just advertisement?
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post #14 of 33
11/6/06 at 1:23pm
Well I can't say that I am any expert on many celebrity fragrances. The only two that I have tried on me originally and did not find offensive are Naomi Campbell's EdT and Sarah Jessica Parker's Lovely. Although recently I tried NC again and was totally put off by it on me. I did see SJP on Oprah's show and I remember that she said that she had wanted to create a fragrance for more than twenty years. Maybe that is why Lovely was so well accepted by a wide range of women. She actually put some real thought, effort and participation into its' creation. It also won a fragrance award, did it not? I am looking forward to trying her non-alcohol roll-on version of Lovely as well.

For the most part I tend to think of celebrity fragrances as products marketed to be sold to teens and the twenty-something consumers. Am I wrong?
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post #15 of 33
11/6/06 at 1:31pm
I wonder why they don't make celebrity frags for men? Just think of it!! Bruce Willis for Men, where are you!? Can you even image how many Eau de Brad Pitts women would buy for their boyfriends? Eau d'Pitt!!! Oh I'm getting excited now!

I guess Antonio Banderas has a scent. But he doesn't count. I mean, of course he has one. Look at him!
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post #16 of 33
11/6/06 at 1:49pm
I almost never try them. Some years ago I purchased Glow by J.Lo - I didn't want to like it .. but I did ... I have used the hole bottle!

I had some years I didn't wear my old classics at all, no spicy or musky . It had to be clean, fresh and pink. Glow and Champs-Elysées was the only thing I could wear. Actually I wasn't well at this time.
I'm back with my old classics now
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post #17 of 33
11/6/06 at 1:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by LiveJazz

I wonder why they don't make celebrity frags for men? Just think of it!! Bruce Willis for Men, where are you!? Can you even image how many Eau de Brad Pitts women would buy for their boyfriends? Eau d'Pitt!!! Oh I'm getting excited now!

I guess Antonio Banderas has a scent. But he doesn't count. I mean, of course he has one. Look at him!

Hm - What about David Beckham ...
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post #18 of 33
11/6/06 at 2:23pm
Eau de Pitt! Oh please, let that happen! That's hilarious. Imagine someone admitting that they were wearing Eau de Pitt. I love it. Maybe Angelina could have one called Eau de Lips (or maybe Ode to Lips).
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post #19 of 33
11/6/06 at 3:48pm
My perception of a celebrity and their image affects the chances of me even trying the fragrance never mind buying it! For me celeb scents fall into three categories:
1. Those associated with stars/celebrities/nonentities whose persona I can't stand and therefore are scents I won't go near. There are lots of these. There may even be some frags that I'd really like if they were not linked to the celeb but I'll never know because I have made a judgement which has nothing to do with the smell of the fragrance.
2. Those who have a link to a star/celeb but this is pretty much incidental to me as I have a neutral or slightly positive opinion of the persona. Here the celeb connection might play a part in my noticing the fragrance in the first place but that's all. Isabella Rossellini's fragrances would fall into this category.
3. Those linked to my personal icons. Scents that 'shallow' little me would try in a heartbeat and really want to like........but, alas! (feigns dismay), there are none of these because my favourites have no inclination to either create a fragrance or a fragrance 'brand' - major hurdle!

And the exception to this categorisation is........Lovely. This was given to me as a present and I was initially predisposed to not liking it because of the celeb connection, (was never a fan of Sex And The City), but have to admit I really do like this scent. It has a beautiful enough character of its own to be Lovely to me and not 'the Sarah Jessica Parker perfume'.
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post #20 of 33
11/6/06 at 3:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by LiveJazz

I wonder why they don't make celebrity frags for men? Just think of it!! Bruce Willis for Men, where are you!? Can you even image how many Eau de Brad Pitts women would buy for their boyfriends? Eau d'Pitt!!! Oh I'm getting excited now!

I guess Antonio Banderas has a scent. But he doesn't count. I mean, of course he has one. Look at him!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Guerlain-lover

Hm - What about David Beckham ...

There's Sean John or Sean Combs or whatever it is.
Alan Cumming's Cumming
Carlos Santana has a fragrance
Mikhail Baryshnekov (sp?) had one years ago.
Donald Trump

They're out there but the women's celeb frags seem to inundate.
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post #21 of 33
11/6/06 at 4:06pm
You ladies are probally older and don't like celebrity fragrances becuase there marketed for the younger crowd.

You don't see Paris Hilton advertisments in "Home Cooking" or "Olides" there in Seventeen and TeenPeople.

Most teens don't know designer fragrances such as Creed and other niche houses. They just know the ones at Macys, which carry all celebrity fragrances.


So that's why. I don't enjoy the older Chanel's and stuff, they smell old to me too. So your nose just outgrew those girly/candy scents.
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post #22 of 33
11/6/06 at 4:07pm
This is a funny thread. I have laughed myself silly, Thanks!
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post #23 of 33
11/6/06 at 4:13pm
Well, I don't really like any of the "celebrity" scents I've tried, but to each their own. BUT I do find it very hypocritical of a celebrity who has stated publicly that she is allergic to perfume to try to "create" and sell one (Beyonce).
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post #24 of 33
11/6/06 at 4:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rileyzack

Well, I don't really like any of the "celebrity" scents I've tried, but to each their own. BUT I do find it very hypocritical of a celebrity who has stated publicly that she is allergic to perfume to try to "create" and sell one (Beyonce).

I think they just take whatever deals their business managers make for them. It's all part of the career trajectory now, I suppose, the fragrance deal. Use to be part ownership in a restaurant or club.
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post #25 of 33
11/6/06 at 4:22pm
I've almost forgot what I have in my Wardrobe - Only by Julio Iglesias ... Just tried it once, not bad actually. It's a Only for men to
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post #26 of 33
11/6/06 at 4:43pm
I hate to be cranky here, but... people are seduced by names. So what? That's what names do. They seduce. Some people will buy a Guerlain or L'Artisan fragrance that they probably wouldn't buy if it were in a clear plastic bottle with no brand association. It's part of a class thing, people anxious to use money and image to climb a few bars up the ladder of social status. Those hideous Louis Vuitton bags that were everywhere a few years ago are proof that a name will let you get away with ANYTHING. Sure, they got pirated and leaked into the mainstream, but there would be no demand for them if they didn't already have an (entirely spurious) association with "fabulous" living. So, celebrity names do the same thing that names like "Caron" and "Serge Lutens" do... they give people a (hopefully positive) association to cling onto when they process the fragrance. And our resulting impressions of fragrances are more shaped by those associations than we're willing to admit.

Anyway, perfume isn't made by houses OR celebrities... it's made by noses. Dominique Ropion has created perfumes for Caron, Frederic Malle, and... J.Lo. Sophia Grojsman, who created Bulgari pour Femme, Yvresse, and Paris, got her start creating fragrances for laundry detergent. And she once said that she was actively proud of certain detergents, because women who didn't have money to spare on perfume could wash their clothes in it and smell great.

Anyway... "a cheap way to belong to the brand"? Who in her right mind wants to belong to a brand? I'm a human being, not a franchise outlet.
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post #27 of 33
11/6/06 at 7:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rileyzack

Well, I don't really like any of the "celebrity" scents I've tried, but to each their own. BUT I do find it very hypocritical of a celebrity who has stated publicly that she is allergic to perfume to try to "create" and sell one (Beyonce).


Eww I hate her, she was just a "inspriation" and was the face for true star. Yuck.

Sarah Jessica Parker, and Paris Hilton make their own.

I saw a video of Hilary Duff and she just picked between three. She was like once I smelt this one offered to me, I knew it was it.

I just LOVE Paris' fragrances. Her orginal is doing so well, and by the end of this year she'll have 6 fragrances out total.
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post #28 of 33
11/12/06 at 1:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by djuna

I hate to be cranky here, but... people are seduced by names. So what? That's what names do. They seduce. Some people will buy a Guerlain or L'Artisan fragrance that they probably wouldn't buy if it were in a clear plastic bottle with no brand association. It's part of a class thing, people anxious to use money and image to climb a few bars up the ladder of social status. Those hideous Louis Vuitton bags that were everywhere a few years ago are proof that a name will let you get away with ANYTHING. Sure, they got pirated and leaked into the mainstream, but there would be no demand for them if they didn't already have an (entirely spurious) association with "fabulous" living. So, celebrity names do the same thing that names like "Caron" and "Serge Lutens" do... they give people a (hopefully positive) association to cling onto when they process the fragrance. And our resulting impressions of fragrances are more shaped by those associations than we're willing to admit.

Anyway, perfume isn't made by houses OR celebrities... it's made by noses. Dominique Ropion has created perfumes for Caron, Frederic Malle, and... J.Lo. Sophia Grojsman, who created Bulgari pour Femme, Yvresse, and Paris, got her start creating fragrances for laundry detergent. And she once said that she was actively proud of certain detergents, because women who didn't have money to spare on perfume could wash their clothes in it and smell great.

Anyway... "a cheap way to belong to the brand"? Who in her right mind wants to belong to a brand? I'm a human being, not a franchise outlet.

Very well said djuna. Indeed, most celebrities really aren't involved in the process of making a scent. Why do people think they're qualified enough to be able to do that? It's sad how the job of a true nose tends to be so underrated.
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post #29 of 33
11/15/06 at 5:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by djuna

... got her start creating fragrances for laundry detergent. And she once said that she was actively proud of certain detergents, because women who didn't have money to spare on perfume could wash their clothes in it and smell great.

I agree with this and you can count the men here as well: my favorite laundy detergent scents: EL's Pleasures (wich now is sorta-endorsed by GPaltrow, and Miracle Summer (not celebrity endorsed but just to make a point here)!.

I think the Hillary Duff frag just raised the bar a bit, also, where would the fruity frags for men be without Paris Hilton for Men? that's her best outing IMHO. As it has been said before ,SJP's is another step up.

I have also liked TommyH's True Star Men, another fruity one for men, wich is endorsed by EnriqueIglesias or at least he's the image of it -don't think he was involved in the creating of the scent, as opposed to the rest of the ones mentioned-.

I believe a lot of what Djuna said about belonging to a brand might be true for a lot of people but when i smelled either chanel's chance or allure sensuelle or even the very safe, somewhat boring (but very nice still) allure sport PH, my love and faith for chanel got a bit lost and confused, i felt they sold out.
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post #30 of 33
11/15/06 at 9:11am
As many here before me, I love SJP's Lovely and cannot stand the thought of going without. Although, that's the only celeb fragrance that ever appealed to me, all the onesi've sniffed so far are simple fruity florals without distinction.

I had the misfortune to smell Mrs Beckham's Intimately the other day, and it threw me back, gasping for air. It was truly horrible, sickly sweet, smelling like some cheap spray-on deodorant from the nineties. Yuck!
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post #31 of 33
1/12/07 at 7:03am
I just wanted to ask people here how they feel about celebrity perfumes.
To me, regardless of how the fragrance smells, if it's got a celebrity name on it, it is a major putt-off. I can't explain why I have such an averse reaction to celebrity perfumes. (Or maybe I can, but I will spare you of the "deep philosophy" behind it. )

If on top of that, the name is PH or BS - I just cannot picture who in the world would want to purchase a fragrance associated with those horrific images? I know, you will say "teeny boppers" but I think that part of me desperately wants to believe that there are no people of that category, even among teeny boppers. I am obviously wrong.

However, even fragrances associated with names like Isabella Rosselini - even those are a put off. SJP ditto - not that she is anywhere near the distinctiveness of Rosselini. The fragrance may be "lovely" but I don't even care to try it because it is associated with a "celebrity".

I guess I just dislike this whole "celebrity" concept.

I want a perfume to be "me" - not to make me feel like I am pathetically trying to copy a "celebrity", whatever this word means...
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post #32 of 33
1/12/07 at 7:48am
Ooops. Being new to the forum I did not realize this was an overly analyzed topic. To me, it was something I could not wait to get off my chest.

I read the previous posts and I got it, It's what I thought it was.

Sorry for the repeat.
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post #33 of 33
1/12/07 at 9:56am
As a newbie having not had the chance to add my two "scents" on this topic, I will just say that I don't care about packaging, house, or if a celeb slaps their name on a bottle, if I love the fragrance, I love it. It's not like they are the chemist creating the formula.

Now if you dislike a celeb and you don't want to make them one more penny richer, then that is a different subject because that has nothing to do with the fragrance itself. has to do with principle. I can completely respect that.
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