Celebrity fragrances...do you wear them...would you?

I don't think of it as 'smelling like' a particular celeb. I just treat them like all the other perfumes. Some perfumier somewhere has to formulate them, you can bet your life that has nothing to do with the particular celebrity in question. They may be vaguely involved in the final selection of the various scents provided to them by their chosen perfumier, but that would be the sum total of their involvement, I would think. And if I like the smell, and it sits well on my skin, I'll buy it. But I only own and wear one - JLo Glow - which I absolutely adore. It was my SOTD for over a year, and caused many a compliment when I wore it to work. JLo Glow has just gone into its fifth year of production - and to be on the safe side, I have an unopened, still cellophaned bottle in my collection, in case it should be discontinued (which doesn't look currently likely). I've sampled others, and quite liked Gwen Stefani's LAMB - but not enough to buy it.

My view with all perfumes is to maintain an open mind and a pair of open nostrils and never write something off because of the name on the packaging or how ugly (or indeed beautiful) the packaging may be. If it smells great, buy it, slap it on, and wear it with pride.

The bottle and packaging are important to me, and I don't want some (in)famous person getting in the way of the experience. So no, not even (especially) for gifts.

I respect that, but you can't wear the bottle or the packaging. And no-one gets to see it unless you cart it around with you. Back in the day when I sold copy-cat perfumes, that was my biggest selling point. People wear perfume for the smell, and once you get past that, the packaging is utterly irrelevant. On the other hand, there are collectors who just adore the bottles and collect perfumes for that - which is a whole other thing entirely. So I think it boils down to whether you're buying a fragrance or the bottle that it comes in. And if you're affected by the stigma of it being connected to a particular (undesirable) celebrity personality, then I can see why such a purchase would be a no-no. When I wear JLo Glow, I never think for a second of how it relates to Jennifer Lopez. But if I did, it wouldn't bother me in the least.

Horses for courses, eh? :-)

A good fragrance is a good fragrance despite whose name is on it. I used to wear celebrity stuff quite a bit but now I'm sick of smelling like everyone else - there was a time when I was the only person who would wear Fantasy but I smell it on everyone nowadays so I hardly use mine anymore unless mixed with other perfumes. Now I try not to smell any celebrity perfumes just because they are very common.

My mother really seems to have a thing for celebuscents though - Live Luxe, Lovely, Intimately Beckham, With Love Hilary Duff....

As far as the scents themselves go, it's a way for a celebrity to market their lifestyle. I think people invest in those sort of fragrances because they want that association, they want to "feel" like the celebrity in question.
Regardless, if you like the scent, I agree that there's nothing wrong with wearing it.

I don't wear them because I don't like them. Period. End of story. They all seem to be run-of-the-mill blah. But if I did find one I liked I would wear it.

But first I would have to mentally get past the celebrity issues that would go with it before I would even get to the point of trying it......

I don't wear em - there's too much great juice out there for me to sniff and buy first (second, third etc).

If you could name me a celeb frag - that can better a non-celeb classic frag produced by a major perfume house, perfumer (Chanel, Guerlain, Patou, Caron, Hermes, Worth ...etc) or top of the line niche company - then I'd buy one.

However - they are all much lower down (or not on) the lists of Best Scents of the year - so much so they have to make a category for them alone - since they can't compete. Fashion magazines have to review and announce them - the amount of advertising hype $$$ spent to promote them in those same mags makes it impossible for the editors to ignore them.

I've sniffed most of them while wandering through Macys over the years - Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Collins ....to Naomi Sims...JLo ...(never sniffed Brittney or P. Hilton). Do a google search "Celebrity perfumes" and you'll find some hilarious blog commentaries - and some actual comparative reviews.

One article mentioned a "$62 bottle of Hilary Duffs With Love." (could someone tell me who she is?) I'll spend my 62 bucks on L'Heure Bleue.

But if by chance you do like them - hold off for about 2 years and they'll cost you $14.99

Well said!

I wear from time to time Paris Hilton for Men, it's a good fruity scent.

If I ever found one I liked enough to wear I would. I think both of the SJP's are nice but I would not purchase them for myself ( I did buy my sons SO a Covet gift set for Christmas....she usually wears Euphoria. I REALLY love that Covet bottle too).

I simply steer clear of celeb frags, they just don't interest me in any way. The world is full of gorgeous classics and rare beauties, so I'm 100% sure I'm not missing anything by boycotting frags marketed with Miss-International-Celebrity-#58673's face and name.

I'm not against them but I find that I just haven't had any reason to try them. If I tried one and liked it I'd wear it (though I'd be ashamed of the bottle; I'm a bottle girl.) I just haven't read a compelling enough review (or pool of reviews) to want to try one.

I don't think I am very picky ...or swayed by price at all. For me it is the smell, and some bottles are ugly even if they are expensive. I just haven't found one that I really like enough to buy. I know a lot of people liked Jlo glow and I wanted to like it because of the cute bottle. But I didn't like it at all..but I have a tendency to not like scents that most people go mad for (the average consumer). I know a lot of people liked SJP "lovely" and I can't stand it. A lot of people liked Britney spears one in the blue bottle..and I wanted to like it too because its such a cute bottle..but I coudln't stand it. So I am in the minority most defintiely of smells that I like compared to the average consumer. I actually did like G. Stefanies though..that was a first. Just not enough to buy it. The first smell was great but then there was nothing. So I didn't buy it. I like plenty of scents that are "cheap" ...I think Tabu is awsome for the right situation and the bottle is ugly as heck. Also associated with grandma I think? Oh well I don't care. I am sure most people my age would not like that smell. None of my friends have ever heard of anything other than what is in the mall.
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Oh yeah and for the record, once again showing my weirdness...I have tried all the most commonly found Chanels and even purchased a few years ago (allure and Madamoiselle). I tried and tried to like them but I coudln't stand them. I have been told to try #19 thanks to fellow BN'rs so I am going to go and try that one! Maybe that will be the one? That would be nice.

I'm with Clemmie on this one. I don't really care who makes it or what the bottle looks like most of the time, although I do love a nice looking bottle when I get one. If I love a scent, I'll buy it.
Unfortunately, most celebrity frags are not to my liking, and I have sniffed several, probably most of them. The only one I've ever felt compelled to buy was Miami Glow, and I love it. I didn't care for any of her other scents though. MG was it..... oh, and I like the bottle too so that was a bonus!

I will admit that I'm a bit of a fragrance snob when it comes to celebrity frags ... I couldn't bear to tell someone, when they asked what I was wearing, "Oh, it's Britney's latest one."

It really has nothing to do with price, believe me, I have nothing against cheaper 'fumes. I wear lots of department store and drugstore and discount fragrances.

The name and the advertising is so closely linked to the celebrity, that even though they had so little to do with the creating of the fragrance, I can't get past their name, their image, their endorsement on their fragrances.

I wouldn't touch a 'sleb scent with a bargepole. If a 'sleb ends up publicly advertising (as opposed to privately wearing) a fragrance I've loved already, I'll ditch it and move on.

I blame Hilary Swank personally for the Guerlain stench that fills the lift in my car park every morning.

Have not been very interested in celebrity scents, although my daughter liked Hilary Duff's With Love last year and I did find a great big discounted bottle of it at Marshall's that I bought for her. She loves it and I love it on her. Young, pretty and more complex than you would think, imo. Perfect for a teenager.

Here, here, DeeOlive.
I am as susceptible to hype as the next person, but not over the scent of a vapid-faced teenager. I would be intrigued by a fragrance linked to, say, Oscar Wilde, or Suzanne Farrell, or Madeleine Albright.
We don't love Chanel No. 5 any less because Nicole Kidman has replaced Catherine Deneuve. One might say that Chanel No. 5 preceded the celebrity link, but in fact, it was the original celebrity fragrance of that incredible and brilliant self-promoter, Coco Chanel.
I guess that I would need a more intriguing and accomplished celebrity to lure me to try the fragrance.

One exception from the generally boooring selection of celebs chosen as faces for frags: Rossy de Palma by Etat Libre d'Orange!

I know I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but like shadesofbleu, I just can't get past Britney & Paris' names.

I wore Manifesto by Isabella Rossellini for quite a while. Fresh & green, very nice.

I think of myself as not being influenced at all neither by celebrities nor by ads, am unimpressed with and uninterested in the mentioned celebs' life or deeds or loves. I really couldn't care less about them, so I usually don't associate them with the scents they advertise or market.
I try to keep an open mind and sample every scent appealing to me by notes and even those that initially don't . If I like it, I buy it and wear it, period.


Thanks, tigs! I was going to mention exactly this one as a "celeb" fragrance from a niche line. I own it, and it is glorious.

Yes I would, on occasion, and sometimes do. For instance, I like Mystery by Naomi Campbell (nose Olivier Cresp), and the first frag by Paris Hilton (can' t remember the name right now). I try to test all new scents I come across openminded, wether it is celeb or niche.
I bet I would like the celeb frags more though, if they were not just that, but instead had some fancy niche label on them...

I agree Therese - I certainly don't mind names of interesting people - I guess I can't even bring myself to be interested in vapid/druggie/trashy people who are now touted as celebrities for having done - nothing. I was immeadiately interested in sniffing George Sand. If they named a scent for Jane Austin or Josephine Baker or Indira Ghandi - I'd give it a try. To be honest - I didn't know Nicole Kidman had replaced C. Denueve - and would not have remembered Denueve if you hadn't mentioned her. I don't read fashion magazines - and rarely see fume ads.

I was fortunate to recently acquire some Deneuve, and I wear that very occasionally, because it is difficult to find.

I do try to smell all the scents I come across, but am extremely unlikely to wear recent celeb scents. There is too much "image" associated with them, so they don't seem as though they could possibly be for me. And, the way the scent smells is almost irrelevant; I basically won't wear them, truth be told. I actually find celebrities and all they societal hype around them pathetic and annoying.

It would be fun for all the anti-celebrity fragrance people here (myself included) to take a blind test. The test would consist of participants smelling a mix of celebrity and non-celebrity scents on cards. None of the scents could be currently or previously owned by the participants. We'd use the thumbs up/thumbs down/neutral rating as in the BN reviews. I'll bet many would be rather embarrassed if not disappointed in themselves afterwards.

Sure, I'll wear them if they're good. One I wear and love is Deneuve.

No. I want to wear fragrances that are works of art and marketed as such.

Even if it smells like Sécrétions Magnifiques?

I'd take J.Lo's Miami Glow anytime...

Ditto! Hehehe....

I haven't smelled either, but a gimmick of blood and milk accords is pretty cool.

Sure, I would and do as a matter of fact. I doubt that celebrity actual even wears the scent. It would be truer to say that the celebrity "branded" the scent, but that is about all in most cases.

Juice is juice and I try real hard to smell them as objectively as I can

I like to think I'm not a perfume snob, but I think when it comes to celebrity scents, I am. I do feel resistance to trying and buying celebrity scents. I don't like to wear scents that I smell everywhere and I don't like to wear scents associated with a well known persona. Even when a celebrity (at least ones I'm familiar with) does advertisement for an otherwise unrelated perfume, it turns me off; it doesn't matter if it's a celebrity I like or not.
Still, I did sniff several Paris Hilton scents before Christmas, and decided on the a set of the original for my 14 yr old niece's Christmas gift. When she opened it, she said "Aww...This proves I'm definitely your favorite, because you said you couldn't support Paris but you got it for me anyway!" lol

I must admit I tend to be very judgemental about celeb fragrances.I would never buy one for myself I think.However I admit that some are ok.Ironically I got JLO Glow afer dark for Christmas,and do try to see if it works for me.I even try to forget my prejudice towards these kind of scents, simply because my sister knows that I like perfumes and she even said she thought it might fit me because she knows I tend to favour "heavier"scents....So,I would simply feel bad if I at least didn't give it a few wearings before I make up my mind about it.I don't think it's a scent I would wear very often,though.

I agree. I usually steer clear of celebrity scents but I found Hilary Duff...With Love to be surprisingly pleasant. The opening is incredibly sweet and fruity but it only lasts a few minutes before settling into an amber, vanilla, slightly woody mix. I have also seen it recently at TJ Maxx and Marshall's for $14.99.

I do not support celebrity scents & that includes Tom Ford.

I'm with Clemmie - I'll try anything once. And quite often try it again just to make sure I didn't like it the first time. ;-)

I own JLo Miami Glow. I bought it blind because I wanted the coconut note of Virgin Island Water and didn't have the cash to splash on the real thing. But it didn't fulfil my lemming so I was disappointed by it. I haven't tried it recently and I think I should; it deserves a proper go. And I bought a friend who was going through a tough divorce a bottle of Lovely because it was innocuous and I wanted her to see the word Lovely every morning on her dressing table and know that's what I think she is.

And here's a question: if we're going to write off Celebuscents in general, should we include everything put out by non-perfumery specialists? Bin Prada, chuck Chanel, dump Dior, say Au Revoir to YSL, bye-bye Balmain and Balenciaga, ta-ta Thierry Mugler and toodle-oo Tommy HiIfliger. After all, they're just tailors, not perfumers. And let's exclude the rouge and face-cream pedlars - Estee Lauder, Lancome, La Prairie, Elizabeth Arden, Clinique, Prescriptives, Philosophy, L'Occitaine, Yves Rocher, Shiseido and Jo Malone. Even the great house of Guerlain would fall into this category.

You could easily decide to choose the fragrances you'll try based on those criteria. And why not? What's the difference between an actress, a facecream-maker or a dressmaker having their name on the bottle? It would actually be quite a good way to differentiate between the mainstream and the niche.

But think what you'd miss.

I am not interested in these scents either. And I will not purchase any for my Wife or for anyone else. These scents are also the reason that I purchase very little Fragrance from the counter at the Major Dept. Stores.
Gary

Honestly, I'm happy to try celebrity fragrances and I will buy them if I like them. It doesn't make a spot of difference whose name is on the bottle, all I care about is whether or not I like the scent. I may have many turning their nose up at me when I say this, but I own Britney Spears Midnight Fantasy. And why? Because I really like it and it just really goes well with my chemistry.

I think Wordbird has a great point. Why should celebrities like actors/actresses and singers be singled out for hatred with celebrity fragrances. Dressmakers and facecream-makers are also celebrities of a sort, and perfume isn't necessarily the first and foremost thing we think about when faced with these brands. And on that note, I've got plenty of perfume for these kinds of houses too - Armani, Guess, Revlon etc.

When it comes down to it, I only buy perfumes I really like.... And I'll easily dismiss revered classics if I really just don't like them.

Absolutely. And in some cases the relabeled scent might sell better than the true niche scent because the celeb scents are created for mass appeal. In many cases the niche scents are designed for limited consumption.

The only celeb scent I have in my closet is an early ET

I haven't tried any, and I wouldn't buy them. I have no interest in contributing to the income of vacuous celebs or C grade actresses.

Whether they get a percentage of sales or are just paid to promote them, either way the customer ends up giving money to people that I have no interest in supporting.

Actually, having said that i have bought one - my mother loves White Diamands so I have occaisonally got her that or one of the variants (Rubies I think). But it I can't wear it myself, makes me sick.

That's pretty much what I think about celeb scents and why I don't even bother to try them.

I certainly don't need any more new fragrances, my wardrobe is big enough, so if I'm tempted to try something new, it just has to be interesting.

No...and ...no - answers to questions in the title, without having read all the other posts. Must be a form of snobbery or something but I abhore the concept of "celebrity". So no, I would never wear them. There are quite a few gorgeous classics out there, why bother with "celebrity" perfumes which, like someone said, they all have the same common, contemporary, boring, quick-in-quick-out smell anyway...
More than this though, they have the "celebrity stigma" attached to it which I find lowly. A perfume is supposed to make you feel special and distinguished (at least that's what I want from my perfume) and the idea of "celebrity" does not make me feel this way. On the contrary, it makes me feel very "plebeian", sucking up to these kitchy, gawdy individuals.

But then again, take with a grain of salt what I just said. It MIGHT be a snobbery. That being said, I still wouldn't wear "celebrity" perfumes.
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This too! Could not have said it better.

The only "celeb" fragrance, if one would call it that, that I absolutely love is "Le temps d'aimer" by Alain Delon. I tried it when I was very young, and only knew the name, not the brand. After I purchased it, I put it all together; fragrance company/actor name, and knew it could not be coincidence. But it is such a great fragrance, it will always be one of my favorites. Unfortunately it is now out of production, but I still have a bit left.
Outside of that one, almost all have been very basic scents, only the celebs could give them any prestige; by the use of their name that is. But I will say my mother likes ET's "Passion" and it smells nice on her.

I am far from an authority...I simply love fragrances (all types, i.e. personal, home). For me, the most important aspect is whether the scent makes me feel good.

I do have some celeb scents (the Glos, Live, Paris H, SJP) and wear them when I need a certain scent. I am a little snobby when it comes to discount frags that I wore as a pre-teen (Navy, Exclamation, etc.); I won't wear these types now because they seem too alcoholic.

I did , though, recently aquire three bottles of the dcntd. scent by Almay for a walk down memory lane!

Today I am wearing Cinnabar and find myself wishing I would have worn Glo AFter Dark (JLo).

I have two "celeb" scents - Iquitos by Alain Delon and Instinct by David Beckham.

Iquitos is a spicy Woody Oriental with a prominent rose note supported by mandarine, ginger, patchouli, vetiver, cedarwood, sandalwood, amber, cardamon, musk and leather. It is one of my favorite masculine roses.

Instinct is a rich Citrus. Orange, mandarin and bergamot along with star anise, pimento, cardamon, patchouli, white amber and vetiver. I like Neroli Sauvage better, but, despite its provenance, this an excellent citrus with good longevity.

I would probably wear one if I smelled it blind and loved it - too much of a snob, unfortunately, even to try them in the shops. Then I would only buy it if heavily discounted, because, like many of us, I don't feel like contributing to the income of spoiled poptarts and heiresses! However "Deneuve" I would snag in a minute - would it give me her aura? Just shows you how silly I am!!!

I've sniffed most of them - and bought a couple if they were different enough.
Case in point - Hilary Duff 'With Love' (nicer than I thought - and cheap). Britney 'Curious in Control (Black bottle - needed a sugar fix) and J Lo 'Miami Glow' (Again cheap and smelled of summer). But generally most of them are fairly light, sweet, boring lolly waters.
But most new frags that are mass marketed ARE!
I haven't smelled a new concept for awhile. Thank god for decants and niche perfumes!
Ava Luxe and The Perfumed Court are my new best friends for new ideas!

I love Gwen Stefanis "Lamb" on my daughter - a nice floral with lilley on the valley and sweet peas.
Actually, I think I'm going to steal a little from her bottle when spring comes.

Lovely from SJP was also good.

But there are certain celeb scents I simply will not wear because i don't like their personnality - e.g. Paris Hilton.

I also like LAMB. And I want to give Unforgivable a try.

Celebrities scents I can do, but not scents associated with auto manufacturers.