Spotlight on Celebrity Fragrance

Hey peeps!

I pretty much wear perfume everyday, so there's usually a daily moment of careful consideration about what one of my 21! fragrances I will choose to wear.
Today I opted for Fame by Lady Gaga.  I then thought about how i'd chosen to wear Kim Kardashian on my girls night out last Saturday.  I got thinking about celebrity fragrances in general; I counted how many I currently have - Fame by Lady Gaga, Reb'l Fleur by Rihanna and Kim Kardashian (Signature).

My first celebrity fragrance was Britney Spears Curious.  I remember getting the train into Southport to go and buy it from Boots when I was 16.  I met up with my friends in the park later on; they couldn't quite understand why i'd bought myself perfume and I ended up getting teased!  I really wanted that perfume though and I loved opening the box and that feeling that i'd bought myself a little bit of the Britney Spears experience.

I've had many other celebrity fragrances over the years:

• Paris Hilton - used mostly on nights out, I was always liberal with my application!
• Harajuku Lovers G by Gwen Stefani - a basic coconut smell.
• Harajuku Lovers LOVE by Gwen Stefani - smells like pot pourri! I think this one started my love for florals.
• Lovely by Sarah Jessica Parker - a very classic and pretty smell that would get lots of compliments.
• L L.A.M.B by Gwen Stefani - very fruity, wasn't for me.
• Velvet Hour by Kate Moss - woodsy and dark, used 'til the last drop.
• Purr by Katy Perry - cute cat bottle, but it just smelt like peach to me.
• Secret Potion by Christina Aguilera - a birthday gift from my best friend, I managed to use it all up within a year, which says something considering the amount of scent I own!  A comforting sweet scent that wasn't overpowering, I found it so easy to wear.

I think celebrity perfumes are pretty much a love/hate thing.  They are usually on the lower priced side of the fragrance market, so with that position can come some snobbery, though in my experience some celebrity fragrances have really surpassed the usual expectations for a mass market scent.

I remember putting my make-up on in a pub toilet last Christmas, when a 20-something lady came in and asked if she could use the mirror too.  We got chatting about how she was enjoying her staff night out, when she pulled out a bottle of Justin Beiber's Someday perfume and said: ''Don't judge me, I can't stand Justin Beiber but I needed a perfume for my night out and this was cheap and I think it's quite nice, what do you think?''

I think the fact that she felt she had to explain herself says a lot about perceptions on what or whose name we attach ourselves too as well as a common realisation that, actually, most people do like the smell of celebrity scents, because at the end of the day, they are a fragrance and people do like fragrance!

I think celebrity scents are usually straight forward in their composition, so it's not like the experience you'd get with a finer parfum, where there will be a development through the top, middle and base notes to a drydown etc.  What you spray is pretty much what you get, so for an instant and impactful blast of scent I think they're pretty much the standard for 'going out perfumes'.  As most celebrity scents will be marketed to younger people, they recognise the need for small flacons of 30ml or lower, small enough to be portable and so perfect to fit into your handbag.
I have Kim Kardashian in a 50ml bottle, and it's pretty bulky and heavy, so not suitable for taking with me anywhere.  I purchased a pale pink Travalo refillable perfume atomiser and the colour matches the pink detailing on the perfume bottle perfectly!

So after all of these celebrity scent considerations, when I pulled my Travalo out in the pub toilets last weekend and asked my friend if she'd like a spray of my Kim Kardashian perfume, I wasn't at all surprised when she said that it smelt quite nice :)

- Kerry