So many celebrities have their own perfumes. Do they have any input in the actual scents—and does anybody really buy that stuff?
—Kasey, Springfield, Illinois
The B!tch Replies: The perfume and cologne game does seem rather stymying. If Derek Jeter had so much involvement in his new scent, as his partners at Avon have trumpeted, why doesn't it smell like tobacky chaw and the sweet, sweet sentimentality of wistful sports commentators in checked jackets?
Instead, I am told, Jeter's scent, Driven, involves black pepper, coriander and iced grapefruit. (Not room-temperature grapefruit, as that would be WAY not sexy.)
Like I said, confusing. But here's what's certain: Perfume makers insist—insist—that their celebrity partners have all kinds of involvement in the development of their scents.
So do the stars, of course: "I know the realities of the business—I know what it costs to launch a fragrance," Sarah Jessica Parker recently told reporters. "Sometimes, I don't want to hear it, but I really like being involved. It's my nature."
I detect subtle undernotes of BS whenever I hear such things, but let's give the perfumers their say, too. I'm feeling responsible today. Must be the Eau de Jimmy Carter I'm wearing.
"When we started talking about fragrances, Derek told me he was looking for a very fresh, clean and extremely masculine scent," Jean Louis Grauby, the perfumer at Drom Fragrances, which created Driven, told a Canadian paper earlier this year. "So, I used special ingredients that translated this philosophy.
"I showed him several raw material directions…and he always preferred notes that conveyed a masculine and fresh impression: clean citrus notes, especially grapefruit, as well as masculine aromatic notes like lavender and spearmint."
And bullfeathers. But I digress.
You also asked about sales.
Many of these celebrity perfumes are top sellers, both in the United States and overseas. SJP's Lovely was the number one seller on perfumebay.com last year, for example. "And it's still a top seller," founder Jacquelyn Tran tells me. Also in the site's current top 10: fragrances by Usher, Kimora Lee Simmons, Sean Combs and Gwen Stefani. (And you should know perfumebay.com carries some 40,000 products.)
Even Britney Spears' scents have been lauded as a wise investment by money people. Get this: During an interview in June, an executive at Elizabeth Arden, which produces Spears' perfumes, said hers held the premier spot on a list of top-selling women's fragrances. At least 10 million bottles of her scents have been sold.
Insert your own frappuccino-essence joke here.
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