Celebrities Stinking up a Storm No End?

The celebrity scent phenomenon seems to be the defining moment of pop culture of the 00s alongside the free (pirate) download of clips of intimate and not-so-intimate moments of the stars. Just when we thought the trend was ebbing, here is proof that everyone, simply everyone who has their name known by more people than their spouses, their mother and their pets (no offence to them), is having their own 15 minutes of consumer-sneeze-inducing, thanks to Coty, Parlux and other plutocratic powers that be (enter sarcasm). And who could beat the morbid idea of aping dead celebrities via their (ficticious) scent? You see my point...

Eva Longoria Parker of Desperate Housewives' fame is the latest with her Eva by Eva Longoria. According to Women's Wear Daily, the Latina beauty Eva has “always been somewhat allergic to all perfumes” and therefore the actress and L’Oreal spokesmodel is creating her own scent. How original...And please note the "somewhat allergic" line which really elevates vagueness (and inaccuracy) to a whole new dimension! Interestingly, my own sources wanted her to be a white-flowers girl, opting for Kai and Fleurs d'Oranger, a choice that could have suited her wedding admirably too, as hypothesized on these pages in the past.
“I really wanted to create something that every woman could wear,”Eva said. “So I decided to create my own fragrance that is light, fresh and unique.” "The perfume features citrus, violet, freesia and sandalwood notes and is housed in a curvy bottle meant to mimic the contours of a woman’s bottle". [source] Additional notes according to the Frisky include begamot tea and jasmine. Fresh allright, as to unique, well...
The bottle was designed by Wilhelm Liden de Paul Meyers & Friends and was produced by Bormioli Luigi. Eva by Eva Longoria is set to launch in the United States next spring and has been developed by the Falic Fashion Group, while the fragrance was composed by Takasago. I find the wordplay at the very least intriguing and hope the humour is not lost on the advertisers. On second thought, at the 45$ to 58$ price range it seems fit to cater to the audience that helped make Desperate Housewives, a series that had spawned its very own collective celebrity scent named Forbidden Fruit created by Coty, a household name. Not exactly a cutting-edge audience appreciative of sarcasm, perhaps? At any rate, Eva is probably exploiting all possibilities of her famous face and who can blame her? Certainly not us.

But Women's Wear Daily also has news on another celebrity scent: Race-car driver Danica Patrick will launch a new fragrance in March called Danica Patrick for Her. The scent will retail for $29.50 to $54.50 and will be promoted at NASCAR and the Indy Racing League. No word yet on what it will smell like according to the nymag.com, although the commentator is confident it will be better than the upcoming scent of Sarah Jessica Parker based on popularizing body odour, on which we had reported recently.

Last but not least, Beyoncé,Knowles, the very definition of a "bootychouli"-contestant fragrance spokesperson, is launching Beyoncé Heat. The R&B superstar, who has fronted promotional campaigns for fragrances by Tommy Hilfiger and Armani in the past, landed a multi-million dollar deal with fragrance house Coty in September and now she's ready to launch her debut scent". The fragrance was developed at Givaudan by perfumers Claude Dir and Olivier Gillotin. Top notes of Heat include red vanilla-orchid, magnolia, neroli and peach. Heart notes contain honeysuckle, almond and musky cream, while the base smooths out with sequoia wood, tonka and amber. Something tells me it will be more alongside the "fresh yet sensual" concept than the fiery, spicy one, but anyway; it doesn't sound bad at all.
Coty announced the collaboration with much fanfare: "The new collaboration between Coty and Beyonce will capitalize on her unique mega-watt aura and talent to create her very own first signature fragrance" Furthermore the diva herself says: "I'm so happy with it. I've been working on it for a while now. Everything, from the bottle design to the name and the ideas for the commercials, that's me. When I commit to something, I do it 100 per cent, and I've never had (creative control over a fragrance) until this project. I was on tour for a year, and I have meet-and-greets with fans. I've never in my life gotten so many compliments. Coty has their own testing, but that was my testing! The fans loved it. They were like, 'I love that, I'm getting that, why isn't it out right now? I need it!'" The name and colour palette was chosen for a reason: "A lot of my performances have had fire involved, so we thought 'Heat'. Also, red is one of my favorite colors, as is gold. So then we thought of making the bottle look like its on fire." Beyoncé Heat is set to launch in the United States in February, 2010. [source]
The commercial is exploiting all the bootiliciousness of the star while the "Catch the fever" catchphrase nicely recalls the immortal Fever tune by Peggy Lee. Cool :-)



Related reading on Perfume Shrine: The history of the celebrity scent, Scents of dead celebrities