Top-20 Best-selling Fragrances for women in the USA (2011)

By popular demand, after the Top-20 Best-selling Fragrances for women in France for 2011, which many readers mailed me to say was an eye-opener, I decided to post what the popular choices (based on bulk of sales) during the year 2011 in the American market are. A sort of two-faces-of Janus project, if you wish.

I had prefaced my French post by saying that people with an interest in perfumes imagine the French to be wildly sophisticated when it comes to fragrances; perhaps it comes with the territory, having so many options, though to be honest the US market is by far more populated. And yet, it's more of a form of branding, a subject on which the French have excelled while Americans have languished. As one of my friends in marketing says "USA branded itself as star& stripes, hamburgers, NBA, Hollywood and big-tit tanned blondes from California". Not exactly premium, you'd argue. And yet, this is exactly why we love to dump down on American culture, even Americans themselves. The USA as an uber-democratic, nascent nation decidedly branded itself as catering to the mass, with their Walmarts and their Costcos and For All Humanity jeans, in constrast to the largely still medieval-farmer/bourgeois mentality of the French with their small boutiques. Both societies have their elites, socio-economic as well as intellectual, but whereas one of them is proud of it, the other is self-effacing, almost embarassed to see it mentioned. See where I'm getting?

Robert Redford & Jane Fonda in Barefoor in the Park (1967) via Mary Lou Cinnamon

The Americans also routinely receive flack from perfumefreaks because they're supposed to like "clean" perfumes, i.e. shampoo & laundry detergent smelling stuff we turn our noses on. (I assure you that that is better than smelling the bad breath of a typical Gitannes-smoking French, but that's fodder for another discussion). And yet, I can't erase from my mind Sarah Jessica Parker's comment, while explaining her layering technique of perfumes and how she envisioned her first perfume in her own name, Lovely. It was in Chandler Burr's The Perfect Scent, where Parker revealed that she loved the smell of body odor, strong sweet musk, and general all-around dirtiness and concluded that "Americans, we love our body odour"; she was already brainstorming for her "B.O scent for everywoman" (which turned out to be the quirky Covet).

To revert to perfumes in the real market perspective, as my reader Victoria commented: "I still think this [French] list is a bit fancier than the top 20 American scents would be. I'd imagine that list would be filled with Britney Spears, JLo, Pink Sugar, and other generic fragrances." But as Mals from Muse in Wooden Shoes says "Chances are, these are the things that your college roommate, your bank teller, your Aunt Becky, and the cashier at your grocery store are wearing, and they don’t smell so bad…"
So come with me, dear readers, to see which 20 perfumes really make America tilt (in no particular order). And if you want to contrast it with what happened an only two short years ago, check this 2009 fragrance best-sellers (US and France) list out.



Chanel Coco Mademoiselle (this tops the list, predictably as it was the US Chanel headquarters who insisted on its creation and is topping the list for some years now)
Burberry Body
Calvin Klein Euphoria
Chanel No.5
Chanel Chance 
Chanel Chance Eau Fraiche
Christian Dior J'Adore 
Clinique Aromatics Elixir
Clinique Happy
D&G Light Blue
Donna Karan Cashmere Mist
Estee Lauder Beautiful
Estee Lauder Knowing
Estee Lauder Sensuous Nude
Estee Lauder Pleasures 
Fendi Fan di Fendi
Justin Bieber Someday
Prada Candy
Taylor Swift Wonderstruck
Thierry Mugler Angel

thanks to Laure Philips for info

What we consider that should be popular in the USA presents its own interest, nevertheless. In that spirit, if you hadn't caught it when I first posted it back in 2009, please read Stars & Stripes: 10 Quintessentially American Fragrances.

But more importantly and I'm interested in opinions, rather than hard facts:  
What do YOU consider American-smelling? And why?

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Top 20 Best-selling Fragrances for women in France for 2011, Top Selling Fragrances for Men 2011 (USA), Top 10 Best-selling Masculine Fragrances in France , Past ascribed gender: Best masculine fragrances for women, best feminine fragrances for men