Lady Gaga, Twitter
By Meredith Goldberg-Morse
Lady Gaga just released images of her new perfume, "Fame," on Twitter, a few days after a Canadian fashion magazine editor leaked photos of the bottle. The singer expressed her frustration with the situation, tweeting, "Looks like photos of my perfume are being leaked. Oh you fashion editors I could just crinkle my hands at you!" along with Instragram photos of both the bottle and its packaging. The bottle, which resembles gold talons grasping a glass egg, is filled with an alarmingly dark liquid that will spray on clear.
We're happy to report that the fragrance includes neither blood nor semen. The singer instead went with a well-balanced blend of pulverized apricot, crushed heart of tiger orchidea, essence of saffron and honey drops as well as mysterious components "black veil of incense" and "tears of belladonna."
The megastar, whose scent will be available for purchase later this summer, is not the first celebrity to create a perfume and certainly will not be the last. The following successful perfumers are proof that people really do want the chance to smell like their favorite celebs.
Sarah Jessica Parker
Inspired by her iconic "Sex and the City" character Carrie Bradshaw, SJP's "NYC" scent is meant to evoke freedom, possibilities, playfulness and fabulous style. Rather than mimicking the combined stench of humidity and body odor that often plagues the New York subway system, the "deliciously addictive and sophisticated fruity floral fragrance" combines wild strawberries, Italian mandarin and honeysuckle with undertones like rum flavor, sandalwood and creamy musks (whatever that means). The result? $18 million in sales, edging out "Lovely," "Endless," "Dawn" and "Twilight" to become Parker's best-selling scent.
Beyonce
Let's be real—who wouldn't want to smell like Beyoncé? Queen Bey's fragrance "Heat" claims to unleash a spirited fire within, which is simultaneously intriguing and a little scary. The television promo for the scent, which featured a scantily-clad Beyoncé emerging from a steamy bathroom, proved to be a bit too spirited for the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority, which banned the commercial from the daytime television after deeming it "sexually provocative" and "unsuitable to be seen by young children." Now, that's what I call an effective perfume. Despite the minor censorship issue, women everywhere clambered to emulate the sultry diva, buying over $21 million worth of "Heat" in 2010 alone.
Diddy
Beyoncé's not the only one who got a bit too, uh, passionate in a fragrance advertisement. The commercial for Diddy's women's fragrance, "Unforgivable," was banned from television by the Federal Communications Commission due to its sexually explicit nature (think lots of suggested nudity and inappropriate touching). And this was after the rapper-turned-entrepreneur's print ads were removed from bus stops for being too raunchy. It's safe to say Diddy came out on top, though—his "Unforgivable" brand, which produces scents for both men and women, is consistently among the top-selling celebrity fragrances.
Gwen Stefani
Only Gwen Stefani could produce a set of perfumes targeted toward "anyone with a fatal attraction to cuteness." Despite the vaguely threatening tagline (death by perfume doesn't sound like a particularly pleasant way to go), the adorable little "Harajuku Lovers" bottles are more upbeat than menacing. Inspired by street style in the Harajuku district of Tokyo, the line boasts five distinct scents, each representing a different personality type and attitude. Unsurprisingly, girls everywhere embraced the fragrance, rushing Sephora stores all over the country to get their very own bottled-up essence of Gwen's eclectic style and badass attitude.
What's your favorite celebrity scent? Let us know in the comments below!
