I think what enraged me, apart from the musical effluence, was the comment on the press release that claimed Ronan was qualified to make a fragrance because "he knows what he likes". Well, I know what I like fashion-wise, but that doesn’t make me Nicolas Ghesquière. I know what I like in perfume, but I am not Christopher Sheldrake or Francis Kurkdjian (genius noses both).
— Bethan Cole in the UK Times Online, writing about the new Ronan Keating scents Hope by Ronan and Believe by Ronan.
"If people decide that a Kiss fragrance line makes sense," Simmons said, "who's to argue with America?"
— Gene Simmons of KISS, while making a personal appearance at an Army Base to promote the new KISS fragrances, via the Washington Post.
It's odd that Bethan Cole is ranting as if Ronan Keating (whoever he is) actually created his own fragrance, instead of it being done for him by a professional nose. I mean, Tom Ford can make a fragrance because he knows what he likes, and it just so happens that what he likes a *lot* of other people like too. Of course, I have no idea who this Keating guy is so maybe it's all really egregious, gone too far, last straw, time to drag the celebs out of their perfumed carriages and vive la revolution and all that. Or we could just ignore it and stop buying it and eventually it will all go away.
Quite a few people can, do and should argue with America. xoxo
Ronan Keating is with the band Boyzone, if that helps you any (it didn't do much to enlighten me). Would just say that Tom Ford has established, as you point out, that he can make fashions & fragrances that will sell; Ronan Keating, well, I've no idea what he has or has not established since I've never heard of Boyzone.
IMHO, the celeb fragrance thing has in fact gone way too far, but since it is an endless source of amusement to me, I say carry on, the more egregious the better.
LOL…so true, M. But I doubt Gene Simmon's wallet gives a d*mn.
Wow, what crawled up Bethan Cole's a** and died? If you're going to trash a scent, do it because it stinks, literally. Let's face it, Ronan didn't actually create the thing anyway, a nose did, same as every celebrity, out there – just like every 'name' releasing a perfume probably is controlled by the brand that is behind the scenes of the said scent – it's got to sell after all – they're not mixing this stuff up in sheds behind the house. What other reason is there to think you are qualified to come out with a scent, other than 'you know what you like'? – I mean, other than wanting to make money. I would think the majority of these celebs don't know what a nose or a note is until they get told by the company who is going to do the scent. Who cares? Anyone who really knows their stuff, they way Bethan thinks she does, is only going to ultimately care about the end result and if it smells good. What she's doing is the equivalent of someone reviewing a JLo scent on MUA and saying 'JLo is a talentless ho and this smells like cat pee'. Whatever, Bethan.
And is it just me, but in the general pooh-poohing of celebrity scents, Sarah Jessica Parker seems to come off smelling like the proverbial rose. Is it that the women who write these articles, like Bethan, see SJP as a 'proper' celeb with more cred in regards to coming out with a scent because she's fashion-y? Ok, I remember the articles that said SJP loved CdG Avignon and Skin Musk etc and was involved in the making, but then I remember reading articles that said JLo is heavily involved in the process as far as sniffing and saying what she likes, etc and Hilary Duff talking about sniffing loads of notes to see what she preferred and I've also read that she loves Opium, so I guess supposedly going down the oriental route made sense if she was involved. So, how do we know what is BS and what is genuine? I suppose you have a pinch of both for everyone concerned, but sometimes I think the backlash has more to do with snobbery than than any real fragrance issues. What comes out is almost always going to reflect what's hot in the market (or deemed so) at the time.
Btw, that 'women who write the articles' thing was a dig at Bethan and her ilk, not you NWT – you always write from the nose point of view 😉
NWT? NST – Sorry, I've gotten myself all in a fluster now!!
I suspect the irritated tone was down to feelings about Ronan himself, who is often seen as a low-talent chancer who got lucky in being recruited into a boy band. I don't know if Boyzone are known much in the US, but they were a 5-piece Irish boy-band who enjoyed great success among the teenybopper brigade, and caused massive heartbreak when they broke up. Ronan was the lead 'singer', and has since forged a successful career developing other boy-bands and being generally business-minded. He's always denied rumours of being gay, so the perfume venture is probably causing howls of derision throughout British media circles! He's not exactly David Beckham….
In all fairness to Bethan Cole, I think she does know her stuff — she writes frequently about fragrance, and I do like her writing. I probably took an unfair quote out of context here, and was mainly amused by the juxtaposition with Gene Simmon's statement — truly didn't mean to be slamming Ms. Cole at all, although I quite agree that the “JLo is a talentless ho and this smells like cat pee” stuff isn't useful to anyone.
And on the level of involvement, well, who knows. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Hilary Duff had more to do with With Love than Calvin Klein did with Euphoria Blossom, so you're quite right, it is snobbery, and I am as guilty of it as anybody I'm sure. But if you're going to sell based on your name, then you're sort of asking for it, aren't you? I mean, presumably both Calvin Klein and Ronan Keating are hoping to bank on some sort of brand identification, and with some of these celebrities, the whole idea of them trying to pass themselves off as aspirational brands is just sort of comical — especially if you're someone like me who doesn't watch much TV or read fashion magazines and so ends up having to Google everyone anyway, LOL…
Oh, I didn't think you were slamming her at all. I agree, the contrast is amusing. And yes, I do agree that in spite of trying to be level headed about celebrity fragrance – well, Celebrity is a world of its own, right? LOL. The way that Bethan talks about Ronan I got the impression she might have been dumped once upon a time to the sweet sounds of a Boyzone song, LOL. Might be affecting the writing somewhat.
Thanks for the background, and double thanks for adding “low-talent chancer”, I love the sound of that — very British! I don't know if Boyzone is known here or not, but on the other hand, I doubt the scents are going to be sold here either.
I thought the Keating scents were under the radar anyway. First I heard of them was when I went looking on supaperfume for some cheap Mitsouko. I saw it and started reading into them a bit. I thought the notes sounded interesting on the women's, there were some more herbal notes listed that perked me up since it didn't read as a sweet scent or fruity floral on paper.
LOL…gosh, now I'm glad I was never dumped to the sweet sounds of a Boyzone song, that sounds particularly dismal.
BC calls them “inoffensive” which isn't much of a recommendation, but who knows…
As much as I like Tom Ford, I do not think that Tom Ford has a nose for fragrances most people like. In fact, most of his fragrances for YSL were commercial flops–M7, Rive Gauche pour Homme, Nu. However, he has a sense for interesting and unusual compositions, and I respect him for this. I will take M7 over the new L'Homme anyday. I will even forgive him for tempering with Rive Gauche and blame IFRA for it. 🙂
I have to stand up for Bethan Cole, who I think is quite knowledgeable. Although I would have liked to hear her speak most against the mediocrity of the celebrity fragrance trend that we see now, I think that it is refreshing to encounter an article like this.
I cannot believe that I actually wrote a defense of celebrity fragrances in the past. The onslaught of the dull and completely unimaginative fragrances from the celebrities (with very few exceptions) over the past few months is driving me towards recanting. 🙂
He gets points from me just for M7, and quite agree, will take it over L'Homme. But guessing M7 will hit the chopping block long before L'Homme, no?
V, is the onslaught really any worse than the onslaught of dull, unimaginative fragrances from the mainstream fashion houses? Midnight Charm springs to mind…in fact, I'll take Hilary Duff over Midnight Charm when it comes to that…
It is worse, because they tend to be even more unimaginative.
I agree on Midnight Charm and Hillary Duff though. With Love is one of those few exceptions.
See, I think the mainstream is worse. The celebrity scents at least have a kind of inherent comedic value…in fact, the more obscure the celebrity and the worse the scent, the funnier it is. Midnight Charm isn't even funny.
Is this like saying – it's excusable, because it's under the celeb umbrella (ok, yeah, maybe – like you said, it's an amusing thing as a whole)? I guess I would like to say to the perfume industry – PLEASE! no more fruity florals, gourmands, gourmand orientals (I realise there are exceptions – but it just seems like the bulk of the mainstream stuff is)! But then I have to think – surely their fragrance decisions are based on marketing info, trends, etc and this is just a reflection of the times kind of like the 80's and their defining scents? Argh – or maybe I am stinkingly biased because the only scents I really seem to be enjoying these days are chypres and aldehydic florals, all pre 1990's!
and I haven't had the energy to sniff Midnight Charm – it's saying a lot for me when I sit in front of a duty free shop at an airport these days and don't care about half the new scents being displayed in it. But I will add that I thought Hilary Duff's scent was actually pretty decent and Insolence was alright too. I wonder, looking back 10 years or more from now, what the general concensus will be on the big memorable perfumes of the decade?
Excusable, no, but at least funny, which is better than inexcusable and not funny.
Hey, have you tried the new Baghari from Piguet? You might like it.
Excellent question — but I don't have any answer, LOL…might be too soon to tell.
I haven't seen this one yet, but haven't been looking hard – but I am curious about this, also that new? redone? Worth scent. And anyone remember Isabell perfumes? They added Paperwhites fairly recently (I mean maybe a year or two ago – no one mentions them much though) and that is probably worth a sniff. I always liked their Ceylon and Mandarin scents. I'm surprised they're still going – I've never seen them in stores – they seem to be purely running off their tiny website sales. I remember when they did ads in Vogue etc, in the early 90's.
It is a new version of a 1950s Piguet scent. Aurelien Guichard did the new one, and it is lovely. Neiman Marcus has it.
Don't know Isabell at all!
Am I the only one who finds the mental picture of Gene Simmons at an Army base funny? I mean, he's pushing perfume at a military installation. Who booked that gig?!!
LOL — I didn't even think about it, but you're right, it is sort of comical!