Christina Aguilera's second fragrance with Procter & Gamble is the newly launched Inspire. Her last fragrance, the eponymous Christina Aguilera, launched in 2007 but never made it to the US, and I can't say I thought it any great loss. It was a not particularly memorable sweet floriental; this new one is supposed to be "a modern take on the Pop Art era" + a reflection of "the energy and excitement" of Tokyo. I haven't any notion of what such a thing ought to smell like, but in the event it turns out to be a tuberose-based floral.
According to a P&G spokesperson quoted at Women's Wear Daily earlier this year, Aguilera "loves tuberose fragrances but they tend to be a bit heavy so we kept working on it to make it more young". I'd say they succeeded. Inspire is a white floral, as advertised, but it's a very modern white floral: nothing heavy, nothing indolic, nothing that smells remotely like real flowers, much less like a classic white floral perfume. The top notes are fruity and tart, and more fresh than sweet. It's gardenia-ish in the early stages, but without any of heady stuff you'd expect from gardenia (the notes: mango, citrus, freesia, rose, gardenia, orange blossom, sandalwood, musks). The dry down is more of a blended white floral. I suppose it's tuberose-ish, kind of, in a very clean, tuberose air freshener sort of way. The base is pale musky woods.
I had meant to try Inspire next to some other tuberose-ish white florals, but time is short, and perfume launches are many. I just couldn't make myself do it. Suffice it to say that Inspire smells derivative of too many other scents to bother naming, much less wearing all at once, and it does not smell like any huge investment was made in the raw materials. You could do far, far better if you were after a white floral — although I have to wonder if white florals are really what today's young celebrity fragrance audience is after — but you could also do far, far worse if you were after a fragrance with a celebrity face on it. Inspire will not make the top or the bottom of my list of celebrity fragrance favorites for 2008*, and I predict I'll forget what it smells like entirely before the month is out.
Christina Aguilera Inspire is available in 30, 50 and 100 ml Eau de Parfum and in Bubble Wash and Body Lotion. Note that as of this writing, you can request a free sample at the website; in a few weeks they'll send you a postcard with a tiny little pre-moistened towelette under foil wrap.
* By my accounting, J Lo's Deseo is still the best celebrity fragrance anyone has managed to come up with this year. I still haven't decided which is the worst, but if you know, do tell.
I like J Lo and the second I could tolerate was Fancy by Jessica Simpson if you had to take a poll. Actually Fancy lasts longer than the Deseo, but the others were just plain awful. Mariah Carey's fragrances were guross. SJP was nothing. I honestly only bought the Harajuku Lovers for the cutesy bottles but the fragrances were duds. At least Amouage gave me some hope that there are some nice new ones out there. 🙂
Meaning nice new fragrances not necessarily pop iconic inspired.
Does INSPIRE remind anyone else of Anais Anais or is it just me?
Celebrity scent of the year? Deseo is the only one I've liked.
Those might be my favorite 2 also, although not sure at the moment that I'm even remembering them all. I didn't think MC's Luscious Pink was gross though, just kind of dull.
Gosh, maybe — it's faceless enough to remind me of almost anything, you know?
Anais Anais? Thanks for the warning. But then I'm not in any real danger of being tempted by a celebrity fragrance anyway.
For the worst of the celeb scents this year, I'd like to cast an enthusiastic vote for Paris Hilton's Fairy Dust, which I just sniffed in a the most recent Glamour magazine. Thoroughly vile.
I kinda liked Fancy, though. I wouldn't buy it, but it was pleasant in a vanilla-cupcakey way.
I found the Inspire bottle … uninspiring, particularly given her last lacey-sexy bottle. Honestly, they aren't necessarily to my taste or very classy, but shouldn't a cute bottle be the minimum you can expect from a celebuscent? Having just sniffed a bunch o' mall pink-lish-us product 🙂 I kinda like the new Luscious Pink. I mean, if you backed me against the wall and made me pick something. Dreaming and J Simp were tolerable. There were one or two scents that did make me go “yikes!” wish I could remember what they were!
I want to try Dianne Brill, hoping that is my Celeb Scent for 2008. I don't think we can count the Warhols, technically. Although Xtina probably didn't have *that* much more involvement in her scent development than Andy did with the Bonds, heh heh.
Is it vile? The ad is truly hysterical, so was kind of hoping it was at least amusing. Ah well. Agree Fancy was pleasant — and more so than most vanilla cupcake scents.
The Luscious Pink is at least innocuous, which is more than you can say for most celebrity scents. Don't think Dianne Brill can count as a celeb scent, can it? I mean, most people don't know who she is. So sorry, I'm backing you against a wall and you must stick with Mariah Carey, LOL…
And agree on the cute bottle, it's the least they can do.
I like the two SJP scents, not the Covet flanker. And the Paris scents must be doing something financially, as they keep making new ones. I have to add my name to the MC list, poor Mariah. Nobody wants to smell like cheap caramel corn.
I think the only Paris Hilton Fragrance that didn't sell well was her “Just Me”, but the only one still in production at the moment is Paris Hilton and Can Can. By this time next year Can Can will probably be off the shelves
Oh dear, Inspire smells like a tuberose air freshener…
Jennymyers — I assume the Paris scents are making a mint! Wonder if the Mariah Careys do as well — would love to see sales figures for all these.
JLoveLamar, are you sure Heiress is discontinued? I still see it at some stores.
I don't think the overall scent really smells like air freshener — but the tuberose note is awfully clean. Will be curious to hear what others think of it — doesn't look like many people have smelled it yet!
Oh, dear. I love the whimsy of things that are fairy related, but this must be bad if you describe it as “vile.” OTOH, sometimes horrible reviews pique my curiosity – I want to sniff the good, the bad, and the really ugly… 🙂
A vile scent is at least interesting — and therefore more fun to write about than most celebrity scents, LOL…
I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around “fresh” and “tuberose” together…I like skanky tuberose a la Fracas, but now I'm curious to at least sniff this. Thanks for the review.
…sorry, make that “clean” and tuberose
Trust me, there's no skank here. Fracas is TUBEROSE, Inspire is “tuberose-ish” — in other words, a pale shadow.
I see Heiress at the low end stores now, but not at the big ones like Macys. You can find some bottles at Walgreens now but that's all the stuff Macy's and everyone else sent back.
Ah. Well, you'd know better than me!
The juice was inspired by Tokyo? I guess she couldn't be a little more original and not use marketing from another platinum bleach blonde pop personality.
LOL — true, although can't say who came up w/ the concept first. GS certainly did more with it.
It's supposed to be a reflection of the excitement and energy of Tokyo? Ooh, I might like it then… But then I said the some thing about Mariah Carey's latest perfume, and that ended up smelling like cheap shampoo to me… -_-
Well, this could be shampoo too, at least, to me. Hope you'll like it better!
Well, I won't know until I smell it… Which will probably be quite a while away, considering New Zealand gets the new perfumes a couple of months after everyone else… -_-
All I could smell from this was watermelon candy. *shrugs*
There you go, more $$ saved.
My friend REALLY likes this scent and she had a body spray in her house called “Velvet Tuberose” and we compared and they smell EXACTLY ALIKE!
Ah, that must be the Bath & Body Works? Interesting.
I just got my moist towelette sample today and I have to say that although this is not good, I don't feel compelled to get right back in the shower. I am usually not this brave to put an unknown possibly awful scent on myself right after showering! I'll live with it for the hour it feels like it will last and that will be that. Next!
LOL — I myself usually put those things on right BEFORE my shower! Glad it isn't killing you 🙂
I have now had a sniff of this, and to me, it smells like a cheap version of Nina Ricci. I like her first one better.
More $$ saved then, right?
Indeed. But I'm thinking of getting a new “signature scent” sometime soon, so I'll be shelling out for whichever perfume I choose. Except I don't know which one I want…
Good luck then! There's so much new stuff out there, it must be hard to choose.
Yes… I've narrowed my choices down to 9 though. Unfortunately, I don't know which one out of the 9 to choose…
I cant remember which Paris Hilton perfume it was, but one of them smelled like unbearably sweet fruit juice. It made me want to gag.
Possibly that was Heiress…
I love x-tina as a singer, but none of her perfume makes me want to buy. i do iv inspire as a xmas present and i dont like it, i think is almost smell like beyond paradise by estee lauder. too flowery and yes the bottle awful! mind you the bottle is the second most important when i choose to buy perfume.. 🙂
I like Beyond Paradise much better, although it isn’t really a favorite of mine either.
So her new fragrance is By Night? I wonder when it will be released? While not a fan of Inspire and having never smelled her first one, im still a fan of hers so im hoping its far far better. Inspire was just boring and UNinspiring! I wonder how well it sold? I saw the By Night bottle on some site and if its really it its far nicer then Inspires! Heres hoping 4 a winner!
Yep. Will be surprised if it gets launched in the US though, since the original did not.
hi omg ive seen the notes for by night, i well want to try it as me and my mum have liked her other 2 scents so we have high hopes of it, i hope its good. p.s i found the notes on a few christina fan sites. 🙂
It sounds very fruity…the first one didn’t suit me though, so perhaps it’s more up your alley than mine 🙂
i like the pattern on the by night bottle too lol 🙂 i think ill be struggling wot perfume to get for by birthday :):) especially with all these celeb scents coming out.
Im wondering if she’ll launch a new scent in the US anytime soon. Im assuming Inspire didn’t do very well. I didn’t care for it at all but I love Christina and would love for her to try again. We’ll see.
Good question, and I have no idea…I’m assuming it didn’t do well but only because there didn’t seem to be all that much interest online.