The top 10 selling perfumes for women in the US for 2008: Estee Lauder Beautiful, Chanel Coco Mademoiselle, Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue, Chanel No. 5, Donna Karan Cashmere Mist, Clinique Happy, Estee Lauder Pleasures, Calvin Klein Euphoria, Estee Lauder Sensuous, Ralph Lauren Romance. (via nytimes)
The top 5 selling men's fragrances in France for 2008: Jean Paul Gaultier Le Mâle, Boss by Hugo Boss, Christian Dior Eau Sauvage, Diesel Fuel For Life For Him, Hermès Terre d’Hermès. You can see the top selling women's perfumes here. (via fashionmag.fr)
Claudia Schiffer will be the face of the upcoming fragrance from Alberta Ferretti; Zoë Kravitz will be the new face of Vera Wang Princess. (via prnewswire and wwd, respectively)
Note: image via Images de Parfums.
The only fragrance that I really like in the women’s top 10 is Sensuous – & I’m glad to see it there.
Same here!
I really wanted to like Sensuous – it seemed different, new, a bit interesting and I thought potentially a nice gift for someone – but to me it smelt like a combination of bug spray and chocolate. And while I like both (hate spiders so bug spray gets a lot of action in my house and love chocolate) not sure I want my wife to smell like that. That’s the beauty of perfume, I guess, obviously people out there are into it!
LOL — “bug spray and chocolate” cracked me up!
EL certainly is well represented!
Yep!
Holy moly, five of the top US sellers are EL brands.
Huh, I like and wear 3, 4, and 5 of the top French brands for men. One more reason to move to Paris.
Did you need more reasons 😉
after all, just think of the croissants….
And the macarons…
And the brioche…
😉
It’s clear that we need a road trip to France! or we’re hungry….
My vote goes for France!
Glad to see Hermes made the top 5. My husband loves Terre d’Hermes. As for my love, Coco Mademoiselle.
Yes, I like 2 of the top 5 for men in France. Would love to know what they are in the US…
Wow, there is a lot of Estee Lauder on that list! I just tried Sensuous for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and I love it.
It’s a great scent, I think.
That isn’t as bad a list as I would have feared. No Paris or Britney or Pink Sugar. Maybe there is still hope. Nice to see EL doing so well – they really are good with perfume in their quiet little unexpected way.
Exactly. I’m always surprised to see Beautiful top the list since I never smell it “on the street”, but I do smell Pleasures & it’s a great scent.
Maybe women buy Beautiful and wear it once…for their weddings. Although I don’t know anyone who has.
Maybe that’s it…also always wonder how many of those Chanel No. 5 sales are for gifts that never get worn? I mean, these just aren’t the scents that I smell when I’m out & about. Light Blue, that’s another matter — I smell that everywhere.
I’m sure someone will have proof that I’m wrong about this, but these seem to all (well, the women’s, anyway) be fragrances that have really good advertising. Which isn’t to say that they’re not good fragrances (a couple of my favorites are in there), but just goes to show that the majority of people buy what’s marketed to them. Again, someone will argue my point, I’m sure. 🙂
That seems a fair comment. EL has run with those bridal ads for Beautiful for years, so they must work. I agree with with Fernando’s comment below regarding the names (‘Beautiul’) etc. SJP’s Lovely is another obvious example. They signal a fairly conservative fragrance experience (not that that is meant to be a criticism).
I’m often faintly amused at the thought of the risk that the perfume houses run if, by some mischance in the development, the fragrance turns out NOT to be Beautiful or Lovely and so on. What if Happy makes people feel UNhappy? Whhoops …
LOL…but of course someone will! I do think advertising pays a big role, but there are lots of companies that spend millions on decent advertising & still don’t win. There has to be something to the juice as well.
It’s great to see a classic like No. 5 on the list given the sea of fruity florals that seem so much more popular, at least when I’m out in a crowd. And Sensuous is absolutely gorgeous. I do like Cashmere Mist as well. It’s not the most unique scent, but just smells clean and a bit like laundry soap, which is all right when I just want something that “smells good.”
Chanel No. 5 is amazing…always on both French & US lists.
What struck me were the names of many of the perfumes: Beautiful, Happy, Pleasures, Euphoria, Sensuous, Romance. No sassy names (Insolence, Indecence,…) either. Dare we conclude that American women want to be beautiful, sensuous, and happy and dream of romance, pleasures, and maybe even euphoria?
I guess if you’re at the Lauder counter and you have to choose between Youth Dew or Knowing and Beautiful or Sensuous, the tendency is to go with the latter!
Could be!
A very astute observation. And as AnneMarie pointed out, sort of indicates a conservative perfume experience desired by the American (female) consumer. Very astute on the part of Estee Lauder, too. A lot of people consider perfume a fashion accessory more than an art form (as appreciated on this site!), and accessories fill a very democratic function in fashion. Not many of us can pull off couture gowns in size 2 (even assuming we could afford them), but any woman can wear a nice black dress with a great scarf, super belt, and killer perfume. And all of these will make us feel attractive and feminine. Or, if you will, Beautiful, Happy, and Sensuous.
I sort of miss one of the “Happy” flankers called “Happy to Be”…does anyone know if Clinique still makes it? I never see it around.
I just ordered some lipstick from Clinique this week, and saw that the only other Happy flanker they still sell, on the website, at least, is Happy Heart.
I don’t think they do.
Happy To Be is discontinued. Happy In Bloom is LE.
I think you posted one of these just a couple months back and I remarked at the time that I didn’t know “Beautiful” was so big. I have never smelled it and would like to just to know what it’s like.
I have to admit I smelled the sillage of Light Blue from an acquaintance once and had to ask what she was wearing because it smelled very good, for all the flack it gets.
The only top French men’s scent I’ve tried is my beloved Terre; I need to do more sampling, obviously.
I’d love to be privy to the whole list, including sales figures. Did you see Burr’s accompanying article? Interesting commentary including the perhaps obvious idea that the importance of such lists encourage companies more and more to spend less on the juice and more on advertising.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/20/business/20perfume.html
Yeah, although not sure I’m swayed by the argument…
I actually like Light Blue…just not on me. It turns very, very sour. TG I didn’t buy that one unsniffed!
Interesting that many of the fragrances on the lists are not flankers. Is that a sign that the main fragrance in a line is usually better (maybe that the fragrance houses invest less in the ingredients for flankers?).
Or just that a majority of fragrance buyers stick to what they know? Perhaps a lot of consumers lose their way in all the flankers. I know I do.
True that flankers don’t usually make the top 10, but would love to know how many are in the top 100!
So Beautiful is still the queen… I don’t think it’s ever going to be knocked off first place.
You might be right.
I have an off-topic question. Some posters here have neat little icons with individualized photos. How do they get those? Silly, but I’m really curious. Sorry to be off-topic!
You have to sign up for a gravatar account with the same email address that you used to register for this site – after that, you upload the picture that you want and you’ll be able to use your gravatar at any site that uses them.
Thank you!
Go to gravatar.com, BTW.
Oi
Gostei da top lista . A maioria dos perfumes é excelente! Beijocas
Hi
I liked top list. The majority of the perfumes is excellent! XOXO. Elisabeth
Glad you liked it!
Isn’t it kind of impressive that Sensuous is in the top ten, considering it just came out in the middle of last year? The rest seem to be long-established, old guard scents that have been around and in such lists for at least five years.
What do y’all think?
Well, I think the real test is whether Sensuous will be in the top ten in five years… or next year! But yes, seems pretty impressive for a recent launch; I’m sure EL is thrilled.
Yes, I think so.
I have a theory that may be a well known fact – not sure – but I think the majority of women who wear perfume find one or possibly two perfumes they like, and stick with it/them forever, thus the appearance of older scents in the top sellers lists. I know of so many people who stick with same ol’ same ol’ safe signature scents. Sure, Chanel No 5 is an incredible scent! But I think it also tends to be a “go to” scent for many, many women who have no idea which scent to wear and think, well, Chanel No 5 is THE greatest perfume ever made (via advertising and all the press, etc., etc.), so I’ll just buy that and know that I’m OK. Rather than bother with trying scent upon scent, it’s easier to go with the advertising and with the majority. If a scent is popular, it must smell good, so buy it.
All of that is true, no doubt, but still think it’s odd that I never smell it on anyone — makes me think all those bottles are sitting on dressers, unused.
So true!!!
Thats the picture in Russia for May:
First there goes top 10 for women
and then top 10 for men
http://www.etoya.ru/company/2009/06/08/3819/
boring!
Interesting, thanks! Is that just for one store?
I wonder when the fifi awards will stop being swayed by this stuff.
There is such a damn correlation between $ and fifi awards. Blah blah blah is what all these fragrances mutter to me.
I mean, c’mon. It’d be like if indiana jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull would be considered for an oscar just because it got third at the box office 2008.
(yeah yeah dark night might disprove my point a little, but the overdose did have a little to do with that.)
I don’t care if anyone of you think Harrison is handsome. It did not deserve an oscar ( for more reasons than that terrible little groundhog that looked all surprised after indi escaped the conveniently lead lined fridge.)
Robin, what do you think is the best hope of having a merit based awards system? Of having awards go to fragrances that make your nose sing instead of paying for givaudan’s bling?
Not that I have anything against any of you givaudeners (correct plural?) out there 🙂
Hmmm…do bear in mind that the Fifis do allow consumer voting, although how many consumers vote & how much weight their vote is given, I don’t know. BUT, just as in film, consumers might actually choose to give Indiana Jones an Oscar, right? Film critics, presumably, would not. And so it is with perfume. Would not be at all surprised if consumers picked about the same scents that the Fragrance Foundation did. Does that mean they’re excellent fragrances? Obviously not.
so the logical continuation of your thought is obvious; you should get together with the higher echelons of the various fragrance blogs and make your own. Maybe name it something a bit more grand than what you would find on a toy poodle’s collar.
“Come here fifi. come here. sit… up. Good girl! You’re such a good girl fifi!”
You can each select an entry, then you have to vote for one other than the one you submitted.
Please? Please?
I think the world would be a better(smelling) place if you did. Do the world a favor.
Maybe you could hold it in someone’s yard.
Basenotes does awards! It would be fun to have a perfume blogger’s award too, but not looking for another time drain at the moment…I’m still working on tagging all the old articles at NST.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Eau Sauvage were that popular in this country? I went looking for it at my local mall and none of the stores carried it, which was a surprise and a disappointment. I’d infinitely rather smell it than much of what I smell many men (and women!) wearing these days.
Eau Sauvage is great stuff! it is populare in my country and i wish if they have a softer version for ladies. i just got a bottle of it with aftersahve and stuff for my bf’s father.. do u think i made the right choise? i think i did since he lives by the port and loves fishing and he’s a very simple man
YES! But will just point out that you can buy it VERY cheaply here at the discounters.
How weird that I’ve worn none of the American women’s favorites but two of the French men’s favorites–and I’m an American woman? (OK, my mom was French.) I love Eau Sauvage, loved it forever. Sephora carries it, and it’s close to the Apple Store. I’m doomed.
The American women’s list is very conservative. I guess you could argue that so is the French men’s, but still…agree, I like their list better.
anything made by EL is nice, Beautiful is y mothers perfum, “also private collection and white linen”
i just can’t believe romance is on the list 🙁 i really truely deeply hate this perfume i used it when i was supposed to be in a romantic phase back in 2001 and it was ugly! it was a mistake that tought me to never buy a perfume without trying it on twice at least
Romance also has amazing staying power…it’s got to have been on the list for years.
with all these top sellers from EL , they still can’t make a profit.
EL is ‘bleeding’ with profits far down. too many flankers , not enough original concepts. But to be fair the retailers are pressuring every manufacturer for more more , new , new, endless cycle, then they buy too much, there is too much and voila, discount etailers have a field day.
Hard to say why they’re bleeding profits, but doubt it’s the flankers…
just testing my gravatar