Elizabeth Taylor's White Diamonds fragrance is the best-selling celebrity perfume of all time, according to a research company.
The fragrance recorded US sales of $67 million in 2008, followed by Unforgivable, a scent endorsed by Sean Diddy Combs, which racked up $48.5 million.
— From Sweet smell of success for Liz Taylor at Monsters & Critics.
No big surprise here, really. While not a scent I’d ever wear, I can see how White Diamonds would reach such acclaim. I remember watching the first commercials and there was just something very intriguing about Liz and her sultry, ‘This always brought me luck.’
I’d love to see the original report at Euromonitor that shows the sales figures…this says “of all time” but then appears to report figures only for 2008. I’m having trouble believing White Diamonds sold that much in 2008 alone — if it did, trust me, they’d be launching a new Liz Taylor scent every 6 months. (Although I do hear they’re doing a new one in 2010).
Also possible that they really mean “by 2008” as opposed to “in 2008”.
I admittedly wore this when I was in high school. I tried to buy a bottle again about ten years ago and was disappointed by how cheap it smelled–I don’t know if it was me that changed, or if they really did cheapen it. That said, I hate to say anything bad about Liz. I’ve always loved her. Seems like she was even glamorous as a child.
I think this is definitely one of those scents where the endorsement sells it. I can’t really recall how it smells so I wouldn’t be able to tell if they’ve cheapened it or not, but taste in perfume can change. When I was 16 I loved Lancome’s Miracle. I smelled a my old bottle of it when I was visiting my parents a few weeks ago and couldn’t imagine touching it now.
Love Liz as well, which is why I can see her endorsement alone intriguing many. Cleopatra selling a bottle of perfume, yeah I can see how one could buy into that.
I would not be at all surprised if they’ve stopped investing as much in the juice…I doubt it is a huge seller today.
To me. Dame Liz is one of the last of the quintessenital Hollywood movie stars! Love her of hate her, she was always intriguing! I love her but I never liked the perfume. I wish her the best of luck with any new release and I will surely try it!
$$$ Wow.
Yah!
White Diamonds is still very popular. We can’t keep stock at my Macy’s. Even the S.A at the Macy’s in San Francisco said around October through December it’s hard for them to keep stock. Not to mention I’ve seen that White Diamonds three times this month! Ughhhh! It seems like every woman over 55 has this! I guess since it’s wayyyy more affordable than C.No5! Both of them are disgusting, however I do love looking at the commercial and looking at how Beautiful Elizabeth was. She’s one of my favorite actresses. She has a twitter and she even had her fans help her with the name of the new scent. Violet Eyes won.
She was really gorgeous, wasn’t she?
Elizabeth Taylor is our Americanized Grand Dame, and totally deserving of the title.
Yes.
I have to say that when White Diamonds first came out, I thought it was absolutely gorgeous. I remember it to be an aldehydic floral chypre along the line of First (not saying they’re the same, but gave the same feel of opulence and elegance). That said, I’m glad I wasn’t willing to part with my precious $$ then, especially when I saw the flankers come out, which made it all seem so cheesy.
I loved Miss Taylor for all the fabulous work she has done and of the image of beauty she projected. I just wish that she was willing to age more gracefully instead of becoming a caricature of herself.
Is she not aging gracefully?? I mean, has she had silly cosmetic surgery or something?
How funny to see this. I saw that famously cheesy tv commercial a couple times before Christmas and I realized the ad must be close to twenty years old, no? And it’s still being played! I enjoy it in a kitschy way, but it’s like seeing reruns of the Golden Girls… it takes me back in time.
I think Liz herself is amazing (“Butterfield 8” and “Virginia Woolf” are really something else), but I’ve never smelled WD and can’t say I’m anxious to!
I’d love to see fragrance sales figures for every product line. How does this, for instance, compare with EL Beautiful? Is there anyone under age 50 or 55 wearing WD? Those sales figures would represent about one million units or more, and I don’t know if that seems outrageous or entirely plausible. Probably entirely plausible on a global level, no?
So far as I know (and hope someone will collect me if I’m wrong), there are no reliable, comprehensive sales figures on perfumes, period. NPD Group collects data but only from certain kinds of mainstream stores, and I don’t know where Euromonitor got the data reported on in the article above. But willing to bet EL Beautiful outsells WD by a mile, and still don’t think the sales figure given for WD is plausible for one year, 2008, although of course I could be entirely mistaken!