Celebrity fragrances, like celebrities themselves, can sometimes be elegant and alluring and sometimes vacant, brain-dead white trash. They are not all bad. J Lo’s and Naomi Campbell’s are a couple I have smelt in the past and thought they could pass the ‘Pepsi challenge’ if one was blindfolded.
— Linda Pilkington of niche line Ormonde Jayne, quoted in Are they not fragrant?, an article about celebrity fragrances at The Financial Times.
Hmmm. Apparently I haven’t smelled the same JLo perfumes as Linda Pilkington. And I own one or two.
They are nice but I’d never mistake them for anything but what they are; sort of fun and smells nice but definitely not anything with an upscale feel. Though I have heard good things about Naomi Campbell’s frags, which I’ve never tried. However, I would never mistake a JLo for an Ormonde Jayne.
And this quote:”According to Coty’s Mormoris, “Celebrities are cultural icons. They are often beautiful, accomplished, wealthy and sexy – all dreams that consumers project themselves into if they are wearing that celebrity’s personal fragrance,” which can make for a powerful package”… Uh no.
I *think* all she is saying is that they’re not all bad, and I’d agree with that completely, in fact, I’d go further…I’d say, as I often do, that they’re no better or worse than many non-celebrity fragrances of the same price and geared towards the same audience. And they’re all made by the same people at the same companies, so it’s all the same in the end other than the advertising approach.
But yeah, I’ll take Ormonde Jayne Frangipani over the lot of them!
Im afraid the celebrities I ‘respond to’ and would most like ‘to be like’ are not ones who would be fronting a new celeb fragrance! Can you imagine an Anna Paquin EDT, or a Cate Blanchette Parfum? Well actually, now that I mention it…anyone have the number of those public research people – I have a suggestion!
Now see, if either of them launched a fragrance I’d lose respect for them…so that’s the double edged sword.
Knowing Linda thinks it’s okay to call people “white trash” makes me respect her less. Okay, I’ll go back to my over-sensitive corner now.
Hmm, I had the same reaction. Being a non-Caucasian, it even makes me wonder what else she might say.
And as others have stated, the celebrities I might find inspirational are hardly likely to EVER launch a fragrance. The one exception – as someone mentioned in the “Celebrity Frangrances I’d Like To See” piece – is Tilda Swinton’s Like This. Love her, and still love and wear it often.
I thought it was a US slang term…did not even know it was used in the UK.
I agree it just makes you wonder what more offensive things she would say.Sounds like a snob.
SJP’s Lovely good enough to be a Chanel? Once I would have said that, although I like Lovely very much, it’s not in the Chanel league. No way. But some recent Chanel releases made me re-assess. I like No 19 Poudre but as a Chanel I find it a disappointment.
Recently I stood in my bedroom looking at them both and thinking that – weirdly – they are not that far apart after all in terms of style and quality. (Miles apart in terms of cost and snob value, of course!)