UK celebrity Kelly Brook has launched Vivacious, her second fragrance for women (the first was Kelly by Kelly Brook):
Kelly Brook Vivacious is both classic and contemporary with sparkling top notes that give way to a rich and sumptuous gourmand base.
Both stylish and elegant, Kelly Brook Vivacious…
It’s an aspirational thing–consumers can buy into the celebrity’s lifestyle by wearing their fragrance. They can feel and smell like celebrities.
— Mary Ellen Lapsansky of The Fragrance Foundation, quoted in Celebrities fill up the fragrance counter.
That’s the standard explanation for the widespread appeal of celebrity fragrances, but I’ve always had a hard time with it. Your average “celebrity lifestyle” seems more likely to stand as a dire warning to be very careful what you wish for, or as an illustration of the age-old adage that money doesn’t buy happiness. Whatever your stance on the subject, Britney Spears, whose latest fragrance, Believe, is currently launching in stores, may have a hard time finding buyers for her lifestyle at the moment. So far this year, she has shaved her head, entered rehab, been accused of using a body double for her perfume ad, been mocked for her dismal performance at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, lost custody of her two children, and most recently, been hit with a sex tape scandal…
Britney Spears will launch her next fragrance, Believe, next month with the tag line “The greatest freedom is to believe in yourself”:
Top: Inner light shines outward with a mouthwatering top note of guava pulp and golden tangerine
Heart: A delicate blend..
If this is a fantasy, then let me have a dreamless sleep. It is cloyingly sweet. The fruity accords combined with the flowers make it sickly. Without wanting to turn people against me - who do these scents appeal to? It's like tepid fruit compote.
— Roja Dove, of the Roja Dove Haute Parfumerie in Harrods, on Britney Spears' Midnight Fantasy, quoted in today's Daily Mail.
Midnight Fantasy is the fourth and latest fragrance release from Britney Spears, and is meant as the sexy, late night (“a mysterious realm of temptation and intrigue”) follow-up to 2005’s Fantasy. It was created by perfumer Caroline Sabas, and the notes include black cherries, framboise, plum, orchid, freesia, iris, musk, amber and vanilla. The bottle (see it here) is the same as Fantasy’s, done up in dark blue.
If you were expecting a darker, warmer take on Fantasy’s medley of cupcake and sweet fruits, Midnight Fantasy may come as something of a surprise…