Elizabeth Taylor's perfume legacy and celebrity fragrances

With the passing of Elizabeth Taylor last week, I took my miniature bottles of her perfumes out of storage to give them their moment in the spotlight, on my dresser.

Perfume is an art form, one that lives on past the creator of the fragrance and the face of the brand. Elizabeth Taylor was the first to have a successful "celebrity fragrance" release, when she put her name on Passion in 1987. I find it inspiring to think that she can live on through her brand and never truly be gone.

Passion is the purple bottle here:

Passion is an 80's "powerhouse" fragrance: bold, strong and will waft around long after you have left the room. It is musky, masculine, and at my age, reminds me of teachers and grandparents. Passion is very inexpensive, partly because the ingredients are synthetic, and because it has been mass produced for a very long time, lowering manufacturing costs. Regardless of the low cost to the consumer, Elizabeth Taylor still made a fortune on this release, due to its popularity.

I also have a miniature of White Diamonds, which is the more popular of the two fragrances. Here's the bottle in focus:

You can see the trademark 'diamond' on the front of the bottle there. Larger bottles have more elaborate toppers, but this one is just a mini. White Diamonds was a 1991 release and remains both widely available and a fan favourite. It is a powdery floral that many will recognize, probably from the older ladies in their lives. Again, it is a strong 80's fragrance that will linger long after you do.

Elizabeth Taylor was not the last celebrity to put her name on a perfume, nor the last success story. Celebrity fragrances have become a definite staple in the perfume industry, and are a lucrative business worth a lot of money. Within the perfume hobby community, though, celebrity fragrances are extremely unpopular, with few exceptions. Enthusiasts of the art of perfumery see celebrity releases as cheap, poor examples of the art with inexpensive, repetitive and synthetic ingredients. Perhaps I might make the comparison with how lovers of fine paintings feel about mass produced cartoon postcards.

I can't bring myself to hate celebrity fragrances, but I also enjoy things at the opposite end of the spectrum. Celebrity frags are designed for mass popularity and sale, and some people feel there is no art in that. Elizabeth Taylor certainly showed us that art or no, there is good business in this design, and as long as people go on enjoying her line, I'm sure she'll go on living in those bottles.

There are a few articles on this subject you might want to check out for some more information:

Boorstin, J. (2005). THE SCENT OF CELEBRITY: Eau de J. Lo? Beckham in a bottle? Star-powered fragrances are hotter than ever, and Coty has mastered the formula. . Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/11/14/8360679/index.htm

Gross, M. (1987). ELIZABETH TAYLOR'S PASSION, A PERFUME. Retrieved from http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE7DB1230F936A25752C0A961948260

Nakashima, R. (2011). Taylor endorsed a lucrative line of fragrances expected to live on long after her death. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5j3sQbiwbawpc8bGVR7lPFT2wvGIg?docId=6376901

Respers, L. (2011). Obsessions: Elizabeth Taylor, queen of cologne. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/celebrity.news.gossip/03/25/taylor.celebrity.scents/index.html

Our scent talks about us, and we should talk about scents

Why should anyone care about perfume?

Perfumery has been accused of being no more than a luxury consumer item, frivolous hobby, or even an allergy-inducing irritant. In the last century, this concept was fueled by the fact that perfume was an expensive item, produced primarily by designer houses like Chanel. These days though, perfumery is used in soap, lotion, cosmetics, detergent, laundry products, cleaners, medication, candles, cooking and food production and as a subtle (?) marketing technique to influence our purchase decisions.

Hey you smell like my mom....

It is easy to think that the most our body scent might tell someone is whether we shower regularly. However, subconsciously, and through social norms in culture, perfumes of all kinds can indicate gender, age and even wealth. Deeper in the subconscious, scent and memory are tied closely together, we can accidentally remind someone of their grandmother by wearing her perfume, for example. Many of these interactions can cause someone to feel nostalgic, happy or sad, just via subconscious scent memories. We can't possibly know what perfumes have scent memories for other people, but through education, we can affect our own moods and understand our own reactions.

Controversy

Lets talk about chemicals for a moment. There are a growing number of co-workers claiming "allergic reactions" to "ALL" perfume, and there is panic over parabens in cosmetics, aluminum in anti-perspirants and triclosan in soaps, so it is important to at least have an understanding of what we surround ourselves with and why.

Here's a sample soap that I use with triclosan as the active ingredient. 

This is a popular brand available for a few dollars, something that could be in any home, yet it contains the antibacterial/antifungal agent triclosan. Some people are concerned that this chemical assists with the formation of drug-resistant bacteria (among other possible environmental effects).



What does our scent say about us?

Perfume is a fashion statement, a statement to others subconscious and displays things about us whether we like it or not. Even the absence of perfume is a statement, of some kind. With that in mind, we should all understand at least what messages our body scent and the things we use in our home are sending, and make sure those are consistent with how we want to live. Just like showing up to work in a tracksuit is only appropriate in some jobs, your body odor is part of your wardrobe, too. Make sure it matches the image you want to project!

The secret bottom drawer

To follow up my previous post, I admit that I still indulge when I return to Australia for visits and buy myself some Impulse. It lives secretly in my bottom drawer and I always bring back a little extra for my New Zealander friend. After all, the smell of home for a few dollars and space in a drawer is a real deal.

Why do I love perfumes?

Although make-up and nail polish never appealed to me as a teenager, I did get caught up in the body spray and deodorant craze.

Growing up in the heat of Australia, full of energy and hormones, we were always too hot, and frequently smelly, so scented sprays seemed like a necessary obsession that my parents were happy to pay for. At my school, the fad in body spray was the brand Impulse, which is actually not even an anti-perspirant, (probably for the best considering we sprayed it everywhere; our hair, face and gym bag included). Impulse is responsible for my love of fragrance. In the 90's, the company would frequently bring out new scents in brightly colored cans with mysterious and attractive titles. I had to have every single one and certain scents became synonymous with important events in my teenage life.

Impulse was a cheap indulgence in the world of perfumery, and at the time (in Australia), it was one of the only available ones. The only 'Body Shop' was in the city and everything else was out of my price range as a teenager with a small allowance. All the same, my mom tried to encourage me with some bottles of real, actual perfume. But it seemed like a luxury item, I barely used them for fear of wasting them and many were too mature or floral for my teenage nose. So I stuck with my body spray and at school we exchanged and shared our favorite cans after every sports class.

It wasn't until I was all grown up, across the world, and had money to spend frivolously that I realised how exciting perfume is as a hobby. Our nose and brain work in amazing tandem with emotion and recollection. A whiff of a familiar scent can transport you back to the exact day and time you last wore it, even if you thought the memories long-forgotten. It is exciting to find yourself transported to another place and time just by a sniff, and perfume is inspiring in the same way as any other form of art, in its form and variety.

You will find on this blog a vast collection of my explorations in perfumery. From my love of Bath and Body Works and The Body Shop, that craft popular scents for the mass-audience, to my search for the weird and wonderful in the niche world of perfume. Some days I want to smell like coconut and others I crave smoky firewood or sugary candy, so my perfume travels are always varied and vast. I hope you enjoy the journey with me on this blog!