Perfume

Musician Jon Bon Jovi is known for a lot of things: '80s rock anthems, perfectly coiffed hair, and tight leather pants, just to name a few. But now the artist can add another title to his list of accomplishments: fragrance man. Avon has tapped Bon Jovi to be the face of two new scents: Unplugged For Her and Him.

Both Bon Jovi and Avon are committed to charitable work, so this seemingly random pairing may be a match made in heaven. "[Avon's] philosophy of empowerment sends a strong message and I'm pleased to partner with them," Bon Jovi said in a statement. Unplugged For Him is slated for release in November and contains notes of wood and musk. But look out for Unplugged For Her — available in October — which is a more floral, oriental scent. That sounds just as tempting as singing along to "Living on a Prayer" at karaoke night.

With her numerous award nominations and impressive list of film work, it's clear that Jessica Chastain's Hollywood star is on the rise. But her new gig as the ambassadress for Yves Saint Laurent's latest fragrance, Manifesto, seals the deal. "We were won over by the very subtle strength of Jessica Chastain, her solar charm, her free mind," Stephan Bezy of Yves Saint Laurent Beauté explained to WWD.

"Yves Saint Laurent is a brand that inspires me deeply," Jessica said of her latest role. "Since its creation, the brand has conveyed strong values that I cherish, such as an unwavering commitment, absolute love and feminine audacity. This new fragrance is an emblem of it all." Jessica is in good company, as well; she joins Emily Blunt in the YSL family (Emily is the ambassadress for the line's popular Opium scent). Manifesto is set to launch in France this August, with a US release planned for early next year.

We all have a sense of smell, and we all use it constantly, whether we realize it or not. Scents and smell are two of the most important yet often overlooked elements of everyday experience. Want to learn a few truly amazing facts about the things your nose knows? Then just keep reading.

So, you've been spritzing your favorite fragrance on your hair to get a scent that wafts through the air with every hair flip. And while perfume can mask smoke and other unwanted odors, the question remains: Is it safe for your strands? It turns out, there are a couple things you should ask yourself before you turn your body spray into a hair mist.

What's in this? Eau de parfums usually contain a high alcohol content in order to make the scent last — even up to 20 percent. Although alcohol is a necessary evil, when you're searching for a type to spray in strands, look for a brand with lower levels (10 percent or less), recommends celebrity stylist Serge Normant. Also, consider if the perfume contains ingredients that can be good for your hair. Normant, for instance, is set to launch a low-alcohol fragrance for hair and body, Avah, on June 1, and the juice is formulated with hair-nourishing vitamin E, jojoba oil, and aloe vera.

How should I apply it? If you decide to spritz your hair with a fragrance, don't get it too close because it will rewet your hair and saturate it with alcohol. Normant recommends spraying the product in the air instead, and then walking through to get a light mist. Ahh.

Source: Flickr User AMELIA SPEED formerly foxandfeathers

In the 21st century, appreciation for "that new-car smell" may finally have been usurped by a scent that's much better aligned with the zeitgeist — the scent of an Apple Macbook Pro. Scent marketer Air Aroma says its labs have captured the bouquet of a freshly unboxed MacBook, and now the fragrance is being used as ambient scent for an art exhibition in Australia. The notes are exactly what you might expect: "the smell of the plastic wrap covering the box, printed ink on the cardboard, the smell of paper and plastic components within the box, and of course the aluminum laptop which has come straight from the factory where it was assembled in China."

How does one even begin to make such a scent, though? With an actual laptop, of course. An unopened MacBook Pro was sent to Air Aroma's suppliers in France, and from there, the noses "used the scents they observed unboxing the new Apple computer to source fragrance samples." The scent isn't being mass produced as of now, but there are undoubtedly some gadget junkies who'd probably be more than happy to catch a whiff of this unconventional fragrance.

She has done nail polish with OPI and makeup with MAC, and now Nicki Minaj is headed into the arena of scents. Nicki's debut fragrance will launch through Give Back Brands LLC (the same company that released Justin Bieber's Someday), WWD reports. "I have always been a huge fan of great fragrances," Nicki said. "This is yet another extension of my creative expression. I designed the scent and bottle with my Barbz in mind." Her Barbz (fans, for those who don't speak Minaj) won't have to wait long; the scent will arrive this Fall.

Nicki's funky and ever-changing style garnered her the first BellaSugar Best Trendsetter Award. No word on what the juice will smell like or how the bottle will be designed, but if we had to guess there will be plenty of pink — and a little cheetah print, of course.

There are a lot of celebrity fragrances out there, but Madonna isn't just any famous face. So it follows that any perfume she'd make would be suitably fabulous. Her new scent, Truth or Dare, is definitely not what you'd expect from a celebrity endeavor — or even what you'd expect from the commercial above, for that matter. All the sexy fishnets and mirror gazing might lead you to believe that this is going to be a big, man-eating chypre (or, less optimistically, a particularly treacly fruity floral). Instead, the juice inside what has to be the best fragrance flacon of the young 21st century is decidedly . . . nicer.

In place of something aggressive and borderline feral, it's a pretty, slightly powdery jasmine with faint traces of spicy gardenia running underneath. It's actually more vintage than modern, a sort of sentimentality you wouldn't expect from Madonna. Truth or Dare bows at Macy's in April, where we daresay you should go ahead and give it a sniff.

Leave it to Marc Jacobs to create a new perfume that's adorable and eccentric in equal measure. The new scent, Dot, won't hit shelves Stateside until August, but from the look of its packaging and its listed notes, it should be in good company with its sister fragrances, Daisy and Lola. Dot's bottle (above) looks a lot like Daisy, if Daisy decided to dress up like Minnie Mouse and hit the town, that is.

The scent profile, on the other hand, seems to be reminiscent of Lola's, employing the same vanilla and creamy musk base, but topped off with sweet floral notes like honeysuckle, jasmine, and orange blossom. Dot also has a coconut water note, suggesting that it may be a more tropical scent than its predecessors. But we'll have to wait and see on that front. So far, though, this is one of the few times we wouldn't mind having a big old bug sitting on our vanities.

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Scent is a very powerful thing. Whether we recognize it or not, our noses are capable of analyzing thousands of smells. And subconsciously, we're constantly using olfaction to evaluate our environment. As you might expect with a faculty that we use so often, research has shown that smells can have a profound effect on mood, and particular smells have a positive effect on the majority of people. So find out which scents have been shown to perk you up.