BellaSugar

Jennifer Lopez vs. Sean Combs: A Fragrant Battle of the Exes

BellaSugar — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:57:27 PDT

Let the showdown begin! Sean Combs and Jennifer Lopez have each released fragrances in the past year: Jennifer's Deseo ($46–$56) and Diddy's Unforgivable Woman ($55–$75). It's not the first foray into the fragrance world for either, but with Deseo expected to make millions in its first year alone, and P. Diddy's nomination for a CEW award, these ex-lovahs both have a lot at stake. But whose scent is better? For a side-by-side comparison,

	Deseo by Jennifer Lopez	Unforgivable Woman by Sean John	Advantage?
The Ads	A scantily clad Lopez lounges in a hammock in a tropical locale. It's pretty, but haven't we seen this sort of thing before?	Big stud Sean is flanked by scantily clad women strewn across a bed, looking as though they've just engaged in some serious Diddy-diddlin'.	Diddy's ad seems like it belongs in a men's magazine of questionable pedigree. (In fact, his commercials were banned for being too racy). Jen's ad is just yet another glamour shot - nothing groundbreaking - but I'd rather be the woman in her ad than one of the women in Diddy's. So Jen wins, but just barely.
The Inspiration	"A midnight walk in Jennifer's flower garden just before a thunderstorm."	"The essence of sensuality that intoxicates the senses, that expresses what it is to be the unforgivable woman."	Prancing around in Jen's garden sounds a lot more enjoyable than being scolded with Diddy's unintelligible take on female sexuality. Lopez for the win!
Bottle	A faceted, angular turquoise glass with a gold top.	A traditional, minimalist light pink frosted bottle	J.Lo takes this one. Diddy's is unforgivably blah.
How it smells	Fruity and sweet with a hint of coconut.	Musky and spicy, with a strong note of Jamaican rum.	Diddy wins. His fragrance is slightly more complex, less sweet, and more daring - as long as you don't mind smelling a little boozy.

Source

Inside the World of Celebrity Scents

BellaSugar — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:00:07 PDT

Eighty-four percent of you say you're sick of celebrity fragrances, but you must be anomalies-because celeb perfumes are selling like crazy. Some of the interesting bits from the story:

There's big bucks in this business. Euromonitor International, a Chicago-based market research firm, reports that worldwide sales of the top seven celebrity scent lines-just the top seven!-totaled $353.6 million last year.
Diddy's sitting pretty. A lot of you find his Unforgivable ads cheesy, but the scent is doing just fine. Last year, it did $74.9 million in sales.
Inside the contract: Fragrance companies such as Coty and Elizabeth Arden produce and develop the fragrance, then the star's name goes on the bottle. Contract details are kept private, but the industry standard is to give the celeb 5–10% of sales, with a possible signing bonus.
Jennifer Lopez has made many cents out of scents. Forbes writes: "In 2006, Lopez's net worth was about $110 million, according to Forbes' list of the 20 richest women in entertainment-but her last CD was a flop, as were her last several movies. Sales of her fragrances, including Glow and Live Luxe, totaled $77 million in 2006."

What I'd really like to know-and what the story doesn't reveal, unfortunately-is the extent to which celebrities are involved in creating their scents. I've heard that Hilary Duff had a lot of input and feedback on hers, and I can see Gwen Stefani knowing what she wanted for L. Somehow, though, I'm not convinced that Britney Spears was actively involved in making Believe-at least, not with all of her personal drama this year.

Love It or Hate It? Diddy's Banned Unforgivable Commercial

BellaSugar — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 15:25:54 PDT

Another day, another fragrance ad that's bound to ruffle a few feathers. Yesterday, it was Tom Ford's crotchtastic photo and now it's Diddy's commercial. MTV has deemed his spot for Unforgivable Woman too racy to air. But he refuses to edit it, so now it's online. It's supposed to be sexy, but to me, it seems more cheesy than anything else. Take a look and let me know what you think.