It’s the Noughties: the Spice Girls are on hiatus, The Simple Life is on TV, Carrie has been dumped by Post-It on Sex and the City, and everyone wants to smell like Britney, Paris, J Lo or P Diddy. For this is the era of the celebrity fragrance, when Jennifer Lopez launched a thousand celebrity scents with that first spritz of Glow, a citrusy perfume in an ombré hourglass bottle that was released at her “Jenny From The Block” peak, when she was one half of Bennifer the first time around.
Britney, J Lo, Beyoncé and co are behind some of the bestselling fragrances of all time, their branded scents featured as hero products on Christmas gift lists, lining the shelves at Boots every November, wafting across department store counters through December, and, in the case of certain flash-in-the-pan efforts, marked down in chemists by January. These mid-range gift sets were as much of a Noughties beauty staple as Lancôme Juicy Tubes or hair mascara – and they sold in their millions.
In the years after its 2004 release, one bottle of Britney’s first perfume, Curious, made in partnership with Elizabeth Arden, sold every 15 seconds during pre-Christmas retail peaks – and the scent reportedly enjoyed a resurgence in sales last year following the release of the Framing Britney Spears documentary and her engagement announcement. Not that it ever truly went away. Curious’s aqua-hued gemstone bottle, with dangly pink heart charms and the tagline “Do you dare?”, amassed 500 million sales between 2004 and 2013, demonstrating serious staying power even when Spears herself had drifted out of the public eye.
Lopez’s Glow, meanwhile, enjoyed $100 million in sales in its first year; Beyoncé’s first fragrance, Heat, broke sales records at Macy’s department store (shifting 72,000 bottles within the first hour of its 2010 release), and when Nicki Minaj launched her debut, Pink Friday, it swiftly became the UK’s top-selling fragrance.
These sales figures – enjoyed in similar measure by stars including Sarah Jessica Parker and Mariah Carey (butterfly topped bottles, obviously), Christina Aguilera (now on her 20th fragrance), Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift, who released Wonderstruck in 2011 – represent authentically desirable scents that came to rival classics, thanks to the noses of the industry’s top perfumers, and the selling power of the celebrities who collaborated with them.
However, just as all trends wane, by the latter half of the last decade, the cool credentials of all but the bestsellers dwindled and sales dipped, as every girl band, boy band and reality star entered the market, and ageing millennials simultaneously grew keener on lighting Gwyneth Paltrow’s vagina-scented candle at dinner parties, or drinking Cameron Diaz’s wine. Artisanal, niche and indie scents, like Le Labo, seized the space as an antidote to a celebrity-flooded industry. Even Kim Kardashian ended production on her KKW fragrances earlier this year, after nearly 50 releases (though she has a future rebrand and relaunch in mind).
But, just as surely as the sun rises, trends cycle back around, and the fragrance world cannot escape the revival of absolutely everything Y2K. A new generation of more grown up, luxe scents has emerged over the past couple of years, led by some of the most influential women on the planet. Rihanna’s £145 Fenty Eau de Parfum – spicy, seductive, unisex and the result of a collaboration with LVMH’s master perfumer – has earned a spot among the most popular fragrances on the market, while Billie Eilish’s Eilish No 2 – a sultry, woody scent and the second she’s put her name to – set for release this month, should leave no one in doubt about the alt-cool status of new-gen celebrity perfumes.
Meanwhile, Michelle Pfeiffer launched her own fragrance house, Henry Rose, back in 2019, and has put out 11 genderless scents that are considered to be some of the cleanest and most environmentally-friendly fragrances on the market.
Even TikTok has delivered some new pretenders. When influencer Crishelle Lim brought her musky viral fragrance, Missing Person by Phlur, to the UK this autumn it sold out in five hours, leaving a waiting list of over 200,000 empty-handed.
Perfume critic Chandler Burr once said of scent: “It’s the single best tool for monetising celebrity that’s ever been created in the history of the world.” But what not so long ago might have been sniffed at as savvy seasonal marketing ploys are once again serious business, producing some seriously gorgeous scents. Those that work go beyond fandom and the suggestion of closeness to a superstar, to truly last. Indeed, when Elizabeth Taylor died in 2011, her White Diamonds perfume, released 20 years earlier in 1991, was still making her $61 million a year – far more than any acting role.
Britney has now released over 30 fragrances, Ariana Grande’s are the most searched for on the internet, and I can still hear the breathy sound of Sarah Jessica Parker’s voice at the end of her 2005 advert for Lovely, which somehow poured how we all imagined Carrie Bradshaw to smell into a bottle.
And just last week, one of the first celebrities to find success in the space, Paris Hilton, released Love Rush, her 29th fragrance, which blends Italian bergamot and white apricot nectar in a bridal-inspired bottle. “Fragrance?” she wrote on Instagram to mark the launch. “Loves it.” She’s far from alone.
