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Much unlike many a magazine editor who recommends you buy all sorts of crap that they most likely got for free, your Jezebel staff doesn't get jack shit (other than books, unsolicited). And that's how it should be. But on our own time, in our personal lives, we still buy stuff. So this is Worth It, our daily recommendation of random things that we've actually spent our own money on. These are the things we buy regularly or really like, things we'd actually tell our friends about. And now we're telling you. More »
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Ever wonder why the perfume you get as a gift doesn't usually smell as good to you as the stuff you pick out for yourself? Well, Dr. Jan Havlicek, an anthropologist in Prague, has found the answer: More »
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The UK is on fire, and ladies are to blame. Or, to be slightly more precise, essential oils in linens washed at low temperatures have caused a "spate" of house fires around Britain, according to the Telegraph. More »
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For as long as luxury companies have been selling fragrances, there have been ads that feature larger-than-life bottles of the stuff. The whole is the woman tiny or is the perfume really big? question never gets old, apparently! It's like a bunch of art directors all studied the Daughters of Edward Darley Boit and then pitched, pitched, pitched. More »
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When Britney's "Hold It Against Me" premiered last week, it was hard not to miss all the product placement, including the promotion of Britney's fragrance Radiance. More »
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There isn't any dialogue between David and Victoria Beckham in the commercial for Intimately Yours fragrances, so naturally we had to write some ourselves. More »
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The Deutsche Post, Germany's national mail service, is producing a perfumed novelty postage stamp. May we suggest "McGraw", Britney Spears' "Hidden Fantasy" or, for especially passionate missives, "Enchanting" by Celine Dion? [WWD] More »
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Nope! But let's pretend: Imagine water symbolizes rebirth. And his wet T-shirt means he's going to have to come inside and get undressed. And someone is going to have to towel him off… Um, what was I saying? [People, Earlier] More »
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Kim Kardashian's 30-second fragrance spot is being called "her second funniest video yet." Because of her sex tape, get it? Hilarious. But the truth is, there are a few strange things about the commercial: More »
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But "Alien"? Really? And "feel extraordinary"? Shouldn't it be "extraterrestrial-ly"? Or do they mean, "out of this world, and alluring to NASA employees"? I was so freaked out I ripped the page, sorry. Click to enlarge. More »
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Perfume made from the DNA of dead celebrities? Yes. It's kind of sad, in a way. More »
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People is currently running a roundup of celebrity fragrance ads, featuring star-scent-stalwarts such as Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Lopez, and Paris Hilton. While those are all well and good, it made me wish certain other celebrities also had signature scents. More »
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Hidden cameras? Surveillance mirrors? "Consumer Village?" According to a piece in the Wall Street Journal, the home fragrance industry is even weirder and more sinister than we realized. More »
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Apparently men need to be tricked into wearing cologne; then they love it. But do we? More »
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Save the beer, vomit and weed jokes: Masik Collegiate Fragrances of Harrisburg, Pa. makes perfumes that capture the essence of an alma mater. Katie Masik came up with the concept a year and a half ago and went into business with her family, designing perfumes that "are both literal interpretations of campus smells and the mental image of the school" and apparently catering to a crowd that enjoyed college a lot more than we did. Accordingly, eau de Penn State has notes of "vanilla, lilac rose and white patchouli;" the men's version is heavy on blue cypress. Those of us who went to urban schools may call for a more assertive fragrance. [NPR] More »
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According to a short piece on BlackBook's website, "Europe's leading Crystal Artist," Emeshel, is launching a line of men’s and women’s fragrances with bottles inspired by male and female genitalia. The ladyflower scent, "Nubia," evokes various fruits and spices, as well as "oil of bergamot." The content of the men's scent, "Rajul" is more mysterious, but you will be "touched by the fragrance of the wet wind and the endless water." Will these fragrances be competition for Vulva, the perfume that's supposed to smell like a vagina? [BlackBook] More »
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Apparently, along with our newfound love of 80's power dressing, we're all enamored of heavy, potent, Reagan-era perfumes, too. You know: Shalimar, Opium, Poison and a bunch of new ones that just smell like them. In general, I'm kind of baffled by these mysterious forces that are supposed to be dictating all our actions, and in this case, particularly so: isn't the way we smell supposed to be kind of, well, personal? And can people stop acting like we've surrendered our individual wills to some kind of creepy demographics genie? More »
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Christina Aguilera has a new fragrance, Inspire, and it seems the art department may have been inspired to give her an unbelievably tiny waist. Christina's shape is lovely! Why does her middle need to be whittled down to the width of her neck (à la Scarlett Johansson on the cover of Cosmo)? It's disturbing. Click to enlarge; and to see a side-by-side comparison of Christina with an unretouched paparazzi photo. More »
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Hey, if Jessica Simpson can have a fragrance, why not Jessica Dunne? The Chicago artist, who had no experience in the beauty industry, spent about $100,000 of her own money to produce "Ellie," "a quaint floral heavy on lily of the valley" based on her memories of her grandmother. Her success story is the definition of "heartwarming," from her childhood perfume bottle collection to the family focus group to the hand-tied bits of grosgrain ribbon on the little faceted bottles. The buyer at Bendel's who took a chance on Dunne "had a hunch that her clients would respond to the brand story." They did: although the perfume retails for $180, it's sold well enough that Dunne is launching a second scent. Maybe the time is right for a celeb-fragrance backlash: amateur perfumers, wave of the future? We smell a business op... [NYT] More »
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To promote its new men's fragrance Tom of Finland, Etat Libre d'Orange has employed a guerilla marketing technique. The company has been posting images along the same line of Tom of Finland's artwork—sexualized illustrations of leather daddy-type men—in public spaces, attaching the images at the crotch to protruding fixtures. [Ad Rants] More »
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John Brady, a columnist for Folio: magazine, has declared that magazine scent strips stink. He writes that the perfume or cologne ads in magazines "all smell alike" and make the entire publication smell "like the men's bathroom between innings at Fenway Park." His way of dealing with them is to rip them out, put them in a trash bag and then "seal the trash bag tightly so that the scents don't contaminate the room." He also warns, "Whatever you do, don't run these strips through your shredder," claiming you'll be stuck with the scent for at least three years. Here's a question: Have you ever rubbed a scent strip on your wrist or hand and liked the way it smelled? And has any one ever purchased a fragrance because they sniffed it in a magazine? [Folio:] More »
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The Washington Post reports that a jewelry, fashion, and fragrance designer with a background in human-rights law named Symine Salimpour has a new scent called Shiloh. She began developing the fragrance more than a year before Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt bestowed that name upon their daughter. Last year, Jolie filed a legal challenge to block the use of the name, but dropped the charge about a month ago. So, what does Shiloh smell like? "It is a complex fragrance," a writer explains. "The forward notes, the ones that hit your nose first, are cedar wood and patchouli. Rising above that earthy base are delicious whiffs of citrus (thanks to a dab of bergamot oil) and rose petals." More »
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Today's 'Thursday Styles' section of the New York Times tries to convince readers that heterosexual, 20-something guys are into fragrance. They say such men belong to "Generation Axe" — in other words, "20-something urban men who... do not think that wearing fragrance is somehow unmanly." The story begins at a New York fragrance boutique called Le Labo, where a scent called Rose 31 — a men's fragrance! — is the bestseller. So! The question is this: Are these 20-something urban men with a penchant for synthetic scents actually straight? Cause honestly, the straight men we know emanate a scent derived not from roses but from armpit sweat and beer. (Not that we have a problem with that!) Take our poll, after the jump. More »
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• We are Nietzsche and God is dead: Paris Hilton's stint in jail saw her fragrance sales rise 30% higher than where they were at this time last year. [WWD, sub req'd]

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• In the department of a-day-late-and-dollar-short, Senators Elizabeth Dole and Maria Cantwell have introduced legislation that would aid textile/apparel workers who lose their jobs when the work goes overseas. If those workers haven't already blown American Apparel's Dov Charney (above right), that is! [WWD]

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Like handwriting, an endorsed fragrance can either be a window into the inner life of a celebrity... or a sign the celebrity lacks any inner life whatsoever! News of trouble in the celebriscent industry inspired us to ask the question: What the fuck do these things smell like anyway? Since our own olfactory sense is sort of obscured by our own heavy natural aroma (topnotes of Parliament Lights with undertones of Red Bull and kitty litter!) we consulted friend, writer and Olfactorista Loren Hunt for reviews of the four most prominent celebrity-endorsed fragrances. As you'll see, sometimes the a scent can reveal undertones of a celebrity's personality! In the case of Hilary Duff, for instance, what John Cusack said about her being a "revelation" might be sorta right on! Not so much a revelation: Paris's "Heiress."
]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=271970&view=rss&microfeed=true Parlux, which licenses Paris Hilton's fragrances, has announced that the heiress/jailbird's newest fragrance, Can Can, will be in stores in Oct 2007, for the holiday season retail push. "Can Can"? Seriously? Though the name was selected long before Paris's current change in address, we can't help but smirk at the irony. Since Paris is "in the can" now and all. Get it? Yeah. Sometimes we sorta crack ourselves up. [Basenotes] More »
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• Daisy Fuentes' clothing line for Kohl's has been earmarked by the National Labor Committee for using sweatshop labor. The weird thing is that this is the odd celebrity sweatshop scandal where we are more surprised by Kohl's (does Vera Wang know?) than Fuentes. After all, celebrities who stoop to doing infomercials are not, we bet, keeping close watch of their personal brands. [WWD]

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• Having convinced men that they smell Unforgivable, Sean "P.Diddy" Combs takes on the women's fragrance market. His new scent, which smells like a pina colada, will be supported by an ad campaign depicting Diddy forcibly taking a woman from behind. Ah, we love the smell of debatably consensual sex in the morning! [WWD]

Brooks Brothers makes a move towards the obvious, opening smaller, edited editions of their normal retail stores in resort locations and calling the wares there "The Country Club Collection." And everywhere, WASPS breathe a sigh of relief. [WWD]

Fashion's favorite enfant terrible John Galliano will not photographer William Klein's plagiarism allegations lying down. He was "inspired", not "stealing," ok??? [Vogue UK] More »
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