Friday, April 12, 2013

The Sweet Business: The 10 Best-Selling Celebrity Perfumes



It's called "the juice." It can carry a hint of spice (Jennifer Lopez's Live Luxe) or a tinge of sweet vanilla (Britney Spears' Fantasy), with notes that are wooden and citrusy (Sarah Jessica Parker's Lovely) or musky and floral (Beyonce's Heat). The juice can be bottled in one's own image (Nicki Minaj's Pink Friday), shaped like a cat (Katy Perry's Purr) or sculpted into a microphone (Julian Casablancas' Azzaro Decibel).

And more and more, the juice -- the fragrances that power a $5 billion-a-year global industry -- carries with it a dose of Hollywood. In 2012, there were 85 star perfume or cologne launches compared with only 10 a decade ago. Of the top-selling 100 fragrances, 31 are tied to celebrities, all of them hoping to become the next Elizabeth Taylor. Her White Diamonds started the trend in 1991 and has earned $1 billion in sales, by far the most popular celebrity fragrance in the world.

As star salaries and album sales decrease, such ancillary revenue streams as fragrances and clothing lines are becoming more important to a star's overall financial well-being. A top celebrity -- one who appeals to the young women powering the market -- now can demand $3 million to $5 million as an upfront payment, plus a 6 percent or 7 percent royalty on sales, say insiders. Branding agents and business managers who negotiate the deals say fragrance endorsements are relatively low-risk, with the potential for high rewards. On the other side, fragrance-makers now see the name value of stars as a key element to distinguish a new brand, and the extra payout hardly depresses high profit margins: Bottles of perfume and cologne typically sell for about $125, and the cost of making them usually is about 25 percent of retail.

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