The death of celebrity perfume: Why no one wants to smell like an A-lister anymore

My first celebrity perfume was Jennifer Lopez's Glow. Having that curved, frosted bottle on my shelf - complete with diamanté Jlo charm - was my coming of age after years of immaturity and Impulse body sprays.

When I sprayed that artificial grapefruit scent, I felt like Jennifer herself. Casually throwing away my expensive jewellery from a 1997 Aston Martin convertible, and then stopping for an impromptu dance breakdown on the beach. In reality, I was an overweight 15-year-old girl from Croydon, who spent her evenings with the curtains closed, desperately trying to nail the moves from her Darrin's Dance Grooves DVD.

Teenage me fell hook line and sinker for the 'celebrity lifestyle' attached to these scents. By day I doused myself in Curious and Fantasy by Britney Spears, and despite being a die-hard 'Team Britney' fan, Red Sin by Christina Aguilera was my 'hi boys' scent on a night out. Sorry Brit.

Fast forward to 2018 and celebrity fragrances don't quite have the pulling power they once did. In fact, it's been reported that sales have declined by 22%. "In the 2000s there was a huge number of celebrity fragrance launches compared to today", explains Andrea Rickard, Trading Director at The Perfume Shop, when I ask her about the decline in celebrity perfume sales. "Similarly to fashion, the perfume industry is driven by trends which means we often see varying interest in different types of perfume." Clearly at this moment in time, that interest is not in A-listers flogging their fragrances.

So why don't we want to smell like celebrities anymore? Fragrance expert, Nick Gilbert has a theory that "there was a period in time where celebrity fragrances were the way to access a secret world - now that has been replaced by social media almost entirely, there is no need to 'buy in' to the lifestyle anymore."

"Consumers demand relevance and authenticity"

Yep, thanks to Instagram, we can all peek at what really goes on behind the celebrity curtain, just like Dorothy did in The Wizard of Oz. In some cases, like the Kardashians, the curtain hasn't just been pulled, it's been ripped off the wall. Even my gullible 15-year-old self would have a hard time believing that Kim Kardashian goes anywhere near her own wrinkle-free neck with anything that costs under £30.

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As Andrea puts it, "celebrity scents still have a huge appeal but consumers are much more switched on to endorsements and demand relevance and authenticity." Basically todays teenagers can smell an Instagram #ad a mile off and they want honesty when it comes to promotional content. Enter, Kylie Jenner.

After dodging lip filler questions in each and every press interview, Kylie finally attributed her plumper pout to lip liners, specifically Spice and Soar by MAC.

Kylie's endorsement caused the shades to sell out globally in 2015. Of course, being from a family that never misses a business opportunity, Kylie set up Kylie Cosmetics later in 2015, launching her very own ' Lip Kits' that sold out within "2 seconds".

"Today’s teenagers are buying in to different types of celebrity"

Now a 'self made' billionaire (almost), the 'Kylie effect' has celebrities desperate to get from our pulse points and into our makeup bags. With Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez, Victoria Beckham, all launching successful cosmetic lines.

Authenticity also impacts the new choice of celebrity. Whilst I idolised the seemingly untouchable Britney, teenagers today prefer someone a lot more relatable. "Today’s teenagers are buying in to different types of celebrity, such as YouTuber Zoella, who sells all sorts of beauty and gift products under her name," explains Nick.

As well as authenticity and a new breed of celebs, it seems as if we no longer want to smell like everyone else. 'Mostly it smells like you' is the tag line for Glossier's You fragrance, a skin scent that every millennial (including myself) seems to be obsessed with, and it's a trend that Andrea has noted within The Perfume Shop too. "Across the fragrance market we are seeing an emerging trend for more niche fragrances and those that fit into wider lifestyle trends."

However, as Nick points out, there is a rising 'celebrity perfume superhero' who might just save the day (although she's replaced the traditional superhero cape costume with cycling shorts). "Kim Kardashian West’s fragrance offerings are sold entirely on the bottle and her star, rather than the fragrance - customers have to order them online without sniffing them, and they’ve all sold out."

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It's kind of fitting that while Kylie Jenner single handedly killed the perfume industry, older sister Kim is giving it the desperate revival it needs. In fact Kim made an insane $5 million dollars in just five minutes when she launched her latest Kimoji fragrances in July 2018. Something she achieved with zero paid for advertising (oh to be a part of that family), just some dubiously sexual perfume bottles.

So while we don't want to smell like a celebrity anymore, we're still happy to part with our cash to buy a piece of their life.

The celebrity perfumes that still sell

The Perfume Shop's best selling celebrity fragrances of 2017, including Sarah Jessica Parker's Lovely, which knocked Britney Spears off the top spot for the first time in 7 years.