BOP News – Blog on Perfume News

A perfume bar, the first of it’s kind, is to open in Brunei. The country which prohibits the sale of alcohol is trying to find methods of generating further income for the wealthy former British colony, especially to attract new tourism.

Mercier Boutique, based in Gadong, will sell the “Grasse” range from France.

The premise is simple, Customers can bring their own empty bottle or choose from Mercier’s collection of refillable perfume bottles and purchase the desired amount from the perfume bar.

The advantage of this new perfume concept is that customers can purchase more variety of fragrances at smaller amount giving them the benefit of enjoying a wider selection, said the owner.

Source – Brudirect.com

A Columbia based Neurobiology laboratory have come up with a more hi-tech method of the rather prehistoric “Scratch ‘n’ Sniff” cards you get in glossy magazines world wide. The iSmell – which has nothing to do with Apple – works by combining 50 base scents together to mimic common smells and perfume brands, similar to how an inkjet printer works by combining 5 base colours to make 36,000.

Of course, the prime candidate is for advertising perfume brands and improved web experiences, but already Avery Gilbert – the R&D Chief – has suggested a novel use for it:

“We’re doing the smell of decay and trash and everything and naturally, 15-year-old boys will want burning rubber and farts.”

We Say: It’s interesting how well it compares itself to an inkjet printer. When I print with my inkjet, and a colour is beginning to run out, I get wierd looking colours. I wonder what sort of smells you’d get if one of the 50 base smells expires before another.

Source: BNET

Often, when people land big modelling contracts, the money can change them. Not so one the latest star of the “Petite Armande” campaign for Mungo & Maud.

As she was already a bitch.

Shirley, the grand basset, was paid £25,000 for one days work modelling the new fragrance for dogs – which sells at just under £40.

Stuff.co.nz broke the story, and had a quote from an industry insider, who said that “Shirley was one of the best behaved bitches in the industry”

Andy Warhol, who died in 1987, is still having an influence 20 years after his death. The latest incarnation is curteosy of Bond No. 9 who have released a perfume called “Andy Warhol Silver Factory”, the bottle of which is inspired by some of his pieces.

Bellasugar writes:

The bottle is also very cool. The front has a large re-colored rendition of the Campbell’s Soup can, and in the middle it reads: “Perfume Concentrate.” It’s just like how Campbell’s say their soups are condensed. This also qualifies it somewhere in between an eau de parfum and a perfume extract —cute, right?

It’ll be available to buy for Christmas 2007.

At a recent charity auction, Shilpa Shetty – who shot to prominance by winning Celebrity Big Brother – launched her latest perfume called S2. The first bottle of which sold for £15,000, and the money is being given to Anamika, a charity for underprivileged children in India.

Shilpa’s publicist Dale Bhagwagar said, “She is thrilled that her perfume has managed to raise this amount for charity. What’s remarkable is that the sum raised from auctioning the S2 perfume topped other auction items, including a diamond and ruby necklace and a Cartier watch.”

We Say: We don’t mind people paying astronomical sums of money if the money is being used for charitable purposes.

Source: Indiantelevision.com 

File this one under wierd. Perfumebay.com have lost a court case with a giant website after they succesfully argued that “people would click on Perfumebay.com instead of their site, thus causing a loss of revenue.”

The website who beat perfumebay.com in court? eBay.

From TG Daily:

[The owner, Jacquelyn] Tran, admitted that she sometimes would capitalize the b in perfumeBay much in the same way the b in eBay is capitalized.  Tran told the court she did this because, “it was a common thing she saw online where companies would capitalize the first letter of the first word if they had separate words.”

We Say: We find this story preposterous. There’s now a law against capitalising letters and having company names sneakily hidden within other company names. I’m sure nobody in their right mind would get confused. Now I’m off to visit tesconamy.com!

Aromascope led me to a website called DNA Fragrance, which – for $114.98 – will take a swab of your DNA from inside your mouth, then will base a new fragrance around your DNA. They promise it won’t smell bad, and it’s not a pheramone. A few of the commenters on the Aromascope comments remain skeptical, including SniffQ:

If you read the privacy policy, you’ll notice that they SEEM to protect you, but can, according to their own policy, submit your DNA to the the master health insurance bureau or the CIA, or, for that matter, the police. And while they tell you they will protect it, the Homeland Security rules now in place say that any DNA sample have to be turned over when asked for. Naaahhh, I’ll find my own perfumes. This just creeps me out.

I’m not sure if I’d ever use it, and I’m pretty sure my perfume would reek, despite what they say!

With all this talk recently about global warming, I’m surprised to find that perfume retailers haven’t done more to win the hearts of green people (who may probably wear perfume).

So step up Bond No. 9, who will take your old perfume bottles off your hand and recycle them. In return, you will recieve a free refillable pocket spray, but only if you make a purchase from them.

Talking to wral.com, company founder Laurice Rahme said the following:

“As I become more aware of the issues facing our environment, I feel compelled on a personal and business level to participate in the green movement – and assume a leadership role”

We Say: Forgive my cynicism, but I quesion Bond No. 9’s reasons for doing this, as it’s probably more of a business, rather than etichal, reasons. Nevertheless, if it encourages more people to recycle, so be it.

The world of celebrity perfumes was awash with the news that Alex Curran – who seemingly is only famous for being the wife of Liverpool Midfielder Steven Gerrard – has launched her own perfume. The 24 year old beautician launched the fragrance – Alex – in Liverpool’s St. John Centre last monday.

The Liverpool Echo Writes:

“The launch will be a unique opportunity for fans to come to see Alex selling it over the counter and chatting with shoppers.

“She will be signing autographs and bottles of her fragrance, and we hope many people in Liverpool will come along and try it for themselves.”

What We Say: From reliable sources, we hear it isn’t actually half bad, will be interesting to see how much of the market share this capitalises on.

Elizabeth Arden has surprisingly made a first quarter profit for this fiscal year. The perfume manufacturer, who owns the Mariah Carey and Hummer for Men range, reported a $350,000 profit, when they were expected a $1.3million loss.

Reuters Reports:

Sales rose 6.7 percent to $271.8 million, helped by the Carey perfume launch as well as an 18 percent rise in international sales of its Elizabeth Arden brand products, and demand for its higher-end perfumes in the United States.

It’s good news and hopefully it will continue!