top sellers: 20 posts

Top Selling Feminine Fragrances 2o12 France

Top Selling Perfumes USA : Popular Fragrances Spring 2012

Top Selling Feminine Fragrances 2011 USA

Top Selling Feminine Fragrances for 2010 USA

Top Selling Feminine Fragrances for 2010 France

To round out the list of blockbusters last year, the next two posts in this series will focus on masculine fragrances. Looking at the top sellers in men’s market, I was surprised to discover that a newcomer pastiche like Bleu de Chanel managed to outsell the traditional masculine blockbuster Giorgio Armani Acqua di Giò Pour Homme by quite a sizable margin. This discovery followed another one—there are more classical, older fragrance among masculine top sellers than is the case with the feminine ones.

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Top Selling Feminine Fragrances 2o12 France

Top Selling Perfumes USA : Popular Fragrances Spring 2012

Top Selling Feminine Fragrances 2011 USA

Top Selling Feminine Fragrances for 2010 USA

Top Selling Masculine Fragrances 2010 USA

Since many of you were interested to learn the European list of top sellers, here are the top 20 feminine fragrances for France. A quick glance at the list reveals that it shares only a few similarities with the US list of top sellers—there are many classics on the list, including the American gem Clinique Aromatics Elixir; the tendency overall is towards the oriental and floral oriental blends (in contrast to the fruity-floral perfumes that still drive sales in the US). Also, the brand name is one of the most important factors in determining what might end up on the top seller list.

20. Lancôme Ô de Lancôme (1969)
A classical cologne that still retains its vibrancy and freshness—an elegant citrus-orange blossom accord suspended over a mossy, ambery base.

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Top Selling Feminine Fragrances 2o12 France

Top Selling Perfumes USA : Popular Fragrances Spring 2012

Top Selling Feminine Fragrances 2011 USA

Top Selling Feminine Fragrances for 2010 France

Top Selling Masculine Fragrances 2010 USA

I confess that I find the lists of fragrance top sellers fascinating, not necessarily from the perspective of revealing to me what is the best perfume on the market, but more as an indication of the general trends which shape the market and influence what we might find on the counter next season. Therefore, I decided to take a look at the top 20 fragrances, ranked by their sales in the US. As I browsed through the list, I noticed that feminine market preferences seem to be heavily focused on recent launches, while the masculine (to be posted next week) gravitates towards classics. Is it due to the conservative nature of the masculine market? Or perhaps is it a result of the onslaught of new launches and the lack of support for the pillar brands in the feminine market? I am still pondering this. Nevertheless, analyzing these lists is interesting, if only to know what the majority of people prefer. With the list below, I will provide my own commentary. In the parentheses, I indicate the year of launch.

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Star rating: 5 stars–outstanding/potential classic, 4 stars–very good, 3 stars–adequate, 2 stars–disappointing, 1 star–poor.

I generally try to steer clear of too much hyperbole, but in the case of Angel, every hyperbole describes it perfectly. The most polarizing, the most memorable, the most dramatic, the most grotesque… Angel, created for Thierry Mugler in 1992, is one of the great perfume success stories of the last two decades. Its introduction on the market is also an interesting case study into what it takes to make a classic: quality juice, a strong character, a memorable signature and also time. Today, most brands go for the quick sell, releasing fragrances that are bland and derivative; the new launches are rarely given time to take hold in the market place. Angel was not a runaway success; it took three years of constant support from Thierry Mugler and its parent company, Clarins, for this fragrance to start topping the best seller lists. And the rest is history!

What follows is not so much my standard perfume review, but rather an exploration of how this fragrancew came about and what makes it unusual. In the end, I share some of my favorites among Angel offspring, including some fragrance that I find fantastic but that fared quite badly on the market. I also would love to hear your thoughts on Angel, positive and negative.

Angel: New Gourmand Fragrance Genre

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Reformulation:

Star rating: 5 stars–outstanding/potential classic, 4 stars–very good, 3 stars–adequate, 2 stars–disappointing, 1 star–poor.

To say that Christian Dior J’Adore attained legendary status faster than any other fragrance created over the past ten years is in fact an understatement. Since its birth in 1999, this vivid fresh floral has been responsible for a family of more than 500 offspring, ranging from mainstream to niche, from Estée Lauder Pure White Linen to Dog Géneration Oh My Cat. I cannot even begin to count how often it is selected as a benchmark for developing new feminine fragrances especially with regards to radiance and diffusion. Yet, J’Adore is also a perfect example of how dysfunctional the fragrance market has become. Instead of being left alone to shine in its resplendent glory and to continue to top the list of global bestsellers, J’Adore has been reformulated and diluted by flankers to the point that its character has been attenuated and its message confused.

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