According to sources in the fragrance industry hired to develop Lady Gaga‘s first fragrance, the pop star has requested that the scent “smell of blood and semen.”
— Read more at Fashionista, and many thanks to everyone who sent this in! As perfumanity already knows, Etat Libre d’Orange beat her to the punch with Secretions Magnifiques, and anyway, Lady Gaga’s license went to Coty. I think the most daring thing Coty has done with a celebrity so far was the chocolate and citronella in Sarah Jessica Parker Covet, which famously failed to resonate with consumers. I’m sticking with my original guess of strawberry sorbet and pink pepper.
85 Comments
Read more about commenting at Now Smell This.
It will smell like strawberry sorbert and pink pepper and people will STILL think it smells like blood and semen.
She is such an Emperor-has-no-clothes artist.
The only thing that impresses me about Gaga is that she is proof that people will believe anything.
I know very little about her.
Bet I know even less than you, R. LOL!
LOL! Bet I DON’T even want to know MORE than you!
I am sure. Because I do know some things.
Sop Talkin bout Gaga..she’s boring..I prefer the original old Madonna..she still rocks..and her perfume shoulbe something by Etat Libre d’Orange but I think they alraed did something thinking about her ain’t it?..Incense and Bubble gum?
My goodness, it’s quite possible to be entertained by Lady Gaga without buying into all of her hype! I enjoy the campy sensibility of her work, and the way she manages to bring a little bit of genderf*ck into the mainstream. Maybe there are butch women in the “Telephone” video solely because the director figured femmes are “boring” these days, but it’s still great to see butch women represented.
I kind of love that at least she didn’t say “I wanted to make a perfume for people like me who don’t like perfume — something fresh and young and sexy and confident and elegant and flirty and glam.” And then load it up with strawberry sorbet and pink pepper and caramel-melon-bubblegum.
If she means what she says, though, I totally agree that Coty is not the place to give it to her.
Has she yet made any public statement at all? I didn’t think she had. But she will!
Ok Gaga is crazy, but she is not that crazy. Or is she? Haha. That’s just gross. I’m sorry but I will gladly take strawberry sorbet and pink pepper over blood and semen. Goodness where do people get this stuff? Unfortunately it doesn’t seem that out of the realm of possibility. Haha. : )
I could really see it being that crazy! She doesn’t need the money, her CD was explosively profitable and her concert tickets are the most expensive in the business. She doesn’t need it to sell well!
I’m sure she will want to make her fragrance sound daring. Just not sure it really will be.
That’s it in a nutshell I expect!
well, that’s the whole Lady Gaga hype in a nutshell!
Gaga amuses me…. but hey, every decade should have an over-the-top personality, it makes things more fun I guess.
A friend of mine nicknamed her Lady Vaga (as Vaga in spanish is the female for lazy.. Bum) he thinks she is the laziest pop star ever, and that she looks all the time like she rather be home taking a nap. I agree ! hehehehehe
Now about the request of blood and semen.. it is not even original in perfume-land. But I guess the statement will make a stirr in the press, as it was designed to be.
I would have asked (insert dramatic pose here)…for a fragrance that smells like the creative energy of the young frustrated artists struggling to make it all over the world,pop tarts and grape cool aid. (or some other crazy request, but anything as obvious as blood and semen)
I guess she’s lazy in that it is obvious that Nicola Formichetti picks out every single article of clothing that she wears, and her visuals are pure Nick Knight, her generic Eurodance is RedOne, everything else is ripped off of other artists, etc
Kroko I guess that that is what my friend is thinking, kind of.
but I agree with you, all style and no substance so far from Gaga.
I have seen a video of her live performance and at least she can play the piano, which is IMHO so much more than many other pop starlets can do.
I think her lyrics are a bit unique and she has musical ability
but I do not feel that she truly delivers on anything she promises and I have seen almost everything she does before.
She mostly just tells people things and they believe her. And then she brainwashes them with this ~*Lil Monster*~ stuff.
Most of my friends love her and they kept talking about this one interview she did, which was the most contrived interview I have read in my entire life. I was shocked that people I usually consider to be reasonable people were buying it. D:
How can anything be ‘a bit unique’?
The lyrics aren’t typical but not so original that I’ve never heard anything like them before?
So they are “a bit unique”?
I do agree that she does have talent.
I agree — it does make things more fun!
I agree, I can’t see Coty doing something half as daring as Secretions Magnifiques (not that SM is even remotely wearable). The last perfume that used sperm as an inspiration, 6Scents-Series3-No.4, wasn’t really that remarkable. However, Byredo’s recent M/Mink evokes the metallic inky smell of blood brilliantly with the use of that harsh aldehyde. It’s a rare and very gutsy move of them, but I doubt Coty will attempti anything this edgy.
I should try M/Mink, I haven’t yet.
@Robin and Arch, believe it or not, I’ve got samples of both M/Mink and Secretions M and get compliments. For whatever reason, my skin chemistry likes “odd” metallic scents. They aren’t sharp at all on my skin.
yep the reference to Etat had to come up eh!! I find the blood and semen accord, which I read as a sort of chorine/peroxide note in all their ‘fumes, and I assume that is what Secretions must overdose on…but I still have not sampled it!
I’ve also never tried ‘poppers’, but that may also relate to the note.
Its very interesting when you sit back and consider the use of civet, castoreum, costus, even ambergris in old frags…they just reek of bodily functions…as does Gaga, I love her!
(I really liked SJP Covet! Even the ads, the bottle, etc. Figures…)
I did too.
Me three. I loved the ad of SJP in “jail”. Covet is one of my “don’t think about it” perfumes, when I’m too busy to mull over what to spritz and need to dash. Never fails to soothe me and I get compliments on it all the time. Even bought a back-up bottle.
Me, too – I have a ton of it.
I wish Gaga would go the SWINTON route, serving as inspiration to a more daring fragrance company instead of going down the same, well-worn path as every other celebrity. I’m still holding out hope for something unique- Gaga’s image seems to hinge less on being flirty/sexy than most female celebrities.
Ditto.
Too late. Swinton never chased money or fame in any big way, Gaga, from what little I know about her, is interested in little else.
Hmmm…not sure she’s chasing money and fame. She’s all about her art and making a statement. She seems to me to be more of a performance artist whose message is to be yourself, even if that’s outrageous (which she is). She’s the modern day Madonna, though Madonna made no attempt to hide her desire for fame and fortune. I think that’s part of what drove her. I’d say Gaga’s drive is a bit different.
BTW – she’s far from lazy. She’s much more like Madonna in her drive for perfection and expression of her vision.
And for the record, I am not a Gaga fan!!!! But I’ve always admired artists who break the mold and aren’t afraid to do something totally outrageous and anti-establishment. Give me Gaga over Justin Bieber any day.
Ohh, gotta give an “amen” to that statement. Lol!
Yeah, but her vision was created with the help of others (like Rob Fusari and Martin Kierszenbaum–I read tons of interviews with the latter for a reason not related to Gaga) because Stefani Germanotta was never going to be famous.
I love the name Stefani Germanotta better than Lady Gaga.
I gotta disagree…you don’t go out in public dressed the way she does, or do concerts drenched in fake blood, unless what you’re after is attention & fame. Just my personal opinion! I really know very little about her.
I love it too. I bought a 3.4 oz for like $17 at Marshall’s. I still see it at discounters… I’m tempted to buy more to have when the discounters run dry.
er, was supposed to reply to Jessica with that last comment, it’s about SJP Covet. But I agree, if this was really about ‘art,’ Gaga should not have chosen Coty.
Surely now that she’s on the record with this though, Coty will have to do something to appease her? Or else make her look really stupid.
Whatever.
Yes
You got that right… Yawn..
Really?! Uuuugh.
I could see these notes being used in a niche perfume, but there isn’t anything ‘niche’ about Gaga.
I kind of like her and hoped she will NEVER do her fragrance…
Doesn’t surprise me that Lady Gaga would say something like that, but the the first thing I thought in response to that was: “And WHO is making this for her? The most daring I think we’ll see from Coty is that strawberry sorbet and pink pepper with some metallic notes. I’m inclined to think a Gaga perfume will smell even more overtly “artificially flavored” and aggressive than most celebrity perfumes. We’ll see, I guess. Truth be told, I’ll be interested in sniffing the end result.
What Gaga really requested was that she wanted it to smell of SWEET blood and FRUITY semen (at least that’s what the people at Coty heard)
yes! This! Right on…this made me chuckle…
Evidently, Gaga has found that blood comes in different scents as well as semen. I wonder if this could be a scientific breakthrough for those of us who are studying to be in the medical field. Snark!
Hmmmm, she must be smelling things that I’m not. Try as I might I cannot begin to imagine what that combo would smell like. I COULD go off on a tangent here, but I won’t .
Try Etat Libre d’Orange Secretions Magnifiques…it’s all blood and semen…obviously someone else has already been there and done that!!
ICk…sounds like SWEET vomit!!!
I’m very interested in a salty, metallic fragrance. I agree with the consensus, however, that we’ll not get it in Gaga’s perfume.
Anyone know how Womanity is doing? It does seem there is a ‘thing’ for salty perfumes lately. I know that NYTimes article from a few weeks back claimed that M/Mink was doing really well at Barney’s?
Maybe ‘salty’ fragrance is going to be the new ‘fruity floral’. OK, extremely doubtful, BUT…. funny to think about.
One can only hope.
I stopped in at Barney’s a couple of weeks ago and sampled m/ink. I wore it for quite a while before just saying no. I just couldn’t wear it comfortably. The same with Womanity. I certainly don’t represent all perfume buyers, but it would be interesting to see how sales of these perfumes are doing. I expect that Lady GaGa’s perfume will be much more conventional than she is.
Kitty,
What did you now like about Womanity or what made it uncomfortable? The saltiness?
Tara
Say whatever you will about her, I thank her for recording “Bad Romance” – a song that still never fails to get my a$$ moving on the treadmill.
All kinds of flanker possibilities given the derivation…”Lady Gaga Gangrene” or “Lady Gaga Decaying Cancerous Lesions”…what will be the inspiration for the men’s version…gym locker and long-haul truck driver cab? I can’t imagine the pick-up lines, “Wow…you smell like you’ve just been bleeding profusely…” “Oh that? Nope, that’s my new $250 an ounce designer fragrance…”
If her celebrity fragrance from Coty costs $250, then I’ll drink a bottle of it.
$25 an ounce maybe…
Maybe Coty will surprise us… it’s the name that sells bottles (if celebuscent sales are any indication), and fans of Gaga will expect something outrageous. This is Coty’s chance to give fans a piece of that Meat Dress!
It can smell of piss and vinegar and it will sell…all celebrity do.
I am surprised that none of the comments mentioned Secretions Magnifiques (apart from the original post). I read through the comments expecting someone to say that. Instead, there is all these negative comments about Lady Gaga – the expected backlash. I am barely old enough to remember everyone saying the same things about Madonna when she was at the same stage of her career.
I like Lady Gaga. She writes her own songs, and she can sing without Autotune. I don’t know if this is true or not, but I read somewhere that her “people” make her dress outrageously to distract people from her less than perfect face.
no it isn’t true, she’s pretty with or without makeup, and in ordinary clothes.
Madonna’s attempts to be a nonconformist soon became conformist in and of themselves (don’t get me wrong since I like a lot of her earlier music from the 90′s) just as Gaga, following the same model, seems to have done as well. While both “borrowed” influences that made them who they were, yet not too much so just to be practical to keep their mass appeal, I wouldn’t expect their fragrances to be too edge or unusual since that wouldn’t sell.
I mean at the end of the day, both Madonna and Gaga strike me as out to make money via hype and shock as so many new pop acts are, and probably always have been, with music taylored for maximum appeal. A friend and I had a great time during a drag queen review with one of the performers who did a fantastic routine to Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance”, and that’s how I think of her music. Fun for parties and getting the crowd hyped, but not something I put on otherwise. It seems like their perfumes would be along a similar theme. Something to wear out to the club or bar, not anything that would still be around in five years.
Artists who are absolutely fantastic without promoting themselves to the moon and back are more shocking to me these days. If I had to pick a mainstream artist to inspire a perfume, I’d be excited to try something by Kate Bush, David Bowie (forgetting about the whole Bowie Bonds business lol), Annie Lennox or even Bjork if she counts as mainstream, not that I think that would ever happen.
I’m actually listening to Sigur Ros at the moment and the imagined fragrance composition I’ve created in my head as an accompanyment would be fantastic!
Gaga should have signed up with ELdO and could have made Secretions Extreme, then Secretions Intense though that sounds like something that would immediately require a visit to the doctor, Secretions Light after said trip to the doctor and maybe even My Secretions or Secretions Noir, which I don’t want to think about.
Sounds like she wants a perfume for men who have an unfortunate STD.
[link removed, please see comment policy]
Oooh! I am so shocked!(Sure!) The smell of blood and semen? Well, we can look forward to a metallic bend to the fragrance, since that’s what the smell of blood reminds me of, but semen? I didn’t realize it had an odor. I’ll have to put in a special request to my husband, who will probably think I have finally gone too far and ask for a divorce. This is obviously just another publicity stunt for Gaga, like the meat dress,etc. Yawn. I’m going to have one developed and request that it smell like snark! Take that Gaga!
The smell of snark: I like that!
Can you imagine the ad copy….
I really want to know the nose behind it. Why hasn’t it been revealed?
I doubt it will smell like blood and semen, its Coty and its going to be mass produced so its not like Six Scents and Etat that have limited distribution. They are going to make it to sell.
Still, I like Gaga and I think she is the real deal and I want to believe in this. I want to believe that she is going to use a talented perfumier who will make a great fragrance.
Lady Gaga is a wicked smart marketer. She knows how to keep her name in front of everyone, and inspired 65 comments here, some from people who don’t know who she is. That’s one smart marketer. I wish I had her touch for my book that’s coming out in July.
I’m completely with @Krokodilegena: It will smell like strawberries and pink pepper and melon and cedar and everyone will think it smells like semen and blood. Yep. Perfect.
Etat Libre d’Orange , has already done the blood-semen thing, with their Secretions Magnifiques scent (if u can call it a scent!)
Hahaha…its already been said…sorry
Hmmm… Is this really about Gaga or is this more a Coty publicity coup? Maybe Coty is trying to give some edge to it’s drugstore/Walmart image?
Any publicity is good publicity.
Maybe the Salvation Army could sponsor a fragrance to raise money for charity. The Arm’s motto is, “Blood and Fire.”
This is fun. What should this magnificent juice be called? I don’t know about anyone else on here, but my mind is running away with me. haha!
I think she’s calling it Monster. read my comment below, I posted it before I read yours cassieflower.
I’m thinking that the scent would be a burnt metallic for Van’s suggestion. A name? Since they have a variety of programs to help people, perhaps something like Resiliance since they have the shield display and that reminds me of repelling the many challenges that come to a lot of people and try to take them down.
Do I sound corny?
I read about this in The Metro, the free newspaper you get on the bus.
I think I kept my copy in my bag but threw it out today. it was like last week so I thought I’d be the first to hear about it but haven’t been online since before then so.
but I’m sure it said that she wanted to smell samples of blood and semen to test smell rather than finally deciding on it.
I love Lady Gaga, I’ve got her one and a half albums, one of her posters, I’m getting the headphones she designed for Dr. Dre and I’m excited to try her perfume, and if it’s nice I’ll buy it.
but sometimes I think she tries abit hard to be different and individual. and when her perfume launches I’m spraying it on paper before on skin, because I wouldn’t to walk round smelling of blood or semen.
why on earth would she want us to smell of that anyway !! I personally don’t think it will smell of blood or semen but I think it will be different and smell more expensive (and probably will be) than your average celebrity perfume.
I think she let this slip to the press as below the line advertising, it won’t actually smell of those thing Gaga just said it to spark intrigue so you’ll go and smell it when it launches to see if it REALLY smells of blood or semen. it would never sell if it actually did smell that gross.
I nearly faint at the sight of blood so I don’t want to smell like it.
I quite liked SJP Covet aswell, I never bought it but I smelled it a couple of years ago & obv can’t remember it very well at all now.
apparently Gaga is calling her perfume “Monster”. after she calls her fans little monsters, and her second kind of half an album is called “The Fame Monster” like an addition to her first album “The Fame”.
I forgot to mention this. I don’t know much at all about the big perfume companies. but I had a look on coty.com in interest out of this and to their list of brands they do perfume for, to my suprise Chloé, Marc Jacobs, Vivienne Westwood and even Balenciaga are on. most of the other brands are celebrity fragrances.
so why! did Gaga go to Coty? I think Chloé and Vivienne Westwood’s perfumes are really nice & thought they’d be done under a better perfume company but I don’t much like Daisy from MJ and Lola is just average. what will Coty be able to do for Gaga?
everything in her performances have to be just so and perfect and she went for the expensive highperformance headphone brand Dr. Dre to design her heartbeats headphones eurgh now my hopes for her perfume have dropped slightly, she should have gone to a better perfume company to do this.
Lady Gaga went on the record today regarding her perfume:
http://www.2dayfm.com.au/shows/kyleandjackieo/blog/lady-gagas-blood-perfume/20110221-bgm1.html