Taylor Swift Wonderstruck

I was wonderstruck reading the recent New Yorker profile on country pop star Taylor Swift. I had heard her name, but had no idea — number 7 on Forbes' list of Most Powerful Celebrities? More albums sold in the last five years than any other musician? Who knew? Anyway, her debut perfume came out this fall under a licensing deal with Elizabeth Arden, and it's about what you'd expect: a "charming and sparkling surprise of vibrant fruits, kissed by a bouquet of soft petals and a touch of sweet indulgence." In other words, it's a sweet-ish fruity floral with plenty of vanilla in the base, along the lines of Britney Spears Fantasy, and while there's not much to distinguish it from the two bazillion other variations on Britney Spears Fantasy, it's perfectly wearable and it's reasonably age-appropriate for the target market...

Vivienne Westwood will launch Naughty Alice, a new fragrance for women, in October:

Naughty Alice is a sensual and audacious new fragrance...

The celebrated founder of Sustainable South Bronx partnered with Parisian perfumer Pascal Gaurin, creator of Vera Wang for Men, and Bruno Jovanovic...

Biotherm has launched Force Homme, the line's first fragrance for men. The new scent is named for Biotherm Homme's Force Supreme anti-aging skincare line, which is currently fronted by actor Chris Noth...

I've smelled so much fabulous perfume lately. I've already bought a bottle of Laura Mercier Minuit Enchanté, plan on springing for some L'Artisan Parfumeur Havana Vanille, love my decant of Tauer Perfumes Une Rose Chyprée, am enjoying Natori, and am tantalized by Tom Ford Private Blend Oud Wood. I practically can't sleep waiting to try Amouage Epic. Thinking of my pocketbook, I apprehensively dabbed a few drops of Giorgio Armani Idole d'Armani Eau de Parfum on my wrist. I needn't have worried. Thank you, perfume gods, for a fragrance I'm not even tempted to buy.

Idole d'Armani launched this month. Perfumer Bruno Jovanovic created Idole, using — and here I lift directly from the Armani cosmetics website: top notes of "dazzling bitter orange, juicy pear, ginger and davana"; middle notes of "audacious rose loukoum and mythical jasmine blended boldly with saffron absolute, creating a honey-coloured subtle spicy note"; and base notes of "unexpected styrax, patchouli and vetiver". (Let's just hope the Armani marketing people don't enter the Prix Eau Faux, or the rest of us don't stand a chance).

Despite the Armani website's cheesy description, Idole is built on a foundation that smells Armani perfect...

Jil Sander will launch Jil, an "elegant floral amber" fragrance for women, in September.

Jil was developed by perfumers Olivier Polge and Bruno Jovanovic...

Idole d’Armani is a spicy floral developed by perfumer Bruno Jovanovic...

One molecule — Artical, from International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) — was the starting point for The Essence by Porsche Design's fresh aromatic woody juice...

CK IN2U is the latest attempt by Calvin Klein to recapture the massive youth market that they so perfectly cornered with 1994's CK One. Even back in 1994, I was not quite the "disaffected, sexually ambivalent grunge youth of the moment" cited as CK One's fan base in a recent New York Times article, but I thought CK One was great stuff: the packaging was different, the advertising was different, and it smelled different. Mind you, I was not "into" perfume at the time; if CK One was derivative of other fragrances on the market, I was blissfully unaware of it.

Fast forward to 2007. I am older now, and if you want to know just how old I am, perhaps you'll find a clue in the fact that my first thoughts on seeing the print ad for CK IN2U were that geez, she really ought to pull her pants up, and has he finished his homework yet? The reaction of the target market itself has been less than cordial, in fact, the backlash against the whole project was vocal even before the scents launched, based largely on the advertising copy...