I'll tell you a secret. Sometimes, in my baddest dream, I think that there is one big giant 'Vat of Fruity Floral 'mother fragrance''. Whenever the PR 'Mad Men' divison of a big cosmetics conglomerate decides that it is time again for a new celeb fruity floral, because customers must hand over more of their hard earned cash to the shareholders and CEO's of those company's, they tap out of that 'Big Giant Vat', put it in a different bottle, paste the face and name of the 'celebrity du jour' on it and here you go: play the theme song of Trumps' 'The Apprenctice': money, money, money money...
The 'Vat' contains some fruity notes, some floral notes, vanilla of course and few sugary cotton candy elements. Nothing difficult about it. I has also nothing to do with perfumery art and originality and creativity. It is just business.
What I don't understand is that celebs whose integrity I value highly, play along in that money scheme. For their own bank account no doubt. Again play Trumps' Money-theme here. Take Katy Perry. I am, well was, a fan of her. A bit whacky, original, colorful, out of the mainstream, a 'Personality', a 'Face'. Mind you, I have nothing against 'celeb frags' per se. I only excpect that a piece of the celeb 'image' is found in the fragrance that has the name, picture and image of that celeb. That is not asking too much, isn't it? And it is possible to do that. Think about Kat von D's 'Sinner' or Shakira's 'S', Liz Taylors 'frags'... Like 'em or loathe them, but they all have an own 'personality'. They are not interchangable at all.
Butcolorful Katy Perry's first frag 'Purr', is a bitter grey dissappointment. All the zaniness, edge, 'color' of Katy has dissappeared. No, not disappeared, it wasn't there in the first place. What was she thinking? Has she smelled this fruit salad juice before it went on the market? It is just nother run of the mill generic fruity floral out of the 'Big Fruit Floral Vat'. If you put a frag on the market with your name, photo and image, all of which you have sold or leased to a fragrance company to use for a truckload of dollars, it should a least be a bit 'Katy Perry' and not a anonymous zillionth faceless duplicate of 'a fruity floral'. The fans who pay their hard eared cash for this, pay to buy a piece of 'Katy Perry the zany popstar with suprises', the image like it is as in her clothes, music, video's. The image she works so hard to get across in hed music, vids, apperances. And if ther is not one little piece of 'Katy Perry the popstar' reflected in the frag, it should come with a warning sticker, like those 'Parental Advisory' stickers. A 'Fan Advisory' sticker on the frag boxes and bottles: 'Warning, this bland fruity floral has nothing to do with the sprarlking, zesty and zany sharp image of Katy Perry and the Katy Perry you know from TV and the Katy Perry because of which you would buy this expensive bottle.'
Well... Let's take a closer look at the fragrance. The note pyramid.
Top: Gardenia, bamboo, peach, red apple
Middle: Jasmine, freesia, rose
Base: Musk, sandalwood, amber, vanilla, coconut, orchid.
Where is the zany personality of Katy? The unexpected twist, the originality, the creativity? The surprising fragrance notes, the zingy twists, the creativity, the exciting vibe of Katy Perry? This is as cliché as it gets for a fruity floral, even her most ardent fans will have to admit this much. Flowers, some fruit and a cliché base. The only slightly 'surprise note' is the bamboo. Or maybe coconut in the base. Coconut that has the olfactaroy quality to top the eventual edginess of other fragrance notes of. And that in the base. You would almost suspect the frag company that after a fight with Katy they made a frag totally opposite to her effevescent, twist-and-turn image. But honestly, I can't detect any 'surprises', 'unexpected notes'. It is the Big Mac version of a fragrance: trying to please everyone and sell as much as possible. I didn't espect taht from Katy Perry, of all celebs. This is peach fuzz from the most safe, grey and bland kind. Peach, vanilla, gardenia, rose, sandalwood, orchid... O.H. M.Y. G.A.W.D.!!! Not Katy Perry of all pop stars, the one who brought some originality, wackiness and color on the TV! And she delivers one of the most boring, safe, and generic of all fruity floral ever made! I am very, very, yes VERY dissappointed. And a bit angry. Who does she thinks she is, pushing us this totally un'Katy Perry stinker down the throat for big bucks?
I bought this blind, believing that Katy Perry would stay true to herself and deliver an orignal, somewhat wacky and zany fragrance. I never, in a million years expected this snore-fest from Katy Perry. I honestly thought and hoped and prayed that a personality like Katy Perry would come up with something truely remarkable. But I now think: maybe also her vids and pics are just fake: hot air, make believe, a falsified image of a zany personality created by a bunch of 'Mad Men' that has nothing to do with the 'real' Katy Perry. And I don't even want the 'real' Katy Perry in a frag where she poses as the popstar Katy Perry. I want a Katy Perry fragrance in the vein that she earns her money, as zany Perry. Maybe Katy is a mean b***h in real life. But I expect at least a frag where her showbizz personality can be recognised. And that absolutely not the case in this bland, worn out, tired totally uninspired frag. It is 100% different from the wacky Katy Perry we know from TV, mags... and love so dearly. But so bland, so genereic, so run of the mill, so cliché... I can't get over it. I feel deeply embarrassed in Katy's place. There was once a thread here: 'Do you think that celebs wear their own celeb fragrance?' I know for sure that Katy Perry doesn't. And if she does, it even makes it worse!
There is nothing much too say about the frag itself. It is an unremarkable fruity floral of which there are hundreds and tens of them are better made and much cheaper. 'Purr' is a generic fruity flower with vanilla. All the clichés of a fruity floral are here. And this is 'Katy Perry'??? What a slap in the face of her fans! Her perfume is as good or bad as a zillion other celeb frags. Even Britneys vanillic-cotton candy OD is more original and is more 'Britney'. And- I thought I'd never have to say this- : Jessica Simpsons 'Fancy' is a perfume masterpiece with its velvety caramel-vanilla compared to Katy's blank canvas. 'Fancy' is 'Jessica', reeks 'Jessica'. But 'Purr', this bland anonymous fifteen-in-a-dozen interchangable faceless fruity floral, has nothing, I repeat nothing, to do with the artist 'Katy Perry', the colorful chameleon singer.
Very, very dissapointed. Katy: better stop feeding this garbage to your fans. They expect a frag that screams the colorful, vivacious, original, creative, zany 'Katy Perry'. If you can't do better than this, close your fragrance shop before your great image of a colorfull zany paradise bird, the slighly whacky pop princess is destroyed by your über bland fragrances. Even Mariah Carey did better in the fragrance department. Shame on you Katy, shame!
Dec
19
2011