Get Ready for Fall Fragrance Launches

Fragrance sales may be down, but fragrance launches? That’s another issue entirely. Despite another dismal year for fragrance, marketers continue to roll out an array of new products. Here’s a look at what’s on tap for Fall, 2010.

Someone called Tilda Swinton is rolling out a fragrance, called Like This, with French niche fragrance house Etat Libre d’Orange. Swinton may not be the best ambassador for fine fragrance, though. As she told Women’s Wear Daily, “Not caring much about fragrance — having worn one fragrance myself for 25 years, Penhaligon’s Bluebell.” With experience like that, how could Swinton not get into fine fragrance, right?

For the bookish set, Fresh teamed up with Sony Pictures to create the Eat, Pray, Love fragrance collection, a three fragrance collection which is based on the best-selling memoir of the same name by Elizabeth Gilbert. The scents, which will retail for $32 for a 1-oz. eau de parfum spray, will be available exclusively at Fresh’s 14 U.S. stores and on fresh.com. The trio is set to launch on July 15, before the movie of the same name — starring Julia Roberts — is released on Aug. 13.

For those who insist too much is never enough, YSL will launch Belle d’Opium, which it calls “a next-generation, younger version of Opium,” the novel scent YSL introduced in 1977 that remains a big seller in Europe. Belle d’Opium is an oriental fragrance but with less of an amber-like effect. The fragrance was developed by Firmenich and contains notes of Casablanca lily, sandalwood, gardenia, white pepper, jasmine absolute and a narguile accord. Belle d’Opium’s will launch in France at the end of August, before rolling out to other countries through the end of October. Prices points include $45 for a 30ml edp spray, $70 for 50ml and $90 for 90ml.

Guess is working with Coty to launch Seductive later this fall. It’s the first fragrance launch from Guess since it dropped Parlux last year. Seductive was developed by IFF and is available in three sizes: $40 for 30ml, $52 for 50ml and $62 for 75ml. A 200ml body cream and 200ml shower cream will retail for $28 and $26, respectively.

That’s just a first look at what’s on tap for the all-important Fall launch period. Marketers are hoping that the worst is over for fine fragrance, but until the industry figures out what women truly want in a scent, more fragrance launches are unlikely to move the needle much.