Celebrity Scent News: Balenciaga’s Florabotanica With Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Swift’s New Wonderstruck Enchanted

Mon, 2 July 2012 12:43PM

One of my favourite weekend pastimes is to wander idly through the perfume counters of David Jones on Elizabeth Street in Sydney. The pianist plays As Time Goes By, and I’m offered cards spritzed with the latest fragrances, while the flawless faces of Keira Knightley, Anja Rubik and Leighton Meester beam – or in most cases stare sultrily – back at me from billboards and placards.

If there was common theme I noticed about fragrances of late, during my browsing of the counters, mag-flicking and web-surfing, is the rise in popularity of luxe labels with a celebrity ambassador. Last week it was Blake Lively as the face of Gucci’s Première, earlier this year Brad Pitt for Chanel No. 5., Gwynnie P for Hugo Boss’s Boss Black and the list goes on. And on.

So speaking of celeb ambassadors, while we knew Kristen Stewart was teaming up with Balenciaga back in January, the details of the new Florabotanica fragrance have just hit our radar.

With a floral fashion collection that Balenciaga’s Creative Director Nicolas Ghesquière worked on back in 2008 acting as inspiration, he set out to create a scent suited to a younger female audience. Hence the K-Stew choice, rather than sticking with Charlotte Gainsbourg, French It Girl and the face of Balenciaga’s L’Essence.

Florabotanica features a combination of vetiver, amber and caladium-leaf and a rose, carnation and mint accord, a departure from the original Balenciaga scents which were more of violet chypre. However there’s no doubt the fragrance will appeal to all die-hard K-Stew and Twilight fans alike, particularly since Kristen told WWD that before Florabotanica, she never wore perfume. Which floored me, I have to say. I don’t think I’ve ever met a female, young or old, who doesn’t love collecting fragrances or at least a penchant for one particular juice. In saying that, this is a girl who likes to wear Converse Chucks with her designer gowns, so anything goes. I’m pretty certain we can say that if Kristen says she wears it, it’s set to be a crowd pleaser. It lands in-store on November 4th.

Then let’s not forget about pretty much every celebrity and their puppy (let’s be honest, you wouldn’t put it past Paris Hilton) releasing their own scent. Taylor Swift has also just announced that she’ll be launching her second fragrance, Wonderstruck Enchanted, later this year. It’s an Oriental gourmand, with a delectable combination of wild berries and passionfruit to open, with a floral blend of peonies and freesia at the heart and vanilla, musk, woodsy notes to round it out. While we haven’t taken a whiff yet, it’s set to be sweet yes, but will definitely appeal to fruity fragrance fans. And more than likely me, as peonies are my favourite flowers – hint, hint.

The bottle is identical to her first fragrance, but in a crimson red with a new set of dangling crystal-embellished charms. Adorable.

What about you Primpettes, how do you feel about designer scents with a celebrity face? Does it influence your decision at all?

And celebrity scents in general? Are you a fan?

Were you a fan of Balenciaga Paris or L’Essence?

What about Taylor Swift’s original Wonderstruck perfume?

Hayley x

Posted by: Hayley Bennett

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Tags: balenciaga, designer fragrance, fragrance, kristen stewart, Nicolas Ghesquière, perfume, taylor swift, wonderstruck enchanted