Celebrity Scents Fall Out of Style: So Over It

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- How many of you long to smell like Britney Spears under the Big Top?

If you said yes, you're in luck. Elizabeth Arden (RDEN) last week launched a new fragrance called Circus Fantasy, named for the singer's latest album and tour. The new perfume joins a long line of Britney-branded scents, including fantasy Britney Spears, Britney Spears believe, curious Britney Spears and curious In Control Britney Spears. The company's product line also includes perfumes named after Mariah Carey (Forever Mariah Carey) and Usher (Usher He for men and Usher She for the ladies.)

Sales of Britney Spears fragrances rose 13% in Elizabeth Arden's June quarter.

Tagging a perfume with the name of a celebrity goes back to the days of Coco Chanel. But the trend got a little out of control after the success of Jennifer Lopez's Glow, launched in 2002. There are now fragrances inspired by athletes (Derek Jeter Driven Black by Avon Products (AVP)), actors (Alan Cumming's Cumming the Fragrance, Sarah Jessica Parker's Lovely Sarah Jessica Parker), authors (Danielle by Danielle Steel from Elizabeth Arden) and ogres (Shrek 2 Swamp Scents Eau de Toilette by DreamWorks Animation (DWA)).

In 2005, there were some 20 celebrity fragrances on high-end department store shelves, and by 2008, there were at least 47, according to Karen Grant, a beauty industry analyst at the NPD Group, a market research company in Port Washington, N.Y. And those were just the fragrances in the "prestige" and "premium" brackets, those that cost at least $50 and upwards of $75 per bottle, respectively. NPD doesn't keep track of drugstore scents such as DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda, named for the animated movie.

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