Jennifer Aniston’s eponymous fragrance, which debuted last year in the UK, has finally reached US shores. I am better placed to talk about it than I am with many celebrity fragrances, insofar as I actually know who Jennifer Aniston is — doesn’t everybody? She’s one of our more likable celebrities, I should think, although whether that will translate into major sales remains to be seen, and she did not get a contract with one of the biggies, like Coty or Elizabeth Arden or Estee Lauder. Her fragrance was made with Falic Fashion Group, who also holds the fragrance licenses for Perry Ellis and the recently launched Original Penguin.

As many of you will remember, Aniston, like many celebrities who are gearing up for a fragrance launch, started out by talking about how she didn’t really like strong, perfume-y fragrances; fragrances she particularly named as too strong included Miss Dior, Cacharel Anaïs Anaïs, Hermès Calèche and an unnamed body splash that was probably Jean Naté. Her fragrance, which was at that time to be called Lolavie (the name got dropped shortly before the launch), was to be “sexy and clean” and “floral, but not too flowery”, and (my personal favorite) to smell “unique on every woman’s skin”.

The scent itself, which includes notes of citrus grove accord, rose water, night blooming jasmine, wild violets, Amazon lily, musk, amber and sandalwood, is meant to recall night blooming jasmine on a warm California evening, and salty air and tropical oils, and long sunny days on the beach. Aniston grew up in California, and the finished product has a distinct resemblance to the fragrances that I think of as the “California perfume oils”…

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