Every year, I smell a smaller percentage of the new celebrity fragrances — really, every year I smell a smaller percentage of all new fragrances; who can keep up? But I’ve fallen particularly far behind on the celebrity front. So today, a competition between two 2012 fragrances geared even younger than the already young average for the celebrity market: Justin Bieber’s sophomore effort, Girlfriend, and the debut fragrance from his real-life girlfriend, Selena Gomez.¹

Freshly applied: Girlfriend starts off with sweet berry-ish fruit, loud enough but not as loud as it could be, with a fair sized dollop of vanilla already in evidence. While it isn’t overwhelming and it’s far from the worst-of-the-worst in terms of fruit ‘n candy bombs, it’s fuller (and a bit darker) than I would have expected for something geared this young. Perhaps this is why Bieber has described Girlfriend as “more mature” than Someday? Is his fan base growing up, or is he going after the moms? Selena Gomez, on the other wrist, is clearly after a younger crowd. It leads with screechy high-pitched raspberry with sour, almost-plastic undertones. Anyone who thinks that all these tween-oriented fragrances are basically the same would do well to smell Selena Gomez next to, well, almost anything. If we’re just talking about the top notes, I’d prefer nearly any celebrity fragrance on earth, and that includes Paris Hilton Heiress…

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