The UK Times has announced the winners of the Sunday Times Style Beauty Awards: Stella by Stella McCartney won the award for the best fragrance, Lovely by Sarah Jessica Parker is the best new fragrance.
The New York Times has an article on the growing trend of fragranced hotel lobbies and guest rooms; the Kansas City Star has a feature (link no working, sorry!) on custom scents for cars.
I read recently in Luxist that the Westin Hotel chain is using magazine scent strips to advertise their new signature scent: “White Tea. The Calming New Scent of Westin”, which according to Brandweek will be “faintly wafting this spring in Westin properties worldwide”. Sure enough, there is a strip in my latest New Yorker. It smells vaguely like a cross between Bvlgari's Green tea and White tea fragrances, and I would venture to guess that it isn't all that different from the lemongrass and green tea fragrance used at Omni hotels. More hotel scenting news:
Hard Rock Hotel's lobby in Orlando has “Ocean” scent, and the hotel draws visitors to the ice cream store on the ground level by blasting a “`Waffle Cone”' scent up the stairway. (via Washington Post)
A brief perusal of Scentair's website (Scentair produces the scenting systems that make all this public fragrancing possible) reveals several other interesting uses of fragrance as a marketing tool…
There is an interesting article about scent marketing in the IndyStar:
A growing number of companies are targeting consumers' sense of smell to market brands and products in an almost subliminal way. They're hiring scent marketers, who concoct odors and serve them up using blowers strategically placed in public places.
At the Omni hotel, the lobby apparently smells like lemongrass & green tea, the cafe smells like mochachino. Read the rest here (link no longer working, sorry!).
In a related story, the Citroën C4 (by the French car maker) comes with a scent diffuser that works through the car's ventilation system. Nine fragrances, ranging from Mint & Musk to Ylang & Bamboo, are available. See the details at the Citroën website.
Perfumer Geza Schoen of Escentric Molecules explains the appeal of Molecule 01, a single note fragrance composed of the chemical Iso E Super…
In conjunction with the recent release of her Live fragrance, Jennifer Lopez is giving away a customized autographed video iPOD. Log onto jenniferlopezbeauty everyday between 12/15 – 12/23 for a chance to win, and looks like you can get a free fragrance sample while you're there.
The Independent Online has a long article about Jo Malone.
Thanks to Karen for the link to this article about Alexis Karl, a New Yorker who makes custom scents in addition to a ready-to-wear line that includes fragrances like Red Velvet, Minx, Venus in Furs and Queen Bitch.
Omnia hotels have partnered with ScentAir to provide a signature ambient fragrance, based on lemongrass and green tea, to each of its 40 hotels resorts. (via Yahoo Finance)
Coming next year from Kenzo: a new women's fragrance, as yet unnamed, and a new summer limited edition of L'Eau Par Kenzo, Love L'Eau.
Scented billboards? Azzaro is advertising Silver Black in Paris airports using "advertising stations" that "will diffuse the Silver Black scent to a radius of five meters around each station located in proximity to perfumery outlets in the terminals." (both above via cosmeticnews)
The next fragrance from Serge Lutens to join the export range might be named Gris Clair. Thanks to J for passing on the (completely unsubstantiated) rumor!
A new phone from Hyundai for the Chinese market emits the fragrance of your choice when you open the clamshell. The cost? $1200. (via I4U news) A cheaper option: Lenovo's Perfume Phone, which works by "heating a small chamber filled with a few drops of a favorite fragrance, infusing your wrist (or purse or pocket) whenever the phone is turned on." It's a bargain at around $200, but again, only in China. (via Fortune link no longer working, sorry)