NEW YORK — Many of us feel our lives are like a soap opera. On Monday, mine really was.
To herald the debut of All My Children Fusion, a new mass market fragrance, ABC invited a cadre of beauty editors to play themselves on an episode of the famous soap watched by more than 1.4 million a week.
The premise was that we were attending a press party hosted by Simone Torres (Terry Ivens, offscreen), the head of publicity for Fusion Cosmetics.
For those who aren’t familiar with daytime TV, Fusion was founded by Kendall Slater (Alicia Minshew) and Greenlee Lavery (Rebecca Budig) to rival Erica Kane’s (Susan Lucci) Enchantment Co. Fusion and Enchantment — just like real life — were subsequently merged.
The Enchantment fragrance launched on “All My Children” and rolled out exclusively at Wal-Mart Stores last fall, bringing much-needed drama to mass market scent sales. Enchantment quickly rose to be among the top sellers at Wal-Mart. Fusion is the second scent to get a starring role in the plot, along with placement at Wal-Mart and other chain retailers. Fusion, aimed at a younger customer than Enchantment, will hit shelves this October. Industry sources expect sales could top $15 million in the first year.
That’s the back story. Here’s my day on the set.
Arriving at the “All My Children” studios in Manhattan, my fellow editors and I are swept into wardrobe where the outfits we brought with us were assessed. Mine passed with one small change — the addition of some Pine Valley (the fictional town setting for “All My Children”) approved earrings — and I was off to makeup and hair.
It may come as a surprise to those who haven’t seen most beauty editors, but few wear much makeup (and most don’t need to). Makeup artist Sheri Kornhaber deftly made me up hiding years of wrinkles accrued from too much sun exposure. Her makeup of choice? “I can work with anything,” she said, but mostly she used Nars, Prescriptives and Clinique, while my neighbor was also adorned with Bobbi Brown. (Note to Max Factor: Why not ship these artists some products to show them mass can compete with class?)
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Next, off to hair, where you could land an airplane on the strip made by my dark roots. I was quickly shown a crisscross part that hides at least some of the mousy brown. Salon products abounded on the counters including Matrix, Bumble and bumble and Kérastase.
Anyone who has ever participated in any type of television or video production can relate to the next step — waiting. Other scenes were being shot and we all had to await our five minutes of fame. Appetizers were quickly brought to us, but we were afraid of food in our teeth and passed on many of the delicacies. Several of the actors were gracious enough to come in and chat and show excitement about the fragrance launch.
Finally, our big moment. The group was moved onto the set, given final beauty tune-ups and the shots were blocked. The sets are astoundingly tiny — a bed that would fit a 10-year-old, a window sill suited for Thumbelina. Even the actresses are tiny.
We were given our motivation — we’re hearing about the exciting launch from Fusion. That should be easy enough for a group accustomed to a company promoting its newest launch. Care was taken to replicate a real event — right down to sparkling goodie bags we received as we left the set. We even had notebooks, although many of us admitted we never take notes during a presentation. All of us enthusiastically nodded and giggled as “Simone” told us about the fascinating launch — we were so carried away, we wanted to ask her sales projections.
We shot our scene and our moment of glory was over within 10 minutes. I’m not sure you’ll see me (Aug. 24, 1 p.m., ABC, green skirt), but I was there taking real notes about a fragrance that is uniquely being launched on the show and in the real-life theater of retail.
“You are going to like this one even better,” said a stagehand, showing that the entire staff is excited about the project. “It is more hip than Enchantment.”
Fusion is definitely aimed at a savvier consumer. The scent has top notes of apple, mandarin and orange, followed by middle notes of freesia, peony, jasmine and honeysuckle. The finale: base notes of sandalwood, amber and musk. The fragrance is from AMC Fragrances, which also produced Enchantment.
There is a 0.5-oz. eau de toilette spray retailing for $12; a 1-oz. edt for $18.50; a Fusion Shimmer Fragrance Stick, a glide-on solid fragrance stick, for $12, and a first-to-mass market lip gloss and edt Roll-On Duet for $12. Ancillary products include a 7.5-oz. shimmering body lotion for $12 and a Shimmering Body Fragrance in an 8-oz. spray for $12. Fusion is riding high on the current wave of celebrity scents hitting mass as well as the loyal following of “All My Children” devotees. “Can’t you take me with you?” pleaded a neighbor. “I’ve watched that show since high school,” begged another. Embedding the launch in the plot is a shrewd device to build attention.
When the camera lights went off, the set crew quickly whipped out the true reason we all go to press events — a Fusion-inspired cocktail called Fusion-tini. And that’s a wrap.