LONDON — Coty has a new darling: pop princess Kylie Minogue.
The songstress will unveil her debut fragrance, dubbed Darling, with the beauty powerhouse starting next month.
“Kylie Minogue has proven to be one of the leading celebrity entertainers,” said Steve Mormoris, senior vice president of global marketing for Coty Beauty, a division of Coty Inc., of the firm’s decision to add Minogue to its constellation of stars-turned-perfumers. “She has strong appeal with three generations: women and men in their 20s, 30s and 40s. This is rare in the celebrity marketplace. Kylie is a musical artist, she’s a beautiful woman, she’s accessible and charismatic. All of these characteristics we know translate well into a fragrance.”
Mormoris added that Minogue, who is a veritable pop icon in markets including the U.K. and Australia, has a strong following in Asia, Europe, Canada and large urban centers in the U.S.
“She’s a celebrity who reaches people of all socioeconomic specifications,” he said.
The entertainer, who favored essential oils over fragrance in the past, said she was enamored by the opportunity to create her own scent.
“Having your own fragrance is like a dream for a woman,” she said, adding the moniker Darling was a natural choice for the product’s name. “I use ‘darling’ a lot. My mother calls me darling. I call my friends darling. It’s almost so old-fashioned it has come around again. It’s sweet, personal, loving and affectionate. It’s a term you can use for anyone — it’s not just for your lover or your child, you can use it for everybody. And it’s a little showbiz.”
Minogue’s involvement didn’t stop at the scent’s name. Indeed, she was so hands-on, she recently visited a factory in Barcelona to better understand the full production process.
“I was teetering around the factory in a pink dress and stilettos, while it would have been more appropriate to wear a white coat, shower cap and white gloves,” she quipped.
It’s that glamorous persona and Minogue’s down-to-earth mentality that Coty aimed to capture in a fragrance, according to Mormoris.
“It talks about Kylie’s complexity as an artist, her joyousness, her accessibility and a deep sensation that she’s a romantic,” he said of Darling’s chypre-floriental scent, which was concocted by Firmenich’s Thierry Wasser.
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The scent features top notes of passion fruit, freesia and lychee; heart notes of lily and boronia, a flower sourced from Minogue’s native Australia, while base notes include sandalwood, amber wood and vanilla.
“I’m really pleased with it,” said Minogue, adding she tested iterations of the scent on herself as well as on friends and family.
Darling will be available as an eau de toilette and an eau de parfum and will be distributed in a mix of mass and prestige doors. The edt, in 15- and 30-ml. sizes, will be sold in drugstores, priced in Europe at 15 euros, or $19 at current exchange, and 20 euros, or $25, respectively. The 50- and 75-ml. versions will be available in department stores and perfumeries, weighing in at 30 euros, or $38, and 35 euros, or $44, respectively.
A 30-ml. edp, which features a glistening juice, initially will be sold through premium stores and later will roll out to other retail channels. It will be priced at 35 euros, or $44.
“She’s a democratic entertainer,” said Mormoris, adding that Minogue’s concert tickets are often less expensive than her peers’ so as many of her fans as possible can see her perform live. “[Darling will] be in different channels of distribution, as consumers shopping in both prestige and mass channels know Kylie Minogue and want to buy a fragrance by her.”
An ancillary line will include a Pearly Shower Gel, a Silky Body Lotion and scented deodorants.
Darling’s bottle, created by Lutz Herrmann, features an opalescent finish — a nod to a holographic effect used on the scent’s outer packaging.
“We juxtaposed the holograph in fuchsia and green, [reminiscent] of a CD in homage to her career as a musical artist,” said Mormoris, who added that black accents were used to represent Minogue’s fashion taste.
The scent will be supported by a single- and double-page print advertising campaign lensed by William Baker, Minogue’s stylist. It features Minogue wearing a pink evening dress. The scent’s name stretches across the ad, while an image of the bottle appears at the bottom of the shot. A television campaign, comprising 10-, 20- and 30-second spots, also will be used, as will vial, scent strips and LiquaTouch samples.
Darling will bow in the U.K., Ireland and Australia in November. It will be introduced in Western and Eastern Europe in spring 2007 and North and South America shortly afterward.
Mormoris declined to discuss sales forecasts; however, industry sources estimate Darling could generate $50 million at retail in its first year.
While Minogue said she’d declined propositions to work on beauty projects before teaming up with Coty, she’s clearly got a taste for the business. “Now that I’ve built a relationship, I feel I have more confidence to really come with ideas,” she said, noting that she’d love to work on makeup at some point in the future.
A men’s fragrance is also in the cards for the singer, who has a large following among gay men. “Some men have asked about it already, as they know Darling is coming out,” she said. “To have interest is such a luxury.”
Darling’s launch is timed to coincide with Minogue’s upcoming Showgirl Homecoming Tour, which reprises a tour she was forced to cancel last year after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. It kicks off in Sydney on Nov. 11.
“Even under normal circumstances, it’s such an enormous undertaking to go on tour,” she said. “Having had the experience [I’ve had] over the last year and a half, it’s going to be a really emotional homecoming, as the tour has been renamed. I’m trying to keep focused and stable.”