Celebrity Scents and Sensibilities Quiz

Answer: Beyonce

Each scent, developed by a different fragrance company between 2010 and 2014, proved to be a success for the Queen B, helping her secure her grip on the pop music sphere. Of note, 'Heat' proved to be a lasting fragrance, at least in business terms, because it was revised to become 'Heat Ultimate Elixir', 'Heat Rush', the aptly-named 'Heat The Mrs. Carter World Tour' (descriptive, no?), 'Heat Wild Orchid', 'Heat Kissed', 'Heat Seduction', and 'Shimmering Heat'.

It was one of the best-selling fragrances in 2013, the same year Beyonce performed the Superbowl Half-Time Show.

Answer: Shakira

It's hard to talk about a perfume when it's alleged that it was inspired by a singer's 'light', but one would have to assume that 'S by Shakira' transcends the senses or, at the very least, allows the rest of us to comprehend synaesthesia. Apparently, Shakira's light combines Oriental notes like vanilla and gardenia (amongst more than a dozen other common scents).

But I might be too critical (or unknowing) because the fragrance was popular enough to sell millions of dollars worth of the bottle becoming one of the most popular and most awarded celebrity fragrances in 2011.

Answer: Katy Perry

While all of those Catwomen might have been purrfect answers in hindsight, the correct answer is actually the singer who named her own cat 'Kitty Purry', which is just a bit too clever in my opinion. 'Purr' was Perry's first fragrance, launching in 2010, and it led into a follow-up scent known by the name 'Meow!' (which was also bottled in a cat. Both scents started deep and ended fruity but were criticized for not lasting long, and I would make a note about her music, but I don't think it's necessary. Upon release, Perry described 'Meow!' as "an edible scent", whatever that means.

Answer: Britney Spears

I could go into greater detail about Spears' other major perfumes ('Curious', 'Radiance', etc.), but her 'Fantasy' line is a great place to do a deep-dive into how fully-formed her branding really was during the 2000s and 2010s despite the obvious tabloid gossip about her life. Launching in 2005, 'Fantasy' was followed up by multiple spin-offs, occasionally to celebrate album releases ("Circus", notably). Coincidentally, Spears released the Sia Furler-written single "Perfume" in 2013...a month after celebrating 'Fantasy: Anniversary Edition'.

Answer: Christina Aguilera

Because of Aguilera's tendency to release a new fragrance every year, this Grammy Award-winning singer has amassed more than a dozen individual perfumes starting with Xpose as far back as 2004, two years after the release of her mega-hits "Beautiful" and "Fighter".

Interestingly, few of her fragrance names had any connection to her songs, instead appealing with vague titles like 'Secret Potion', 'Royal Desire', and 'Definition'. In 2016, Aguilera made the switch from Procter & Gamble to Elizabeth Arden, Inc. as her distributor. And before you ask, none of the perfumes had anything to do with the idea of a 'Genie in a Bottle', though that would've made sense, right?

Answer: Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga's first scent released in 2012, a few years after her first handful of albums dominated the charts, and it proved to be one of the biggest celebrity fragrance success stories of the decade, ultimately selling more than a billion dollars worth of the scent which, according to its own box, bucks the trend of perfume creation by blending the notes cited in the question above. Belladonna, of course, is poisonous nightshade.
Gaga's second perfume, Eau de Gaga, was created before her collaboration with Tony Bennett and took a more traditional approach in its creation.

Answer: Paris Hilton

The interesting thing about Hilton's fragrance line (besides her simply being cited as 'Socialite' on Wikipedia's lists) is that nothing could stop its success. At the time, Hilton was fresh off her filming of "The Simple Life" (on FOX) and had dived into roles on TV and in movies (like "House of Wax").

Despite the sex tape scandal in the same era of her career, her fragrances were popular enough to sell out repeatedly; she ended up with more than a dozen of them within a few years for both women and men (the men's line began with 'Heir').

Answer: Taylor Swift

Swift was only 22 years old when she launched her first of many fragrances, 'Wonderstruck', in 2011 (between the releases of her "Speak Now" and "Red" albums). The perfume may have been an indication that the country-turned-pop star was heading to truly lasting fame as her recordings very quickly pushed into the earworm pop realm soon after.

At this point in time, Swift's scent was sold in a pack with Justin Bieber's first scene, 'Someday', which released in the same year. Bieber was 16 at the time.

Answer: Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez's goal with 'Glow' was to tie the product into an overall lifestyle brand and she did succeed with this venture, building the product line into a fashion deal that snowballed through the 2000s alongside her music and acting career. 'Glow', on its own, became successful enough in its own right that it became a fragrance counter standard in the years after its release, still being sold in great amounts into the 2010s and 2020s. Lopez would also find success with 'Still' and 'Live' in later years.

Answer: Kylie Minogue

Though the 'Darling' phase was exited at the end of this perfume trilogy, Minogue would go on to back a total of ten different perfumes with French fragrance powerhouse Coty, Inc. over the next several years. Featuring notes of Australian sandalwood, the original 'Darling' fragrance was built upon for the proceeding Darlings, each reflecting Minogue's wishes.

She also released an EP to coincide with the fragrance launch (also called "Darling") and to prepare for her forthcoming "Showgirl" tour which, unfortunately, was cut short due to her breast cancer diagnosis.