Another day, another celebrity fragrance. This time it’s Nicki Minaj.
Fresh from receiving death threats a few days ago for a tweet about Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, she ends the week on a more positive note with news that her debut fragrance ‘Pink Friday’ will be available in stores later this month.
She told WWD: “They [her licensees] asked me: ‘What do you feel is a real extension of you?’ And I said: ‘There’s nothing more synonymous with Nicki Minaj than a pink wig. If I could get that on the bottle, that would really make me feel like this fragrance is a part of me — my history and my future.”
After seeing a sketch of the bottle she said: “I almost passed out, I was so excited. I was thinking to myself, it’s going to be traditional; it’s going to have a regular bottle, a regular top. But I had never seen anything like this. My fans are always anticipating what I’m going to do — they’re used to me surprising them with craziness. I know my Barbz — what I call my fans —are going to freak out about this. It’s like a doll, almost.”
The scent, which she helped to create, has top notes of star fruit, Italian mandarin and succulent boysenberry; the heart includes lotus flower and starry jasmine petals, and the drydown is of vanilla, caramelized pear, musks and woods. No idea what any of that means but it sounds nice!
Times are a changin’ over at House of Deréon.
The company’s CEO left a few weeks ago and the remaining employees are rumoured to have been laid off.
Things started so well; when the brand first launched, sales peaked at $100 million and could be found in department stores Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s. Now the various labels – House of Deréon, Deréon, Curvelicious and Miss Tina – are found in cheaper stores like Burlington Coat Factory and Wal-Mart.
Beyoncé has given the labels a plug in her music; she mentioned Deréon in “Get Me Bodied” and “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” but she’s no Victoria Beckham. Unlike VB, neither she nor style star Solange are pictured wearing the label, perhaps to the brand’s detriment.
We doubt Queen B is very upset about it, she’s had a stellar year with the birth Blue Ivy in January and last month she was an ambassador for World Humanitarian Day. Add to that the fact that she’s one half of the most powerful celebrity couple on the planet and that she made $40 million last year, we’re sure she can (pay to) mastermind a turnaround for the brand.
A spokesman said: “House of Deréon has been distributed exclusively in Europe for the past two years in department and specialty stores. As part of our growing contemporary business, we are repositioning the brand in the United States. Additionally, we are continuing our successful Miss Tina business.”
I really don’t get the whole Nicki Minaj thing. To me, she is the epitome of style over content. And using the word “style” in reference to her is actually a compliment.
At risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, I think the fact that she’s a marketable brand is a sad reflection of the low standards and expectations in entertainment that is so prevalent among today’s youth.