Hi all you Little Fragrance Monsters,
So it’s not news that Lady Gaga has a fragrance released by her own The Haus Laboratories Paris and the historic house of Coty. You won’t be surprised to hear that it’s the first black Eau de Parfum. The bottle is pretty cool looking in pictures, like a Thierry Mugler cuff treatment or a freaky fascinator for the races. The ads have been wonderful homages and pastiches and have included enough excellent visual content, costume, make up, art direction and lighting to almost completely obscure the fact that we are being sold the same fruit tingle, soft jube, fizzy, fruity, 100% artificial pap that nearly every other celeb and quite a few of the expensive big boys are bottling and calling perfume.
WTF? Lady Gaga, you have let us down. Your promises of an olfactory adventure, the blood & semen accord, the outrage and scandal of your brilliant advertising that hits your target market dead on have all lead to this slightly fizzy dross? Oh yeah!! You know your target market. You know that this has been what is served to them since they started thinking fragrance, you want to sell stuff not make a gesture, not teach a lesson, not change the board but play to it. Smart! It’s not bad, just derivative and BORING Boring boring ZZZZZZZZZZzzzz
Instead of venting my spleen here I decided to do something different. I took FAME by Lady Gaga to Trivia last night thinking I would get the crowds reaction because many of my players are the target market, here’s how that turned out.
I was wearing FAME and the first thing that happened when I walked in was a question about my fragrance and a compliment on it. I had my dinner as everyone was arriving and was chatting and welcoming everyone over the next 40 minutes. As we got started on the trivia I asked if anyone would like to smell my pre Aussie release import of FAME and a surprising amount of hands went up. Thank goodness I’d ordered a 5ml decant! So around the room I went spraying on a couple of wrists at each table and folks, the place smelled absolutely gorgeous. Those opening notes are really great en mass in a large room with no other scent distractions. Everyone was huffing away at themselves from 18 to 80 years old and it really smelled wonderful.
Even as they were leaving 2 hours later I was getting fragrant wafts of fruity fizz, not strong but still quite nice and everyone had really enjoyed being the first Aussies to get a go at it. Some even going as far as to say that they would definitely be purchasing a bottle when it is released here later this month. So what do I know? Bloody nothing obviously. It’s a hit across the board. All ages and sexes were entranced by FAME.

Fragrantica gives these featured accords: Belladonna, incense, honey, saffron, apricot, Sambac jasmine, tiger orchid
On me the opening zips, fizzes and sizzles and that must be the apricot and saffron, there is also a very clean white flower that has been completely stripped of its sensuality. After about an hour it becomes much quieter and stays quite linear after the initial rush. I feel that there is no base holding the fragrance down. I would have liked some real depth to centre it a little more. Somewhere in the 3-4 hour area it becomes too soft for me to notice much other than that it is not my skin but something sweeter, almost but not quite milk and fairy floss, or DAIRY DROSS. I can’t say after wearing it for 2 days that I hate it but I don’t love it and wish I had more of a reason to purchase the bottle, but no…..
What fragrance have you been let down by lately? You know, the build up and hype had you HYPErventilating till you tried it? Please leave me a message in the comments. I love this kind of insight.
I hope you’re having a great day, if not the good times will roll around soon enough so please endure the crap.
Love always,
Portia xx
All Videos and Photos stolen Fragrantica
I was one of the lucky people to get to sample this parfum last Thursday night. I found the scent rather sickly at first. Very fruity and very, very sweet. And quite overpowering. Surprisingly, it settled down into quite a nice subtle scent rather quickly, however by the time I got home, I couldn’t smell it for love nor money. If it had more staying power I’d definitely be a long term fan. For what it will cost, I would want something that lasted more than a couple of hours on my skin.
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Good call Julie.
So glad you dropped by to write.
Portia xx
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Oh my goodness! Color me shocked about the reaction at your trivia, but still: people enjoying a fragrance (whether I like it or not) is awesome. I am all for things that awaken olfactive curiosity, even Fame. 🙂
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Hey Natalie,
I repeated the process 3 concurrent nights with the same reaction every night. It was a hit but only lasted 3-4 hours on everyone.
And as a room freshener it is glorious,
Portia xx
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As a room freshener it is glorious. Lol. That is the quote of the day right there. 😉 Anyway, at least you had rooms full of people let you spritz them, and they liked it. I too would rather have people walking around in clouds of fruitiness as opposed to those fragrance free types who object to any little odor.
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They were all really into it. We all had a good time Poodle,
Portia xx
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Co co Noir had me gasping for air! That bottle was going to be my hot spring romance but it was not to be ! I was left completely Luke warm by this offering so I splashed out on Sycomore which I wanted sooooo badly for a long time ! It was a good excuse!
I smelt fame at myer yesterday! I looked at the display, smelt the juice , looked at the display ( art directed fetish porn ) smelt the juice and shook my head ! Wrong !!!!!!! Shame not fame !!!
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HA HA HA It must have come out 9/11. That’s kind of alarming too.
Portia xx
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Hi Portia, please tell us more about the colour effect of the juice! Was it black in the decant or just grey-ish? And was it really colourless when sprayed on skin? [Love your blog, by the way, and that video of you doing the live sniff was a hoot – more please!]
XX from sunny Melbourne, MsV
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Hey MsV,
Welcopme to the APJ Family. The juice is a very dark purple grey, almost black. It hits the skin grey and disappears in seconds, I have not hit white cotton or linen with it but it left no traces on mid pink cotton/silk blend.
Many more live sniffs coming.
Portia xx
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I don’t know why somehow the bottle remind me of dog’s tick only in alien form part of the Starship’s troopers
On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 10:37 PM, AustralianPerfumeJunkies wrote:
> ** > australianperfumejunkies posted: “Hi all you Little Fragrance Monsters, > So it’s not news that Lady Gaga has a fragrance released by her own The > Haus Laboratories Paris and the historic house of Coty. You won’t be > surprised to hear that it’s the first black Eau de Parfum. The bottle is > pr”
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Hey Hey Jeanny Morris,
Welcome to APJ.
It is a little dog tickish. HA HA
Portia x
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I’m not surpeised that people liked it. Think about it: somebody is buying all those millions and millions of jastins and jessicas – why not this one?
Since I didn’t like the ad campaign I’m kind of glad it turned to be just a mediocre perfume.
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We just wrote on each others blogs at the EXACT same moment!!!
Portia xx
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🙂 And now I’m off to bed!
Have a great day, Portia! ❤
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Portia… I bought FAME today. I’ve gotten out of the shower and spritzed some on for bed.
I’m not sure about it… I was hoping it would be something darker.
For an EDP it’s very light. I’m not sure of its the perfume I can smell or the deodorant…
Should be back at trivia soon.
x
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I MISS YOU GUYS!!!!
Portia xx
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I’ve worn Fame everyday since I bought it and I REALLY like it. Yes, it could be a little less sweet and a little more dark but i still love it. xx
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Katrina,
You are so welcome at the APJ family. You are absolutely correct, it is a good saleable fragrance that is ultimately very wearable in most situations. I can’t knock Lady gaga’s business sense, she has made a winner. So glad you are loving it, many of the test group that tried it at trivia bought it too,
Portia xx
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