The whiff of celebrity: Carla Fracci launches her new perfume, Aurora

David Beck­ham has his under­wear col­lec­tion, singer Jes­sica Simpson has a wildly pop­u­lar fash­ion label, and Italian baller­ina Carla Fracci has her per­fume collection.

Yes­ter­day, in Milan’s chic 10 Corso Como, the sev­enth fra­grance in the col­lec­tion was launched: Aurora, named after one of the étoile’s favour­ite roles. In fact all the collection’s per­fumes are named after roles she has played: Medea, Salomé, Odette, Gis­elle, Ham­let (yes Ham­let!) and the role she plays best, Carla Fracci, which was the first in the series to be launched.

Of course there’s noth­ing new about celebrity per­fumes. Eliza­beth Taylor was the first off the mark with Pas­sion, and her 1991 White Dia­monds is still one of the most pop­u­lar on the mar­ket. Lady Gaga has a fra­grance, Rihanna and Bey­oncé too, Jen­nifer Anis­ton and Ant­o­nio Banderas have one, even little Justin Bieber has his own scent. The list is long, but almost exclus­ively con­sists of sing­ers and act­ors, with a bit of Paris Hilton thrown in here and there. Baller­inas are nowhere to be seen.

Bal­let dan­cers are cer­tainly off the radar as far as the mass media are con­cerned, and that is per­haps part of the appeal for Mario Usellini, the pres­id­ent of Carla Fracci Par­fums, who developed the line with her. The eleg­ance and grace of this bal­let icon, on and off stage, made Fracci the ideal choice to rep­res­ent per­fumes aimed at a more exclus­ive mar­ket. Cer­tainly, she has a name known world­wide, but she’s not in the league of the stars of the twit­ter­ing classes with Gaga’s mil­lions of ‘little mon­sters’ and Bieber’s ‘beliebers’. This is reflec­ted in the mar­ket the respect­ive com­pan­ies are aim­ing for with Bieber’s Someday cost­ing about half of Fracci’s Gis­elle. And that’s for the eau de par­fum, as the Bieber line doesn’t include the more pres­ti­gi­ous ‘par­fum sans eau’. In fact these fra­grances can’t be picked up at the local shop­ping centre, but in care­fully selec­ted stores like the Nord­strom Centre in San Fran­cisco and Moscow’s GUM depart­ment store. And of course in Milan’s 10 Corso Como.

So what does Aurora smell like? Well, as it’s not my field, here’s the blurb:

In a vibrant break­ing of a spell, like a long-awaited kiss, Aurora makes a lumin­ous and scin­til­lat­ing appear­ance, with the spark­ling and ton­ing scents of Ber­ga­mot and Pink Pep­per. A del­ic­ate but pas­sion­ate awaken­ing gently comes to life: the rich and intense floral notes of Rose of May open up, illu­min­ated by romantic Violet and the vel­vety notes of White Peach. As in a per­form­ance of enchant­ing beauty, soft and delight­ful touches of Helio­trope are enriched by the boisé char­ac­ter of Cedar Wood and the seduct­ive vigour of Musk.

So there you have it. I had a little cloud of it float­ing around me yes­ter­day even­ing and although I have no idea whether it was the White Pep­per or the Pink Peach, it smelled alright to me!

Pho­tos from top: Carla Fracci at the Milan launch; the new per­fume Aurora, the styl­ish inside of the 10 Corso Como shop

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