Symphony of fragrant notes
Fans love the way Mariah Carey's powerful, multi-octave voice can hit all those difficult notes. Now the singer is offering notes of a distinctly different sort and hoping they'll love these, too. Just when you think every bankable celebrity on the planet has been snapped up by beauty brands to endorse products, another one springs up - perfectly timed for the year-end drama of spending and spoiling, too.
But this celeb, at least, worked hard on the product herself. In a press release, Mariah Carey says, "I've always really loved the idea of a fragrance, but I never found one that felt like it was meant for me. When Elizabeth Arden offered me the opportunity to create my own fragrance I jumped at the chance."
So, Carey herself actually chose the notes that eventually became M by Mariah Carey. Even before the bottle hit stores, an image purporting to be from an ad for M circulated on the Internet; it featured Carey swinging on a vine surrounded by lush tropical flowers. It turned out to be a fake, though, as it was an old Gisele Bundchen ad with Carey's head superimposed onto Bundchen's body.
The real television commercial for M is pretty predictable, with Carey showing a tantalising amount of skin (so you can forget about ever seeing it air in Malaysia, of course) while she dabs the fragrance onto various parts of her body; it ends with her glistening body lying half naked in a pool of water.
Carey has always drawn on her sex appeal, so you'd expect her to pick only the notes that reflect sensuality and seduction. Well, here's a surprise: she didn't. Not that they aren't there at all; it's just that there are other, refreshingly unassuming, notes as well.
She picked marshmallows as M's top note because, she says, it gives her a sense of comfort and brings back childhood memories of being in the kitchen with her father. The heart note is the lush Polynesian tiare flower that reminds Carey of the fragrant breezes at her favourite getaways, like Capri and Hawaii, while the bottom note of Moroccan incense, which is warm and seductive, was inspired by her trip to Morocco a few years ago, and because she is a fan of having wafts of incense in her home.
We wondered what people think of M, so we turned to Google and came across this interesting comment from a blogger, who remarked that she didn't have high hopes for the fragrance simply because she doubted Carey's taste, as this blogger found her dress sense questionable. However, she discovered that she found the fragrance very pleasing...
We don't know if M will move you, but the violet-tinged crystal bottle that holds it certainly moved us to admiration. Designed by Carey with Jean Antretter of Elizabeth Arden, it features an ethereal butterfly resting upon the tips of a tiare flower on the glass cap, and an elegant silver roped collar on the neck.
The "M by Mariah Carey" eau de parfum spray is priced at RM175 (30ml), RM215 (50ml) and RM255 (100ml), and is available at Elizabeth Arden counters at leading department stores. (The Star Online)
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