Perfume names. Have they already taken all the good ones?

Zen seems like a good name. Is it already taken?

@chyna Why thank you. I shall google it immediately.

“Morning Coffee” ..... What’s more arousing than that?

@chyna Yep. Zen by Shiseido. Shazbat.

@Lupin How about a collection with evening espresso and midnight mocha, too?

See? It would’ve been a good name. Maybe add something to Zen if that wouldn’t infringe on copywrite. Like Zen’s Midnight. Yeah, corny, but you get the drift.

@Zen I’m leaning towards Captain Zen.

;-)

@Zen That Midnight Mocha works for me. OK jellies you heard it first here.
Calvin Klein’s Midnight Mocha modeled by Halle Berry.

@Lupin Oh baby! Halle would do well with a midnight mocha. How about Beyonce for Espresso?

@Zen I’m sure Evelyn would kindly lend her name to a nice womanly scent. Perhaps something that exudes hilarity and sensuousness all at the same time. Maybe a combination of vanilla, musk, and say, clown grease paint?

Journee, my daughter’s name. It will smell like strawberries, vinyl and fresh air.

@jamielynn2328 I LOVE IT! ESPECIALLY THE SPELLING. DON’T KNOW WHY I’M SHOUTING, I JUST REALLY LIKED THE NAME AND GOT EXCITED AND THE CAPSLOCK GOT STUCK. I SHALL CALL IT JOURNEE, IF YOU DON’T MIND.

Kudos.

@Zen She’s my biggest success so maybe this will be yours!

@jamielynn2328 Psst. Why don’t you do it, dear. You thought of it first.

;-)

I personally like “Facade” for a perfume name. A scent that transforms, smelling completely different by the end of the day :)

August, naturally. It would smell like wild honeysuckle.

@Facade Sorry to be the one to tell you, but if you google facade and perfume, you get this: http://www.femmefacade.com/2008/07/great-smell-of-whale-vomit-in-perfumes.html

Facade: The great smell of whale vomit in perfumes.

Oh no! Haha, well that just sucks =(

All taken? Certainly not. Every language has beautiful words. The sky is thick with named stars. There are lesser-known precious and semiprecious gems, thousands of cities, 260,000 species of flowers, hundreds of thousands of girls’ names. My Sanskrit teacher said that in Hinduism there are three billion gods. The names of poets of all the lands and ages, of mythical figures, of celebrated royalty, of ancient places and fictional characters and great palaces, enchanted islands and glorious beaches, and on and on—you will never run out of things that could lend their names to an alluring fragrance.

@Zen After @Jeruba ‘s answer above, I know what I’d call it.

@Zen That made me laugh out loud, I can imagine the guy with the bucket standing in front of the whale going: Oh crap! :D

The name would be the least of my concerns if I was going to make a perfume. It really sounds like a hard job to me, come to think of it I would love to try it sometime. We should go together, but you can bring the whale vomit.

Following the Eastern slant, I would go with Shiva. The Hindu religion has its version of the trinity, with gods of creation, destruction and maintenance. Shiva is the destroyer god.

@markyy, which do you suppose sells more perfume, the scent or the name? or the celebrity endorser?

@markyy @Jeruba Thanks for your comments. Jeruba’s post was brilliant, but I’ve come to expect nothing less. @markyy Sure – let’s go together. We’ll use faux whale though, as I am against cruelty to animals, even if it’s just to make them vomit.

On a serious note (note, get it?), I have an amazing nose. Like a sommelier, or coffee taster nose. I can mix up perfumes for anyone and I know I’d be brilliant given the chance. You need a celebrity, like maybe Jack or someone. Then all you need is a catchy name. I got it!!!! See my next question,if they don’t mod it.

@Jeruba No perfume is sold until someone goes to the store and tries some. You’re absolutely right that the name and celebrity endorser are your first association with the product and have a very big influence in you trying it out, and eventually buying it. And i’m leaving out a lot of other consumers like all the boyfriends who have no idea and just want a gift for their girlfriends will most likely go for something they heard about.

I wasn’t trying to say a name is unimportant, it’s just that I’m not good with the commercial aspect of creating your own brand of perfume. If I want a success I would start with Spongebob as my celebrity ;)

My name for a perfume will be….

Fluther Night

You could be right, @markyy, but I was under the impression that sites like this did business without benefit of samples.

I was responding to your comment that name was the least of your concerns. Not to be too cynical, but I almost think it doesn’t matter what it smells like; as long as it has the right name, design, and advertising, it will sell.

I am as cynical as the next guy and am with @Jeruba on that one. Sad, but true. See my next post about “what’s in a name.”

@Jeruba @Zen You’re not begin cynical at all.

From wikipedia: [Britney] Spears endorsed her first Elizabeth Arden fragrance “Curious” in 2004, and earned $100 million in sales in the five weeks after its 2004 release. In September 2005, Spears released the fragrance “Fantasy” with Elizabeth Arden, which also saw great success. Curious was named the best selling perfume of 2004, and one of the best selling perfumes ever. To date (October 2008), Curious has sold over 650 million bottles, grossing Spears more than US$610 million.

And this is just one of many examples. Here in Holland we have a form of really bad folk music that is about as cheezy as your country music, and almost every one of those artists has their own perfume. Soccer is very big over here, and all the big clubs have their own perfume. Branding is just as important, if not even more.

I am thinking of calling mine: Ridiculously Expensive pour Homme. The “Poor Femme” (pun intended) will come out later in the spring.