Just in time for holiday shopping madness, diminutive disco diva Kylie Minogue will be dropping her new fragrance, Darling, coinciding with the start of her Showgirl Homecoming Tour in Sydney, Australia on November 11. A collaboration with Coty Beauty, the fragrance will be launched in the U.K., Ireland & Australia, and be available in Europe and the Americas in the spring; distribution will be a mix of chi chi department stores and mass retailers – mirroring the crossover appeal of Minogue. "She's a democratic entertainer," Steve Mormoris, senior vice president of global marketing for Coty Beauty, told WWD. "[Darling will] be in different channels of distribution, as consumers shopping in both prestige and mass channels know Kylie Minogue and want to buy a fragrance by her." Because of the millions of dollars at stake creating, launching & marketing a celebrity fragrance, a vast amount of market research is always the first step in the process to verify that the celeb indeed has global appeal. "Kylie Minogue has proven to be one of the leading celebrity entertainers," explains Mormoris about the star’s A-list status in the U.K., Australia, Asia, Europe, Canada, and select U.S. cities. "She's a celebrity who reaches people of all socioeconomic specifications…She has strong appeal with three generations: women and men in their 20s, 30s and 40s. This is rare in the celebrity marketplace. Kylie is a musical artist, she's a beautiful woman, she's accessible and charismatic. All of these characteristics we know translate well into a fragrance." Priced in the 15 to 35 Euro range ($20-$45), insiders guesstimate that the fragrance, shower gel & body lotion will rake in a cool $50 million in retail sales the first year. Because of her large & devoted gay following, a men’s fragrance is not surprisingly in the works. "Some men have asked about it already, as they know Darling is coming out," says Minogue about the fragrance which is named for her pet moniker for friends & loved ones. "To have interest is such a luxury." The deets on Darling – a chypre-floriental scent created by Thierry Wasser of Firmenich: TOP NOTES: passion fruit, freesia & lychee HEART: lily and boronia (an Australian flower) BASE: sandalwood, amber wood and vanilla

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