Beauty

Making scents of the presidential candidates

By Michaela Carolyn Griffin / KHOU

Which presidential candidate has the best sense? How about the best scents? Seriously. There are now perfumes for this year's top contenders.

They’re called Hillary Perfume, Barack Perfume, and McCain Perfume. (I’m guessing John Perfume didn’t sound so good.)

They’re real perfumes - eau de parfum strength - designed, mixed and bottled by a West Virginia woman named April Cline.

I have to admit that as a student of scent, I found the idea of Presidential Perfume intriguing. But as a normal person, I wanted to know what the heck this woman is thinking! So I arranged an interview with her. Turns out April Cline is pretty normal herself.

She says the idea for the perfumes just popped into her head last month after she watched the candidates debate. A former perfume designer turned certified life coach, Cline says she is always thinking of creative ideas. So when the words Presidential Perfume came to her, she knew she had something. “I knew this would be a great opportunity to sell perfume. It was timely and newsworthy and easy to market.”

Cline also realized that by developing the political potions she could give her coaching clients a real-world marketing lesson. “I could say to them - If I had a perfume company, this is what it would look like.”

Coming up with a clever name and a Web site is one thing, but perfumes that reflect the personalities of some of the country’s most powerful politicians? There are so many snarky jokes one could make about the stench and reek of politics. But Cline plays it totally straight.

April Cline says the idea for presidential perfumes just popped into her head one day.

Cline’s perfume for Hillary is described as a delicate floral blend of jasmine, violet, rose and sheerest musk. Cline tells me if Hillary actually wore Hillary Perfume, people would think she just smells good. ‘It’s not an overpowering floral.”

The scent for Barack is clean and citrusy with notes of bergamot and musk. “Barack strikes me as a man who would smell good,” says Cline. She says Barack Perfume is a bit androgynous and would work well on a man or a woman. “Every time I smell it, I feel happy.”

John McCain gets a scent Cline calls “almost a non-fragrance.” McCain Perfume contains notes of bergamot, water lily, lavender, cool greens and frosty musk. His silver hair made her think to use the sharper-edged frosty musk. “It’s a shower-fresh, soap-and-water clean smell.”

Keeping things clean is important to Cline, who prides herself on being positive, and doesn’t engage in mudslinging or tongue-in-cheek digs at the candidates. She says that sort of thing brings the whole country down and makes it harder to find good people to run for office.

She hopes her fresh and clean scents and patriotic packaging and website will unite people and help them feel more patriotic. “That’s been my thing, to bring people together. If I can do it with perfume so much the better, because people will smell better.”

I wondered if Cline had offered her perfumes to the three candidates. She says no. And she doesn’t expect any endorsements from them. But I have a sneaking suspicion she would be thrilled to hear from Hillary, Barack or John.

In the meantime, Cline hopes collectors of political memorabilia and fans of fragrance will follow their noses to her site. “I’m an entrepreneur with a child in college and two getting married this year.” What could be more normal and more American than a self-employed woman engaging in a bit of good old-fashioned capitalism?

** She is no longer selling these perfumes **

www.scentsignals.com