06/03/2010

Halle Berry’s Reveal

by PETE BORN and JULIE NAUGHTON

Reveal is not just Halle Berry’s third fragrance, it’s also a demanding role that requires her to expose facets of her personality.

“I’m a mother now [daughter Nahla is 2], and when you become a parent, you just look at the world a little bit differently,” said the Oscar-winning actress during an exclusive interview with WWD at the Lowell Hotel in Manhattan. “[Motherhood] challenges me and makes me question myself and who I really am all the time. So for this [fragrance and campaign] to come along at this time in life just seemed kind of like it goes together. This is a part of expressing who I really am — for the good and the bad, it’s about being comfortable with myself as a woman, and sharing secret parts of myself.”

Berry’s first eponymous fragrance launched in March 2009 in about 16,000 mass market and midtier department stores, and its flanker, Pure Orchid, bowed this January. Reveal will be launched in about 25,000 mass market and midtier doors. “Because this is the third one, I have a little bit of experience now,” Berry said. “I had an understanding of a direction I wanted it to go. With each one, the goal is to make them different, yet the same in that it’s reflective of who I am. I wanted this one to be a little more floral, but the inspiration was still about keeping it classic and easy.”

Berry added that with the story she wanted to tell, “we needed the fragrance to be easy and floral and wearable.”

Considering that her various projects involve not only fragrance creation but acting, producing and fronting color cosmetics for Revlon, Berry is determined to make sure anything that bears her name is a true reflection of her.

Coty appealed to Berry when she realized the company would give her a say in creating the fragrance and the marketing. “I worked so hard to be someone that I wanted people to trust and believe in, that I didn’t want to just squander that away. So I guarded it for a long time.”

“In the case of celebrity fragrances, I think they work best when they truly are a creation of the celebrity who has the intrinsic talent for creating,” said Steve Mormoris, senior vice president of global marketing for Coty Beauty, Berry’s fragrance licensee. “Halle is an actress and a very emotional person — she loves art and beauty, and she’s a great creator.” Mormoris added that Berry’s fragrances “resonate with the consumer much more than we thought…we are double in size what we thought [we would do with the fragrances.]”

“They didn’t think anyone would buy it,” Berry retorted with a giggle.

“I guess we underestimated your fan base,” Mormoris admitted with a smile. “We weren’t sure what to expect.” “I was more worried than anybody,” admitted Berry.

The sales tallies seem to bear out this theory. “Pure Orchid ranked number one in mass women’s fragrances in January and February, and then number two in March,” said Marsha Brooks, vice president of global marketing, fragrance, for Coty Beauty. While all involved declined to discuss sales figures, industry sources estimated that, in the next 12 months, Berry’s portfolio will generate an additional $40 million at retail globally.

In fact, Berry’s appeal is so global that the latest fragrance will launch first in about 25,000 doors in Europe and Australia in August before being introduced in the U.S., Canada and Latin America in January. “We now have a huge following in Europe, which we never anticipated,” said Mormoris.

Berry is one to support her own brands, as well — as Los Angeles-based mass market doors found out firsthand recently. “I was shopping, and I put my own fragrance in my basket. A woman looked at me and saw that the fragrance was in my basket. She said, ‘I can’t believe you have to come in here and buy it! Don’t they send it to you?’ And I said, ‘They do, but I ran out! So I’m buying it.’ I have a bottle like this big now,” she said, gesturing to a gallon-sized factice. “And then I was giving some to my charity [the Jenesse Center, a Los Angeles-based domestic violence nonprofit], and I should have called Steve up and said, ‘Hey, can you send me 50 bottles? I want to give it out at my event.’ I didn’t even think of that — I just went around to all the stores in LA and I was cleaning off the shelves. It was a little bit embarrassing, having to explain to people, ‘Oh, I’m doing a charity event and I want to give this away. Anyway, just ring it up! Don’t ask me any questions!’” she said, laughing.