Brands
Trump’s ‘Victory’ scent muscles into celebrity perfume mania
MUMBAI: Celebrity perfumes are big business. And now, Donald Trump wants a whiff of victory too. As the current US president and a real estate mogul, he has just added cologne to his ever-growing merchandise empire. His latest launch, ‘Victory 45–47’, is a perfume duo pitched as an olfactory power play, bottled with the promise of “Winning, Strength, and Success.” The perfumes are packaged in stylish boxes — black with gold for men and red with gold for women. The bottles are shaped like miniature statues of Trump.
Smells like confidence? Certainly. Subtle? Not in the slightest. But that’s the point.
Trump’s entry into the celebrity fragrance fray marks a bold twist in a trend that’s already one of the most lucrative crossovers in pop culture. Perfume, once the province of Paris and prestige perfumers, is now the ultimate flex for the famous bottled personality, a scent-led story, a sensory souvenir of stardom.
Celebrity scents are no longer novelty side-hustles; they’re billion-dollar businesses. And for stars with rabid fan bases, launching a perfume line offers more than just revenue as it offers a way to linger long after the applause fades.
Before Trump spritzed “success,” there was Taylor Swift’s Wonderstruck, Paris Hilton’s Heiress, Jennifer Lopez’s Glow, and Britney Spears’ Fantasy series — sugary, sparkling olfactory time machines for a generation that grew up with them. The Kardashian sisters transformed their brand of reality-glam into perfume bottles shaped like crystals. Each scent sold a persona, a feeling, a filter.
In India, Shah Rukh Khan dipped into the fragrance scene with an offering as suave as his on-screen presence, while Amitabh Bachchan’s foray echoed his gravitas and enduring appeal. For fans, these perfumes weren’t just products — they were accessible. Affordable. Aspirational. And wearable.
The process isn’t as simple as lending a name and collecting royalties. Crafting a celebrity fragrance involves late-night mood boards, deep dives into personal stories, and the careful balancing of notes that reflect personality without alienating mass-market palates.
Top perfumers often sit with celebrities to understand their vision — or at least their vibe. What results is a cocktail of emotion and olfactory chemistry: floral highs, musky lows, and a middle note of “this smells like me.” The packaging? Almost as crucial as the juice. It’s storytelling in glass — and shelf appeal is everything.
Celebrity scents today are more than aromatic accessories. They’re extensions of personal style, markers of mood, and declarations of fan loyalty. Wearing a celebrity fragrance is not just about smelling good — it’s about aligning with a lifestyle, be it Swift’s soft girl elegance or Trump’s chest-thumping alpha masculinity.
As social media and AI reshape how fragrances are marketed, the future of celeb scents is set to get even more personalised — think interactive campaigns, name-dropped reels, and algorithm-powered fragrance matches. Fans won’t just buy the perfume; they’ll star in its story.
Trump’s Victory 45–47 might raise eyebrows, but it also raises an important point: in a world of fleeting fame, fragrance lingers. For celebrities, perfume offers permanence — a way to stay relevant, even when the spotlight dims.
So whether you reach for Paris Hilton’s sparkle, Swift’s sweetness, or Trump’s testosterone, remember: behind every bottle is a brand, a story, and a scent of ambition.
Brands
UK’s OnlyFans seeks US investor at $3bn valuation after owner’s death
The adult video platform is seeking stability after the death of its billionaire owner
LONDON: OnlyFans is looking for a new partner. The London-based adult video platform is in advanced talks to sell a minority stake of less than 20 per cent to Architect Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm, in a deal that would value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).
The move is driven by an urgent need for stability. Leonid Radvinsky, the Ukrainian-American billionaire who owned OnlyFans, died of cancer last month at the age of 43, leaving the future of one of Britain’s most profitable privately held businesses suddenly uncertain.
The choice of Architect Capital is not arbitrary. The firm has deep expertise in financial services, which aligns neatly with OnlyFans’ ambitions to offer banking products to its creators, many of whom have long struggled to access basic financial services because of the nature of their work.
The numbers behind OnlyFans are, by any measure, staggering. The platform posted revenues of $1.4bn in the year to 30th November 2024, with a pre-tax profit of $684m, up four per cent on the prior year. Payments to creators totalled $7.2bn over the same period, a rise of nearly ten per cent. Radvinsky personally collected $701m in dividends from the business in 2024 alone, on top of more than $1bn in such payments he had already received. The platform, run through its parent company Felix International, hosts 4.6m creator accounts, with performers keeping 80 per cent of subscription proceeds and the platform pocketing the remaining 20 per cent. It has 377m fan accounts in total.
The current minority stake talks represent a notable scaling back of ambitions. In January, OnlyFans was reported to be in discussions with Architect about selling a majority stake of 60 per cent. Before that, the company had explored a sale to a consortium led by Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm. Neither deal materialised.
OnlyFans has built an enormously lucrative business on content that mainstream finance has long refused to touch. Now, with its owner gone and a $3bn valuation on the table, it is looking for the kind of respectable institutional backing that might finally persuade the banks to take its calls.
