Congratulations to the Beauty Bulletin team for being one of the first to source samples of this celebrity designer fragrance. We also appreciate the opportunity afforded to us lucky few in the VIP Product Review Club, to try the first ever black Eau de Parfum.

Fame is, as the name suggests, an epitome of everything that Lady Gaga stands for and the reality around being a Hollywood starlet. All the media hype suggesting this perfume was going to be a mind-boggling concoction of very unusual ingredients like blood and semen, were in reality just a marketing gimmick that had to fit in with the image of the singer whose product line it was. I doubt that anyone would really have bought into the idea of a product drawn from human sources and to part with their hard-earned cash for this on an on-going basis. At best, this might have sold as a collectors item maybe due to Lady Gaga's cult status, pure intrigue and curiosity. Especially as her marketing campaign saw the introduction of little beings and the bottle is another representation of this.

Having sampled Fame, clearly this was not the intention behind the fragrance. It turned out to be quite sweet smelling, like a perfume should be with plant and chemical extracts. Fame actually pleasantly surprised me as it presented a very sophisticated fragrance with a light fruity and floral scent. Though not as strong as I would have expected as it is an Eau de Parfum, the smell did appear quite potent for the first hour and did linger for much of the day. The black fluid was also introduced to promote the feeling of uniqueness and once sprayed onto skin this became invisible.

All in all FAME did stir up a great deal of interest in the Lady Gaga brand and the perfume did not disappoint either.