Tom Ford is a Texas-born fashion designer who has recently made the remarkable move to Hollywood director. Born in 1961, Ford grew up in Texas and New Mexico, before attending New York University to study Art History. Dropping out after a year, Ford began to study a mixture of architecture and fashion and frequenting the infamous Studio 54 nightclub, whose disco glamour would later have a strong influence on his designs (of clothes, not buildings).

Ford began working at fashion houses in America, but eventually left his home country and moved to Europe, working his way up to become Creative Director at Gucci by 1994. When he got the job the company was virtually bankrupt, but within a year Ford had overseen a 90% increase in sales, and by the time he left in 2004, the company was valued at nearly $10 billion. Now, Ford runs his own fashion house, and even made a foray into film-directing with the hugely successful Oscar-nominated A Single Man in 2009.

Ford’s fragrance, Black Orchid, inspired by the elusive quest to create a purely black flower, is a big favourite here at Fragrance Mad. It combines a sensual accord of orchids and woody notes, and manages to be both modern, but also reminiscent of many classic fragrances. We have a 30ml bottle flying fast off the shelves, past our disbelieving eyes and through the door, available for just £24.99.

Oscar de la Renta was born in the Dominican Republic, but left home at the age of eighteen to study painting in Madrid. He quickly became interested in the fashion world and earned an apprenticeship with the renowned Spanish designer, Cristobal Balenciaga, before moving to Paris as a couture assistant at Lanvin.

Oscar worked for Elizabeth Arden from 1963 to ’65, developing his skills as a clothing designer, before leaving to set up his own high-end fashion brand. Today, he has become one of the most revered designers around, winning numerous awards and having his clothes worn by a range of high-profile celebrities. One of his leading endeavours is his self-titled Eau de Toilette, inspired by the lush gardens of his homeland in the Dominican, and celebrating the romantic and sensual side of femininity. The fragrance contains notes of orange blossom, coriander, peach, jasmine, clove, and lavender, and is one of our very best selling scents at Fragrance Mad, available now for £26.99 for a 100ml bottle. All of the classic style for just half the RRP!

Here at Fragrance Mad we’ve been eagerly listening to what you, our loyal customers, want from the site, and are pleased to announce some big changes that enhance our website’s usability. In the recent dark age, when you wanted to search for a particular item, mascara for example, you’d have to wade through 400-odd items in the Cosmetics section. Now, you can click Cosmetics, then Eyes, then Mascara, and BAM! 34 products to choose from, things couldn’t be easier. The Cosmetics, Skincare, Haircare and Tanning sections have all been made fully searchable, and it took a very long time, so I hope it’s appreciated.

Elsewhere, we’ve also installed a Related Items feature on the site whereby, if you’re looking at Britney Spears Fantasy for example, the Related Items tab will show you different sizes that we have available, or if you’re looking at Marc Jacobs Lola, the sister fragrance Daisy will show up. Just a little something to make things easier, especially for those buying for presents who have no idea what they’re doing! We hope that these changes will make Fragrance Mad a lot easier to search, and if you have any more ideas of how things can be improved further, please contact us and give us some work to do!

Bourjois Volume Glamour Ultra Black Mascara is now available at Fragrance Mad for the earth-shattering price of £4.99. The mascara is enriched with silicone to make your lashes up to 50% more volumised, and its brush is specially developed to avoid clumping on application. This high-end mascara ordinarily retails at £19, so you save almost three quarters on the RRP.

Even better than that, it comes packaged with a FREE Bourjois Effet 3D Cosmic Lipgloss (shade: Rose Symphonic), worth £11.99, to give your lips fantastic three-dimensional cosmic shine. But wait: even better than that, the mascara also comes with a FREE Bourjois Perfect Harmony Eye Shadow (Crazy Baby shade) to glamourise your eyes even more. Three for the price of one, maths fans. Make yourself look a million dollars for just £4.99! That’s a good exchange rate by anybody’s standards.

Leichner have been at the forefront of the theatrical makeup industry ever since 1873, when Ludwig Leichner, an opera singer, first began producing a non-toxic grease to ease the application of makeup. Today, Leichner’s Foundation is used the world over by makeup professionals in the film and television industry. At Fragrance Mad we have a huge range of shades, and best of all, they are available in hugely-reduced triple packs, just £9.99 for three pots of foundation.

The New York-born Vera Wang has led a varied existence: training in her youth as an ice skater, she competed at the 1968 US Figure Skating Championships, but after failing to make the Olympics team entered the fashion world. She became senior fashion editor at Vogue magazine, but left after sixteen years in 1985, after being turned down in her bid to become Editor-in-chief, a role that went to Anna Wintour, a fashionista later characterised in the scathing book and Hollywood film, The Devil Wears Prada. Emancipated from Vogue, Wang concentrated on making wedding dresses for the stars, including Mariah Carey, Sharon Stone, Jennifer Lopez, and Sarah Michelle Gellar, as well as designing costumes for figure skaters.

Inevitably, Wang soon turned her attention to the fragrance industry, launching her first women’s perfume in 2002, and then following it up with scents such as Bouquet and Truly Pink. Her hugely successful Princess came into being in 2006, before being followed up with variations such as Glam and Flower Princess, both available at Fragrance Mad at scandalously divine prices. Between them, the different Princesses contain such dreamy notes as wild pear, guava, waterlily, amber, and orange blossom. Discover your favourite, and get yourself smelling like Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, or someone like that, by picking up a bottle of one of these enchanting, youthful perfumes at your local Fragrance Mad online store.

Fragrance Mad now has the perfect solution to maintaining beautiful lips all Summer long: our new huge range of L’Oreal lip products. Choose from extravagant and vibrant Color Riche lipsticks and lipgloss, and their innovative Endless Kissable range for lips that hold their colour for up to six hours. Best of all, the entire range is available on 3 for 2, so you can mix and match to vary your smoochers as your mood changes.

To best compliment your lips, L’Oreal advise the following colours for differing skin tones: for blondes and fair skin tones, delicate pinks and cool browns to illuminate your complexion; for dark hair and olive skin, warm browns, plums, and bright reds will enhance your colouring; for dark skin tones, deep shades and purples to flatter your skin. Of course, sometimes it’s best to completely contrast your lips and skin to make them stand out as much as possible, (obviously, I wear a lot of lipstick) and with our stonking 3 for 2 deal the options are endless.

The original Secret Obsession advert featuring Eva Mendes was banned on release due to a certain revealing few seconds that were deemed too provocative for TV. Fear not however, as we have the full advert for you to see below – see if you can spot the offending section at 17 seconds in…

The Calvin Klein story began in 1968 when the designer opened a coat store in the York Hotel in New York City. After immense initial success he diversified into other clothing ranges, and by the mid-70s Klein presided over a business generating yearly revenue of over $30 million. In 1978, Klein claimed that his new range of jeans had sold over 200,000 pairs in its first week on the market, and later massive success was to come with distinctive CK underwear. It seemed that everything Klein touched turned to gold, but his late-70s initial foray into the fragrance market proved a financial disaster: CK was quick to withdraw from the fragrance market after incurring massive financial losses.

During the 80s, however, sales declined, and Calvin Klein Industries fell into financial troubles. Now, ironically, it was the rejuvenated fragrance lines that were keeping the business afloat, and contributed to its eventual recovery. Obsession was launched in 1985 and Eternity followed in 1988, as the company subtly altered the notes in each fragrance to make both men’s and women’s versions of each. This was taken a step further in 1994 when the revolutionary unisex fragrance, CK One, came onto the market, and was worn the world over during the nineties, and remains hugely popular today. Other hugely popular fragrances followed, including Be, Escape, Euphoria and Ckin2u, all available on Fragrance Mad.

Secret Obsession, launched in 1998, is one of the newer additions to the CK range, and is available now at Fragrance Mad for the truly bargainous price of £20.99 for a 100ml bottle of Eau de Parfum. Secret Obsession is an intoxicating floral oriental fragrance weaving together forbidden fruits, exotic flowers and a sultry wood signature for a provocative and addictive sexiness. It combines top notes of exotic plum, mace and rose de damas; heart notes of Egyptian jasmine, French orange flower and tuberose; and base notes of cashmere wood, burnt amber and Australian sandalwood. The perfume is one of the best-kept secrets of the modern fragrance world: the advertising campaign, featuring Hollywood star Eva Mendes, was banned due to contravening laws for the exposure of certain body parts in advertising, and so the perfume was largely hidden from the eyes of potential customers, only being viewed by hoardes of inquisitive minds on YouTube. So, for Mendes-esque results, indulge your Secret Obsession at Fragrance Mad, and pick up a unique scent that will make you stand out from the crowd, and turn heads wherever you go.

As the first good Summer in years belts sun down upon this fair isle, now’s surely a good time to sort out your skin and make sure it has the ultimate protection to flourish this year. You may have spent the last couple of years slathering yourself in cooking oil in a futile attempt to tan as the sun peeked through the clouds for a matter of seconds, but this year things have changed, so get yourself protected.

At Fragrance Mad we have a huge range of tanning products, and some great deals to keep you in change for buckets and spades. Our complete Piz Buin range is on three for two, including tan intensifying lotion, day-long protection lotions, and after-sun to revitalise you after a day soaking up rays. Nivea Sun Care is also on 3 for 2 and, with factors ranging from 6 to 50, there’s protection for everybody, from bronzed beauties to porcelain princesses and all shades in between. Nivea even does a specialist Baby Sun Lotion, in case you want to leave your kid in the garden while you get some rest, or something like that. And don’t forget the old classic, P20, the ten-hour revolutionary protector. Just take a look at the reviews to see how effective this product is, and as a bonus, on Fragrance Mad it comes complete with a bottle of after-sun.

But maybe you’re stuck chained to a desk, or work down the pit. By the time you leave work each day that inconsiderate sun is just disappearing over the hills and far away, and your pasty skin is embarrassing you in front of all those fools jetting off around the world and coming back looking like Donatella Versace. Why not try some fake tan? The complete Fake Bake Beyond Bronze Set is just £13.99 from us, a huge saving on prices on the high street and wildly inferior online retailers. There are also a host of other big brand names in our Tanning section, including the likes of Roc, Clarins, St Tropez, Vita Liberata, and St Moriz. Stock up today, and leave your skin more dazzling than the sun itself! Have a great Summer!