For the loved one who has everything except nice hair, we now have a range of TIGI Gift Sets in stock at unbeatable prices. No matter if your hair is coloured, natural, damaged, or just in need of a damn good styling, there’ll be the set for you, and all at combined prices that blow the individual RRPs out of the water and into orbit.

Carolina Herrera is a Venezuelan fashion designer who has been based in New York since 1980. At one time she regularly dressed one of the world’s premier fashion icons, Jacqueline “Mrs Bouvier” Kennedy. Despite her fashion endeavours, which have earned her numerous awards, Herrera is perhaps best known for her romantic and eclectic range of fragrances.

Her first fragrance was launched in 1987, and her first men’s scent followed in 1991. The house really took off as a fragrance concern, however, when Carolina’s daughter, the charmingly named Carolina, became a major advisor, and introduced the hugely successful 212 range. The original 212 Women features top notes of orange flower, mandarin and bergamot; heart notes are white- hearted flower, camellia, lilly and gardenia; and finishes with sensual base notes of sandalwood and transparent musk. This was followed up by 212 Men, which features top notes of fresh, green citrus leaves, freshly cut grass, and spices, complimented by spicy, floral middle notes of ginger, green pepper and gardenia petals. Finally, base notes of sandalwood, incense and transparent musk leave a long lasting and powerful scent.

The Carolina Herrera perfume machine continues to churn out fantastically varied fragrances today. Our latest one in stock is the eponymous Carolina, a light, airy scent with top notes of grapes, wild strawberries, and bitter orange; heart notes of rose petals, Australian pepper, and berries; and notes at the base of vanilla, amber, and sensual musk. Snap it up at Fragrance Mad for the bargain introductory price of just £19.99, postage included as usual!

Christian Dior was born in 1905 in the small seaside town of Granville, near Normandy in France. His wealthy parents (rolling in money made from fertilizer (not literally)) moved the family to Paris five years later, and had hopes that Christian would become a diplomat, but the young Dior’s passion lay instead in art and fashion. His father’s money enabled him to open a small art gallery, but after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 his family was left bankrupt, and the gallery was forced to close. Dior instead began to sell design sketches outside of Paris’ fashion houses, eventually catching the eye and becoming a designer for Lucien Lelong, where he was commissioned to produce the outfits of Nazi officers’ wives during the Second World War.

Post-war, Dior formed his own fashion house, and his voluptuous, curvaceous ladies’ designs caused a sensation in Paris, firmly catapulting the city back to its status as Europe’s fashion capital after the war years. Dior led from the front in the perfume industry too, creating Miss Dior, one of the world’s first ‘designer’ perfumes, in 1948. Miss Dior Cherie is a fragrance marketed as the younger sister of the original, with a mischievous and youthful side. The perfume contains top notes of green tangerine, strawberry, and violet; a heart of warm popcorn and pink jasmine; and a lasting base of patchouli and white musk.

It wasn’t just women, however, that were feeling the benefits of Dior’s great sense of smell: Fahrenheit is his classic men’s scent. Warm, subtle and distinctive, the woody flowery fragrance is characterised by a clashing of extreme notes, and contains top notes of mandarin orange, lavender, lemon, bergamot, and chamomile; a heart made up of nutmeg, carnation, sandalwood, honeysuckle, violet, jasmine, and lily of the valley; and a base consisting of amber, patchouli, tonka bean, and sensual vetiver musk.

Dior died aged just 52, while on holiday in Italy in 1957. The causes of this are mysterious: the death was originally put down to a heart attack caused by choking on a fish bone, but rumours have abounded since that his death was in fact due to a particularly strenuous sexual encounter.

It looks like our last chance to get a natural tan this year got up and left sometime in July, but never fear, Fragrance Mad is here with the Fake Bake solution. We’ve expanded our range of difficult-to-find Fake Bake products to keep you looking tanned and healthy all year round. We now have Self Tan in Lotion, Mousse, and Airbrush form, so there’s a solution no matter how you wish to tan, and we also stock Body Polish and Moisturiser to get your skin looking perfect before you apply.

Fake Bake was the first self-tanning company to combine naturally-derived tanning agents, and has gone from strength to strength since its 1995 launch: the New York Times determined it was the best self-tanning range available, after testing 22 top self-tanning companies. Wave goodbye to the whimpering British sun for another year, but spend your winter days looking as if you’ve just stepped off some kind of wonderful Jamaican beach, thanks to those lovely Fake Bake guys.

Jean Paul Gaultier is a French fashion designer, who broke into the industry as a designer for Pierre Cardin in 1970. He began releasing individual collections in the mid-Seventies, and became increasingly known for an irreverent style in the Eighties. His off-kilter ideas included his 1985 man skirt, which sadly didn’t catch on, and Madonna’s infamous cone bra of 1990. He even went so far as to release a bizarre (-ly awful) dance tune in 1991 named “Aow Tou Dou Zat”, which he has since disowned, and is remembered for his recurring presenting role on high-brow 90s documentary television series Eurotrash, a favourite of many intellectuals.

Gaultier has taken a similar lust for invention into his perfumery endeavours. Madame is a zesty, refreshing floral scent with notes of rose, grenadine, and orange; while its limited edition companion fragrance Madame Rose ‘n’ Roll is a fresh and energetic scent with floral top notes, orange zest and rose at its heart, and musk and cedarwood base notes. We have both available now at over 20% off the RRP, and they come with a free man skirt. Well that’s not true, but I can try to make you one if you ask nicely.

If you’re not sure which is your favourite Calvin Klein fragrance, or are buying for a man who finds this conundrum just as head-scratching, why not treat yourself/ them to our Five Piece CK Men’s Gift Set, containing all the hits. The set has 10ml Eau de Toilettes of CK One, Eternity, Calvin Klein Man, Euphoria, and Obsession. Enough fragrances to wear a different one each day of the week, and perhaps a Jean Paul Gaultier Madame Rose n’ Roll for those “alternative” Saturday nights.

What do you reckon the bestselling celebrity fragrance was in 2008 (the last year figures are available for, by the way)? Perhaps something by Britney, or Sarah Jessica Parker riding Sex and the City hype to the bank, or possibly even a J-Lo fragrance from the days when most people didn’t completely hate her. Wrong on all counts. Shockingly, the honour went to a perfume by somebody who has barely been in the public eye for years, other than occasional appearances as Michael Jackson’s friend, and retired from the celebrity world in 2003: the formerly radiant Elizabeth Taylor.

Elizabeth Taylor’s White Diamonds was first released in 1991, at the tail-end of her career, but has gone from strength to strength over the years, becoming the all-time bestselling celebrity fragrance, and still continuously topping year-end sales lists nearly twenty years after its initial release. It just goes to show that while modern-day celebrity may be fleeting (does anyone remember Abi Titmuss?), back in the day celebrities were made to last, and with White Diamonds the world was given a perfume as enduring as entrancing as Taylor’s performances on the big screen. Get on the gravy train yourself: a 100ml bottle is available now at Fragrance Mad for the rip-roaring price of £19.99, postage included. I’ll let you know when the 2009 results are published.

Halle Berry still holds the honour of being the only African American woman to win a Best Actress Oscar, for Monster’s Ball in 2001. She hasn’t quite reached the dizzying acting heights of this performance since, but has become a hugely recognisable Hollywood figure thanks to roles in the X-Men films and the Bond film Die Another Day. She has also been the face of Revlon Cosmetics for much of the past decade.

Berry has recently ventured into the fragrance market, releasing her first signature perfume, Halle, in 2009. Halle is a woody oriental fragrance, combining top notes of bergamot, fig, and pear blossom; a heart of freesia, mimosa, and hibiscus flower; and a sensual base of sandalwood, olibanum, musk, and amber. Her latest scent is Reveal, brand new to Fragrance Mad, and available in 30 and 50 ml bottles. Halle apparently insisted on the inclusion of iris blossom in the scent to give it an airy and velvety soft quality. Other notes include mimosa, peach, honeydew melon, neroli, vetiver, red berries, and skin musk.

You may have thought that you’d never forgive Halle for the abomination that was Catwoman, but smell one of her fantastic perfumes and you might even let her off if she one day unleashes a sequel!

We now have a huge range of Baylis & Harding-produced Gift Sets in stock, perfect since we’re only (exactly) a hundred days away from Christmas. Choose from our full range, including the Skin Spa Travel Set, which comes complete with nine various body lotions, scrubs, and shower gels for just £8.99, and the four piece French Lavender Set, with shower creme, body lotion, body wash and body scrub, priced at only £6.99. If you’re buying a present, don’t forget you can have the item gift-wrapped and sent with a message directly to the recipient for only £1.95. Just select the Gift Wrap option at checkout. Avoid the Christmas crush, and do your shopping early with Fragrance Mad.

We’ve had customers asking us for it every day recently, so just to let all of you Paco Rabanne fans know, we now have the bestselling 1 Million Men’s Eau de Toilette back in stock. It’s priced at £33.99 for a 50ml bottle, so don’t delay or you’ll miss out and be badgering us for it again!

We also have a host of new products available, so take a look at our New Arrivals section to sniff out some great fragrance bargains.