Maybe it’s just the 20-year trend cycle, or maybe it’s the triumphant new wave of successful pop stars hawking their own branded perfumes, but in any case, we’re seeing a revival of enthusiasm for celebrity scents.

Back in 2005-2010 or thereabouts, I (like many of my scent-sisters on the online message boards) expressed a certain amount of disdain for celebrity perfumes. During those years I was immersing myself in the canonical works of Guerlain and Caron, as well as the new niche-fragrance gospel of Serge, Annick, Frédéric, and Keiko, not to mention the first generation of American independent perfumers. Why on earth would I want to spend time and money trying out the latest thing from Paris Hilton or some athlete whose name was totally unfamiliar to me?

To be fair, some celebrity-licensed perfumes of the 2000s were really enjoyable, even well-crafted and a bit interesting. But many…were not. And by the 2010s, a branded fragrance didn’t feel so special anymore; in 2014, within just one week, Robin at Now Smell This posted announcements for these new releases: Britney Spears Rocker Femme Fantasy, Jay Z Gold Extreme, Katie Price Kissable Fierce, Peter Andre Scarlet, Kimberly Wyatt Kaydance, and Lucy Mecklenburgh Wings. Peter who? Same here. Do you remember pianist Lang Lang’s fragrance Amazing (by perfumer Nathalie Lorson) from 2015? Me neither.

In any case, I’m glad I was paying even partial attention to the Y2K celeb scent boom at the time, because I was recently able to share some memories and recommendations with two journalists who were researching this topic. Andrea Bossi asked me to provide some historical context for an article in Byrdie, “The Evolution and Enduring Appeal of Pop-Star Perfumes,” and Ariel Wodarcyk included me in a lightning-round interview about favorite celebrity fragrances for her InStyle piece “9 of the Most Iconic Celebrity Perfumes.”

Feel free to let us know about a celebrity scent, past or present, that has a favored spot in your perfume collection!

*with thanks to Ari for the title of this post!