KEY POINTS:
These days, it seems you can't truly be a superstar until you've got your own perfume. David Beckham's got one. So have Britney and Hilary Duff. So it was about time Kylie Minogue, Australia's pop princess, got in on the act.
The global launch of Kylie Minogue Darling in Sydney was just days ahead of her Showgirl: Homecoming tour, which opened on Saturday.
The launch, following her treatment for breast cancer, was shrouded in such secrecy you'd have thought the US President was visiting. Media and guests were told to gather at an inner-city hotel, before being driven in black vans and no clue as to where we were going. It turned out to be a mansion in the exclusive suburb of Vaucluse. You could easily spot the street - it was on the cul de sac sealed off by police.
No detail was left to chance. The lack of rain meant the house's lawn was brown but a quick spray of paint that morning restored to its grass-green glory.
When Minogue, 38, appeared in a fitted black Marios Schwab dress with an exaggerated bustle and lashings of Bulgari diamonds, she confessed she wasn't actually wearing the perfume. She'd moved on.
"I'm wearing scent two."
Darling is a collaboration between Coty and Minogue and has taken two years, during which time the pint-sized singer was diagnosed with breast cancer. In May last year she was forced to postpone the Australian leg of her Showgirl tour just days from its start, to start chemotherapy.
The chypre floriental perfume is "as multi-faceted as Kylie herself. A sensual, floral bouquet with a heady, sparkling yet sweet" and created by perfumer Thierry Wasser.
"He tried to read into my character and the essence of who I am. That's why the perfume has many different levels," she laughs.
The tope note combines passionfruit, freesia and lychee, while the mid-note brims with lily and boronia before settling into the base note of sandalwood, amber wood and vanilla.
"It's like the dream to have your own fragrance. I can't see why any girl would refuse to have their own perfume."
Future plans? Aside from the next fragrance. She hasn't thought that far ahead. "To be here, to be able to enjoy the launch of this perfume, to get my show back on the road - that's enough for now."
She is, however, expected to be at the Victoria & Albert Museum's February opening of Kylie: The Exhibition, which will feature 200 of her costumes, accessories, photographs and awards. The London museum has never showcased a pop star before.
* Kylie Minogue Darling is on counter sale from November 24. $85 for 50ml.
