From Deseret News archives:

Ex-Utahn puts nose in politics

Published: Monday, March 17, 2008 12:29 a.m. MDT
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April Cline knows how to make scents out of politics. And the former Utah woman is attracting international media attention for marketing fragrances designed to make the presidential race a little cleaner ... smelling.

She started an online company, Presidential Perfume, that offers fragrances named for the three leading presidential candidates. Each fragrance also demonstrates some characteristics of the contenders, and sales may help measure the popularity of each.

"Right now, 'Hillary' is just a spritz ahead of 'Barack.' That's appropriate for a race that is going nose-to-nose," she said. "Not many people are buying 'John.' I don't think it's time for 'John' right now. After eight years of George Bush, the war and the economy, we have a lot of very unhappy Americans looking for a change."

Cline, who attended Snow College and Utah State University but now lives in West Virginia, came up with the idea last month while watching presidential debates.

"I ran to the computer and bought the domain name" for presidentialperfume.com. Visitors there are now serenaded with "Hail to the Chief" as they look at her offerings.

She renamed and repackaged some of her favorite fragrances from an online perfume company that she had operated for six years from her home, but which she had closed last year.

Her old "Believe in Yourself" fragrance was renamed "Hillary" in honor of Hillary Clinton.

"It's feminine. And she's the only woman in the race," Cline said. "It's a clean but confident fragrance. That does well for Hillary, who is also confident. Whether you like her or not, she has accomplished a lot."

Cline describes "Hillary" as a "strong and clean, delicate floral blend of jasmine, violet, rose and sheerest musk."

Cline's old fragrance called "Amaze Yourself," a blend of bergamot and musk, became "Barack."

"It's a citrusy fragrance that makes you happy as soon as you smell it. It's energizing. He (Barack Obama) is so energizing that it's appropriate," she said.

And her old fragrance "Accept Yourself" became "John."

"For John McCain, I wanted a nice, clean conservative scent because he's Republican," Cline said. It is a blend of "bergamot, water lily and lavender woven with cool greens and frosty musk."

She also offers moisturizing body creams with the same scents. She said she has sold more than 100 bottles of fragrance at $25 each. But the real popularity has come from interest by the press around the world.

"It started when the local newspaper here did a story. Within 24 hours, it had gone global," Cline says. She has seen stories on her and her fragrances from such places as China, Japan, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain and England. She has been interviewed by radio and TV stations across America.

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