"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.

She has been fielding so many media requests that she even hired a publicist to help handle them. That's not bad for a home business that had started, in part, because Cline suffered from chemical sensitivity that did not allow her to wear perfume for 15 years.

"I missed it. So I started experimenting," to make perfumes and fragrances that she could wear, she said. She also took a class in perfume making. "It's not rocket science. I seem to have a natural tendency for it."

She operated her own online fragrance company from 2001 to 2007. She said she figured she needed a "million-dollar partner," which she could never find, so she quit the business — until the idea of Presidential Perfume struck.

Amid the publicity now, she said she has three national department stores negotiating to carry her product.

She said the new business combines two of her loves — perfume and politics.

"I grew up in Washington, D.C., so politics is a big part of my life," she said.

She remembers that her mother even once hosted a fundraiser for George Romney, the father of former candidate Mitt Romney. (She personally was rooting for Romney this year, she said, but his candidacy was essentially ended before she came up with her idea for Presidential Perfume, so she never made a fragrance honoring him.)

"For a while, (George) Romney was even in our (LDS Church) ward" in the Washington area, Cline said. "So I love politics."

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E-mail: lee@desnews.com