If people buy celebrity perfumes, it is precisely because the glory seems to be yours as well. Yet the celebrities don’t make the perfumes; professional perfumers do.

If fragrance is now to be given to Hilary Duff — whose Wikipedia entry includes the music genre “bubblegum pop” — and her colleagues, so be it. Scents should be judged by the art form’s standard criteria: structure, quality of the raw materials, persistence on skin and diffusion, innovation, beauty.

The fact is that With Love… Hilary Duff is a perfectly good perfume.

If With Love is not by any means a great scent, it has an absolutely coherent structure, very good persistence on skin and a nice diffusion. With Love smells, interestingly enough, comforting.

Were you not to know the scent’s celebrity origins, you would be left, as she released the hug and rushed happily back into the game, with the impression of olfactory sweetness and the white of her smile.