“Laid-off mom creates fragrances for tweens”

Laid-off mom creates fragrances for tweens

Posted: 28 Aug 2010 04:06 AM PDT

Laid-off mom creates fragrances for tweens

August 28th, 2010, 5:00 am · 3 Comments · posted by Jan Norman, small-business columnist

During the more than 20 years that Foothill Ranch resident Kristy Aaron sold fragrances for such brands as Oscar de la Renta, Giorgio Armani and Ralph Lauren, she frequently heard a request she could fulfill: Do you have something for young girls?

When L'Oreal laid Aaron off with 500 other employees in 2009, she decided it was time to create her own fragrance line.

"I was going to make a women's fragrance, Courageous, but there are few fragrances for tween girls," Aaron says. "When I was young everyone had Love's Baby Soft. It's still around but not as huge."

Aaron started her own company, Puppy Love Fragrances LLC, and recently introduced her first product, Puppy Love 4 Girlz. It's a fruity scent of pomegranate, grapefruit, orange, lavender and green tea, she says.

"It has to be light and get the approval of moms and grandmoms," Aaron says. "Fruity fragrances are light; florals are more mature.

"I mixed it up in my own kitchen and then contracted with the perfumers that formulated Dolce and Gabanna's Light Blue to make the formula and get government approvals," Aaron says.

Puppy Love 4 Girlz sells online for $35 and is also available at Kids 4 Real in Irvine Spectrum and Beauty World in Foothill Ranch. Befitting the product's name, Puppy Love donates a portion of sales to animal shelters.

Aaron, who grew up in Tustin, recently signed teen actress Caroline Sunshine, the 14-year-old who played Barbara Winslow in the movie "Marmaduke" and who also grew up in Tustin, to be the celebrity model for the line. For a limited time girls can buy Sunshine-autographed bottles of Puppy Love 4 Girlz.