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Elizabeth Taylor's fragrance line still outsells all others

By Amy DiLuna, TODAY.com senior editorShe was a movie star and a style icon, but Elizabeth Taylor’s most enduring legacy may be her perfume empire.Twenty years after she launched White Diamonds, the scent remains the world’s best-selling celebrity fragrance.Style blog Fashionista.com tracked down the stats from market research firm Euromonitor International, which reports that sales of White D
Flowers, photographs and notes from fans adorn the Hollywood Walk of Fame star of actress Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood, California, March 23, 2011. Taylor died on March 23, 2011 at age 79 at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles surrounded by her four children after having been hospitalized six weeks ago with congestive heart failure, a statement from publicist Sally Morrison said. REUTERS/Fred Prouser (UNITED STATES - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT OBITUARY)
Flowers, photographs and notes from fans adorn the Hollywood Walk of Fame star of actress Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood, California, March 23, 2011. Taylor died on March 23, 2011 at age 79 at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles surrounded by her four children after having been hospitalized six weeks ago with congestive heart failure, a statement from publicist Sally Morrison said. REUTERS/Fred Prouser (UNITED STATES - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT OBITUARY)FRED PROUSER/Reuters
White Diamonds / Today

By Amy DiLuna, TODAY.com senior editor

She was a movie star and a style icon, but Elizabeth Taylor’s most enduring legacy may be her perfume empire.

Twenty years after she launched White Diamonds, the scent remains the world’s best-selling celebrity fragrance.

Style blog Fashionista.com tracked down the stats from market research firm Euromonitor International, which reports that sales of White Diamonds earned $76.9 million globally in 2010. The figure takes into account all fragrances under the Elizabeth Taylor brand, which include Black Pearl and Passion. White Diamonds alone, however, brought in a whopping $61.3 million last year.

Few can forget the perfume’s TV ad (“These have always brought me luck,” purrs Taylor as she tosses a chandelier earring into a gambler’s pot). Taylor launched the fragrance at Chicago department store Marshall Field & Co. in 1991, just as she was about to embark on her eighth wedding, this time with construction worker Larry Fortensky.

White Diamonds was honored by the Fragrance Hall of Fame in 2009.