Cindy Crawford

Cindy Crawford, Queen of the Catwalk

Cynthia Ann Crawford, better known as Cindy, is one of the women who made the word ‘supermodel’ famous. Her face is literally one of the most recognizable in the world, to the point where she was once the highest paid model alive. Many still consider her one of the most beautiful women on the planet.

Beauty and Brains

Cindy Crawford was born in the state of Illinois in 1966. She was an excellent student and always figured she’d grow up to be a doctor, a teacher, or a scientist of some kind. This all changed while she was still a teenager. While working out in the field, helping to harvest corn, a newspaper photographer happened to spot her and took her picture for the paper. When that picture received good feedback, she began to look at modeling as something to try.

When she was 17, she enrolled in a modeling contest and finished in second place. She may not have been the winner, but the agency that sponsored the contest, Elite Models Management, signed her to a contract anyway. Crawford still had many options at the time. She graduated from high school in 1984, as the valedictorian of her class. Her stellar academic performance earned her a scholarship at Northwestern University to take chemical engineering. She decided to attend, but only stayed for one quarter. Cindy Crawford had decided to become a model. In 1986, she went to New York to take up her modeling contract.

There was no better time to be a model. Cindy Crawford became one of the first so-called supermodels, along with Claudia Schiffer, Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, and a number of others. They were famous simply for being beautiful. Magazines put their faces on their covers. Crawford herself became the face of such famous brands as Revlon, Clariol, Maybelline, and Versace. She was cast in videos by superstars like Jon Bon Jovi and George Michael.

One of the keys to her success was her sharp mind. She is a brilliant business woman who knew how to sell her image. All her contracts from various sources from Pepsi to Omega earned her tens of millions of dollars.

Among her many successful ventures was a foray into the fragrance market. When the opportunity came up, Crawford took it quickly, eager to market her own line of fragrances.

Cindy Crawford Fragrances

Cindy Crawford Feminine is an aptly named scent. It’s feminine, but it’s also aquatic and spicy, topped with notes of water lily, bergamot, pepper and apple, for a spicy-sweet-fresh opening that is difficult to find anywhere else. It has a floral heart of freesia, gardenia, and jasmine; the base is composed of sandalwood, benzoin, mahogany, patchouli and amber for a soft and smooth drydown.

The signature fragrance in the Cindy Crawford line, named after herself, is a more traditionally floral scent, though it has its spicy touch, as well. Pepper is among the fruity and floral top notes which also include cyclamen, freesia, and black currant. The middle notes are a garden of magnolia, gardenia, jasmine, mimosa, and orchid. The base is composed of smooth and sultry cedar, vanilla, and musk.

Several more came out over the early 2000s, like Joyful, which was a fruity and floral composition, or the bright and sparkling Summer Day, which contained an interesting strain of bamboo. Waterfalls is an aquatic scent, appropriately enough, laced with a profusion of floral accords.

Enduring Fame

Cindy Crawford turned to fragrances after she decided to end her modeling career in 2000. Even then, she still appeared in magazine shoots, keeping herself famous. The endorsements kept coming, as well. Along with her perfumes, she also collaborated with Guthy-Renker to create a line of her own beauty products. She even branched out into furniture – the Cindy Crawford Home Collection. Involved closely with the production of the furniture, she had a hand in such aspects as colors or styles offered, or features that might be included, all based on her personal sense of tastes or the needs of the families that might buy her furniture.

Even lately, she still appears in photoshoots, now and again, appearing on the cover of a 2011 issue of Vogue Mexico. An entire generation can recognize Cindy Crawford, one of the most famous faces in the world, and it may well be that her time in the public eye isn’t over yet.