The Olsen Tweens

Mini moguls and queens of the tweens, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have packed a lot into 20 years, achieving more success than most of us would hope to see in a lifetime.

This week they were named the highest earning stars under the age of 21, beating Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame and Lindsay Lohan of, well, we’re not sure really. Of course it’s the paparazzi photos of the twins’ perfectly dishevelled hair and artfully mismatched designer accessories that seems to have got them noticed on this side of the pond – but personal style is not all they’ve been turning their hand to of late.

Their successful Mary-Kate & Ashley line of make-up products has been running for many years now, and expanded into fashion accessories and fragrance. Now the fragrances are available here in England from Boots and British teenagers will have a chance to splurge their pocket money – but is the hype worth it?

There are two scents – LA Style in the blue packaging and NY Chic in the pink, referring, I think, to their bi-coastal lifestyles. Bearing in mind these scents are designed for ‘tweens’ (or pre-teens, approx 10-14 year olds) they’re not bad – particularly when compared to other celebrity fragrances targeting the same market (Britney Spears ‘Curious’ anyone?), but they are both too sweet for my taste. LA Style is almost sickeningly so – it smells like those fizzy strawberry sweets you get in pick’n'mix, whilst NY Chic is slightly less potent but a certain powdery chemical whiff puts me off.

For a first experience of grooming and style the Mary-Kate & Ashley products aren’t too bad, better than most on the tween market, and I love the idea of their clear mascaras and lip glosses as first make-up items (remember the first time you went crazy with your mum’s eighties eye shadows and lipsticks?). A girl’s attention span for this brand would be limited though – by the age of 13 I would imagine their tastes would be somewhat more refined.

The good news for us grown-ups is that Mary-Kate and Ashley have just launched a sublime new line of clothing called ‘The Row’ (as seen on Selma Blair in the pic above). Named after the famous Savile Row in London, the girls teamed up with designer friend Danielle Sherman to produce a collection of perfectly long soft jersey tees, skinny trousers and knitwear made using couture techniques , perfect for emulating the personal style for which the twins have become famous.