Read our exclusive interview with Charlotte Tilbury as she launches her perfume collection …
Having conquered the make-up market, now Charlotte Tilbury turns her formidable attention to perfume. And she’s come up with not just one, but a set of six. We spoke exclusively to her about her new “wardrobe of emotions”, and the power of scent.
Charlotte Tilbury has taken the make-up world by storm since first launching in 2013, shifting erstwhile stalwarts out of the limelight. While her first foray into fragrance didn’t make the same impact as her make-up and skincare, now she is embracing perfume in a big way, and this time there are no holds barred.
Tilbury has considered every aspect of the collection, which lands in stores on May 2. The brightly coloured glass bottles look like wizardy potions: lined up, what comes to mind is an alchemist’s apothecary in a Disney film. “When I was working with the ‘noses’, I really felt like I was working with alchemists, and it’s also how I sometimes see myself: you have a dream, you bottle that dream and then you sell that dream to your clients.” The boxes, designed to display alongside each other as a colourful library, have a front “door” that opens to reveal a gold-printed “incantation”, which is also quite Disney. There’s even a mini rose-gold coloured ring around the neck of each bottle (which no doubt will become collectable).
The scents themselves, though, are far from frivolous. Tilbury explains: “I’ve always been inspired by the power of scent and been curious about why scent makes me feel the way it does. And I really believe in its ability to transform and transport. For me, this is a library of emotions – and it’s about giving the power to the people to be able to architect their day, and to elicit certain feelings. We all know scent can help us time-travel back with memories, but why can’t you time-travel forward, to choose how you want to feel?”
I was intrigued to know which perfumer/s she had chosen to work with. And she has gone straight to the top, working with IFF’s master perfumers, including Ann Flipo and rising star Juliette Karagueuzoglou. My instant favourite is the purple bottle, Cosmic Power, a rush of cinnamon, rich rose, amber and vanilla bean extract, which turns out to be the one composed by Dominique Ropion. Ropion explains: “Charlotte had in mind a fragrance to help elevate feelings of inner self-confidence. Something very intimate but with a strong personality. I was quickly drawn to Amber as it’s such a mystical ingredient, the perfect one to help connect to your inner self. I added spices, because they are so sparkling, and give a signature to the fragrance.”
Tilbury has boundless enthusiasm: with her, a cream is never just a cream, but a magic elixir that can work wonders, empower you and change your life. And so it is with scent, too; this collection, is “something that’s never been done before in fragrance”. It’s easy to get carried along with her passion, which is intoxicating – but this is no airy flight of fancy. “We use a combination of ingredients and fragrance accords to target and activate certain emotions – and we have the scientific back-up that this really works.”
“While I knew there was a match between how the brain functioned and what scents can do for you, how they can affect our brain and make us feel a certain way, I always wanted to work with a neuroscientist to prove that. I tried to do it with Scent of a Dream [her first foray into fragrance, launched in 2016] but the technology wasn’t there, and people didn’t really understand it. But that research into olfactory neuroscience has come on leaps and bounds in the last five years, and now, working with IFF, I’ve been able to realise my dream and develop my wardrobe of feelings. I knew which specific feelings I wanted to bottle and, through IFF research, knew that brain patterns can be targeted via certain ingredients and emotion-boosting accords.” She explains how IFF have worked for 40 years on their “ScentCube”, which features billions of delicately orchestrated accords that result in emotion-boosting molecules; IFF research combined with AI enables them to read the brain patterns that respond to these. Tilbury says no one has so far used this science to create a fragrance that will make the wearer feel an emotion.
The idea, then, is that you decide what you want to bring to your day – calm, energy, joy, power – and then choose your poison. “This collection is all about giving you the control to switch or heighten your emotions through the power of scent,” she says. “I never want to do what someone else has done, just come up with another lipstick – it’s got to be genius and we’ve got to innovate. This is super-disruptive, it’s really taking scent onto the next level, because I really believe we are giving people the tools to become the architects of their own emotions, and affect not just themselves but those around them. I was very specific about certain notes as I knew they would elicit certain feelings.” She explains how the raw materials – such as ylang ylang from the Philippines, vanilla from Madagascar and so on – that IFF use are all of supreme quality, which means you get an incredible, long-lasting scent trail. “In a lab, you have the caviar and you have the catfood! And I always want to go with the caviar.”
Love Frequency combines rose absolute and cashmeran, and was the first one they got right. “More Sex was the hardest to perfect – it’s such a subtlety that happens, that sense of attraction. There’s a mystery that happens with this, and we included sandalwood oil, neroli oil, ambery woods to enhance feelings of seduction.” Magic Energy is energetic but balanced, with bergamot, palo santo and cypress oil to “restore that sense of being grounded we have lost via technology.” Tilbury mentions that she sprays this in rooms before meetings as it “balances the energy in the room and calms you down”.
One of the brand’s strengths when it comes to make-up and skincare is the breadth of its appeal – it’s not just for teens or twenties, but for all ages. And these scents also aim to bottle something “universal” via this idea of a “wardrobe of feelings”. Tilbury recommends combining them, too, to create different combinations to help “manifest your day” – for example, Calm Bliss (the blue one, inspired by the sea) plus Magic Energy, to create a calming and grounding mood. The scents are gender-neutral, for sure, and Tilbury notes that men are wearing Magic Energy, More Sex (with leather and sandalwood) and Cosmic Power in particular.
At the moment, we most crave Joyphoria – the singular golden bottle that’s based on solar notes, orange flower, jasmine, white florals, to bring you blooms on rainy days and transport you to “summer, fun, dancing, long nights” via vanilla bean, ylang ylang extract. Perfume brands have long promised “sunshine in a bottle”; here, Tilbury is proud to have the clinical trials to prove these scents really do elicit these feelings, and make you feel a certain way.
Always with an eye on a great gift, Charlotte then starts to brandish a mini travel set (€29), the full set collected in a leather pouch, which can be personalised. We love the idea of having a full apothecary at our disposal, ready to take with us wherever we go. It’s been emotional …
€150 each, at Brown Thomas, Arnotts, and The Loop at Dublin Airport.
