Celebrity perfumes are officially cool again thanks to Billie, Ariana and Rihanna

Celebrity perfumes have had a bit of a naff reputation. It started fairly well. When JLo’s Glow launched in 2004 it shook up the industry and offered fans an unusually intimate way to connect with the singer. The scent, a crowd-pleasing white floral with delicate citrus notes, broke sales records and the accessible price point meant that teens could bag themselves a signature scent for under 20 quid.

But then, it caught on and every celeb and their cat (quite literally) jumped on the trend. Who can forget Katy Perry’s Purr and Meow fragrances inspired by her tabby, Kitty Purry. The shelves of Boots became laden with sweet, identikit, cheap-smelling concoctions that we doubt had much to do with their celeb ambassadors. And we’re even more skeptical that they ever made it to their A-list bathroom cabinets. Do we think Beyonce mists herself in Heat, her £11 fragrance, before heading out for dinner? Possible, but unlikely. Likewise, we can’t imagine One Direction wore their own bubblegum pink scent, That Moment.

They served us well while we navigated high school, but those noughties celeb scents haven’t entirely aged well, and they haven’t been able to grow up with us and our changing tastes.

In an age where customers are demanding more from their purchases – radical transparency, thoughtful innovation, sustainable formulas – slapping a celeb’s name on a scent they may (or may not) have sniffed on the set of the ad campaign just doesn’t wash these days. It’s why celeb beauty died out, along with Ugg boots as we headed into the 2010’s.

But, like Ugg boots (which have officially been signed off by the street style set for another round), we’re ready to give celebrity perfumes another go. Rihanna changed the game in 2017. The launch of Fenty Beauty refreshed the industry, re-wrote the rules and re-set the standards of what we expect from a new generation of celebrity beauty. Namely, inclusivity, but also, involvement. As multi-hyphenate brand founders, we expect the celebs we align with to be leading decisions, running the board meetings and creating products they truly, genuinely love and use before letting us in on it, too.

That’s why we were excited for RiRi’s first Fenty Perfume to make its way over to the UK from the states in 2021. Created to be unisex, the consensus is that the scent is unexpected. It doesn’t have the punchy presence people associate with Rihanna. Nor does it smell like her skincare, or her notorious (and well documented) favourite scent, Love Don’t Be Shy, from By Killian (a marshmallowy gourmand). Nor does it smell remotely like her previous perfumes, Reb’l Fleur, Kiss and Rogue – created before she was calling the shots at her own brand.