As if conquering the makeup landscape wasn’t enough, Charlotte Tilbury is about to turn the fragrance world on its head. Not satisfied with launching one fragrance, Tilbury has developed a line of six perfumes called Collection of Emotions. The clue is in the name: this is no ordinary set of scents–according to Tilbury, they have some serious neuroscience behind them.
Tilbury set out to tap into how a fragrance has the ability to change the way we feel, and worked with neuroscience experts as well as three master perfumers from International Flavors and Fragrance (IFF) to develop the scents. “I always wanted to do this but I’d always been told I couldn’t,” she says, adding that she didn’t want the concept to “just be marketing stuff.” “I knew I could be giving people the power to architect their day, so that’s when I started to investigate the possibilities.” IFF’s Scentcube–the result of more than 40 years of research into how different fragrance notes affect the brain–held the key.
The result is six universal feelings, bottled as scents: Love Frequency (floral woody), Joyphoria (warm floral), Magic Energy (citrus woody), Calm Bliss (aquatic floral), More Sex (musk leather) and Cosmic Power (amber spicy).
Tilbury says she was shocked that IFF’s decades of research had never previously been used to design a scent that elicits emotion. “They obviously use it to work on different fragrance notes, but never with that intention to feel. When we knew that with the neuroscience and the psychology we could create my concept… it was a heavenly match.”
The make-up guru also utilized color theory–a practice she has implemented for years as a makeup artist–when working on the packaging, matching the color of each bottle to the feelings and memories the perfume inside has been created to evoke. The bottles are inspired by 18th-century alchemy bottles, with the lids a nod to the Egyptian Pyramids.
As with her makeup products, Tilbury hopes her customers will choose which fragrance to apply depending on how they want to feel on any given day. “One day you might want to be like, Kate Moss rock chick, and then sometimes you might feel like being a Bella [Hadid] bombshell,” she says. The perfumes can also be layered together. “You might be going out to an event and want to feel sexy and empowered, so you might spray Magic Energy and Cosmic Power together.”
Tilbury, who gave tester vials to her friends to try during the testing phase, says those who wore Magic Energy reported being chased down the street by strangers demanding to know what perfume they had on. Others used the layering method to help promote calm. “I’ve always known it could work, because I would mix up my own perfumes using raw materials like palo santo, patchouli and vanilla beans,” she recalls. “I just knew that they worked to help keep me calm.”
It’s not the first time Tilbury has created a perfume, in 2016 she launched Scent of a Dream, a limited-edition scent that quickly acquired cult status. Given her track record–and passion for her product–there’s every chance this new collection will be similarly successful.
Collection of Emotions goes on sale 30 April exclusively on the Charlotte Tilbury App, and will be available nationwide and globally from May 2nd.
