Deputy beauty editor Jessica Matlin jet set to Cali to be on the scene of Katy Perry's Killer Queen fragrance campaign and found out Katy's inspiration behind her latest spritz, why she's ready to leave Candyland behind, and a whole lot in between.
"I love what I do, and when I don't love what I do, I'll make a change, I can't be the candy queen forever," Katy says in her Part of Me documentary-style film. She also posted this quote on August 7 to Facebook, "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, a new beginning is a must."
Clearly this pop star is taking the first train out of Candyland, entering into her a world of sophistication and complexity—all while launching her newest perfume Killer Queen, $59, macys.com, (named after Katy's favorite song, Queen's Killer Queen)—which lines up perfectly with her evolving self.
"We had to think greater, grander, bigger [when it came to the] evolution of my fragrance, especially because of who I am as an artist and the path I'm going to be taking. I wanted to create a mysterious scent that wasn't too girlie—I had a couple of ideas and this was one of them. It’s sort of like predicting the future, since you don't know where exactly you'll be style-wise [since the launch is in September], but I kind of had an idea."
Speaking of her fragrance's new look: [Inspired by a queen's scepter], "It's a gorgeous glass that has a kind of ombré [burgundy-to-yellow finish] from the bottom to the top. I wanted it to be like you had a gem in your hand. A real prestigious, royal, rich thing to it. And since it has a theme that I love, I wanted it to have a crown nuance, but instead of going the complete crown route, I wanted to design my own crest [to go] on top. I thought it was very symbolic of monarchy, royalty, and over the topness."
As for the juice?, This scent [which was inspired by Chambord, a berry liqueur, and consists of dark plum, red velvet flower, wild berry, bergamot, jasmine, plumeria, cashmeran, patchouli, and praline], is for the strong, confident, and independent woman. She’s wearing it for herself, mostly. She is not doing it for anyone else. It’s all about strength, [which] you can see in the commercial [above, shot by Swedish director Jonas Akerlund]. Fragrance for me is the bonus. It’s not the thing that makes the woman the woman. It’s the thing that bonuses whatever she already has."
Below, a snap of Katy and her crew during the filming of the ad, captured by photographer Tim Walker.
Speaking of her latest parfum, Katy was more involved than your average celebrity. "When I do collaborations with people, they’re typically always very annoyed with me. I think that maybe they’re not used to having such a strong-minded [partner]. You’d think after the fourth, fifth, and sixth meeting, you would just give in [and say] 'Okay, just do that.' But I feel comfortable pushing back, because sometimes I have a vision in my head and I don’t know how to explain it except to just experiment. And somehow the experimenting process leads to the final destination. I knew that this time I wanted less gourmand and more of an [original] scent.
At first I was referencing really unique fragrances like Thierry Mugler’s Alien and Tom Ford’s Black Orchid—things that had a unisex ambiguity. [Scents] that you walk in and you’re like, “WHAT’S THAT? WHAT’S THAT?!” but you can’t pinpoint who it is because the aroma that they have on is so mysterious. I wanted to go more in the direction of a mysterious fragrance, but of course I didn’t want to alienate either. [So this one ] is a soft, dynamic kind of floriental scent that isn’t too girly. For me, it would have been an easy route to go edible, which is fun, I like wearing edible stuff too, but I wanted it to be more than just cake."
So how did the singer know she was onto something with her new scent? "I would wear it around my other girlfriends and around people who don’t know that this is my business and they really loved it." As for how Katy applies fragrance, "I pirouette into my fragrance or bow into it [laughs]."
For more Katy, download her latest single Roar off of her "Prism" album, which is set to be released this October.
Photo Credit: Coty
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