The first time 24-year-old singer Dua Lipa can ever recall wearing a fragrance was when she a little girl, sneaking into her parents' bathroom to steal a spray of her mother's go-to designer perfume. Though she didn't start wearing her own fragrances until much later in life, back then she loved the thrill of secretly wearing something that made her feel like an adult. Things pretty much came full circle a couple of decades down the line when YSL Beauty, a brand Lipa has long been a fan of, approached her to become its newest ambassador. Together, Lipa and YSL Beauty have just launched Libre, a fragrance unlike anything the brand has created in its almost 20-year history. The perfume, available now in department stores and from fragrance retailers, marks the singer's first major beauty campaign.
At the time YSL Beauty and Lipa came together, the brand had four potential fragrances to choose from for its fall launch — when asked her opinion on each, Lipa gravitated toward the one that would end up becoming Libre. "I think it was just a personal preference. I love the mixture of the scents. What they did with this fragrance, it’s really gender fluid," Lipa tells Allure. "I just loved the vibe, and then I got to use it all the time until it came out; it ended up becoming my signature scent."
Libre is a very intentional mixture of scents that have historically been considered either feminine or masculine, namely lavender, orange blossom, and musk accord. At its core, the fragrance is all about leaving societal pressures behind and embracing whatever beauty standards you see fit. That fact alone makes it the ideal match for Lipa's love for gender fluidity and her intense sense of individuality. "I love juxtaposition, and I love the idea of never allowing anyone or anything to box you in into something, or make you feel like you should dress a certain way," she says. "I want to wear whatever I like, whenever I feel like."
Most of the time, what Lipa feels like wearing makeup-wise is a a minimal and easy-to-apply complexion base — she says she loves using the Touche Eclat High Cover Radiant Undereye Concealer Pen to highlight her cheekbones and cover any discoloration. "What I’ve learned with concealer is that you have to dab it and not rub it — I feel like that’s the only way you can actually cover anything up is if you just keep dabbing, which is something I never knew," she says. "I was like, Why is this not covering anything? I had been rubbing it off instead of dabbing it on." And she's totally right; that's a tried-and-true application technique our favorite makeup artists have shared in the past.
Instagram content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
Most Popular
- ShoppingWill Your Favorite Beauty Products Get More Expensive Under Trump?By Ashley Abramson
- ShoppingThe Best LED Face Masks to Target Every Skin ConcernBy Deanna Pai
- NailsThe Best Winter 2024 Nail Color Trends Remix Classic Holiday ShadesBy Annie Blay
Combine all these factors and it's hard to imagine a more perfect pairing than Dua Lipa and YSL Beauty. In becoming the spokesperson for Libre, she joins the ranks of fellow cool-girl YSL ambassadors Zoë Kravitz and Halsey, something Lipa does not take lightly.
When thinking back to the campaign shoot, she recalls standing at the edge of a cliff in Malibu wondering, "What the fuck is happening? I can’t believe I get to do this as my job." That "pinch-me moment," as Lipa describes it, is the exact memory she can't help but reminisce about when she reaches for a spritz of Libre every single day — and we can only imagine it gives her a far more powerful sense of independence compared to her stolen childhood whiffs of mom's perfume.
More on celebrity fragrances:
- Lily Aldridge Just Launched Her Own Perfume Line, and It's Beautiful Inside and Out
- Sunset Fantasy Is Britney Spears's Most Decadent Dessert Perfume Yet
- Mary-Kate and Ashley Reveal What They Originally Wanted to Call Their Perfumes
Now, watch some painfully cute children make perfumes for their moms:
Don't forget to follow Allure on Instagram and Twitter.