Mary-Kate and Ashley Reveal What They Originally Wanted to Call Their Perfumes

I grew up with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Not literally, we weren't neighbors or anything, but we were all born in 1986 (they're two months older than me). My friends and I grew up watching their movies (and one of those friends actually went to middle school with them for a year or two), we all attended New York University at the same time, and now, at the age of 31, we're all working in the fashion and beauty industry. (Although, make no mistake, I am neither a millionaire nor a successful fashion designer — I must have slept through those classes at NYU.) Needless to say, when I got the chance to sit down with them a few months ago to talk about their newest fragrances — Nirvana French Grey and Nirvana Amethyst — I kind of felt like we were old friends, catching up after years of not seeing each other. But I fought the urge to be weird and ask them, How've you been since college, guys??? Remember how Life Science was super lame?!? Instead, I kept myself composed and we talked shop. Beauty shop. See, what I always kind of knew but now can confirm is that Mary-Kate and Ashley are undoubtedly beauty experts. They could easily find a job as an editor at Allure. We geeked out about top notes and bottom notes and the lack of florientals on the market. We shared our favorite reflexology places in New York City. And we bonded over how our beauty routine has evolved — and simplified — now that we're out of our twenties. They were more knowledgable about fragrance that I ever thought, and every bit as cool as I'd always imagined.

Courtesy of Elizabeth & James

After six fragrances, what's the most interesting or surprising thing you've learned throughout the creative process?

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Mary-Kate: "I knew that everyone took to fragrance differently, but I didn't realize how different a fragrance, like even a single note, sits on different skin. I could love it on myself and not like it on Ashley, or like something on someone else that I don't like on me. I found that so interesting. I love notes, I love scents, I like pretending I'm a nose..."

Ashley: "She's very good..."

Mary-Kate: "I like the whole experience. I like what it does to your memory and how you use all your senses, and the emotion that it strikes up, it's actually pretty amazing."

How do these two new fragrances — French Grey and Amethyst — fit in with the rest of your fragrances?

Ashley: "When we first started, I think we pointed out key notes that we really liked that didn't go into Black or White, so those were kind of building blocks."

Mary-Kate: "I do think something that hadn't been done for a very long time or been successful in the market was floriental scents and oriental scents and I think that's something that we were very attracted to — all those darker notes. With [Nirvana] Black, people were a bit nervous that it wasn't commercial enough, because it was very dark. So going through the process, to what Ashley said, you find notes that you've always loved and gravitated towards and something you personally connect with. There are so many different types of musks that you want to hold onto a few to be the star, key players in new scents. It feels similar to the way we work on our [runway] collections, which is that usually something comes out of something else, or the last thing that you worked on. Because when we work on the fragrances, sometimes the notes or the scents can actually be too similar, so you have to go in a different direction, but you hold on to it to so you bring it into something else."

The names of your fragrances are always quite simple and straightforward, which I love, but it's not common in the industry. Why did you choose to go that direction?

Mary-Kate: "We actually originally wanted One, Two, Three, Four..."

Ashley: "...But decided to go with color instead."

Mary-Kate: "That was the struggle in the beginning, because we really thought we were just going to do Black and White. But then when we decided we wanted to do more fragrances. So then we had to ask ourselves, What does the bottle look like? What's the story we're telling? If we continued to use solid colors, like Black and White, those would be quite shocking. So then it had to become a bit more transparent."

Ashley: "We always wanted it to eventually become lighter..."

Mary-Kate: "...Become lighter and friendlier. It has evolved in that way. Even the packaging, the gifting, we've definitely evolved. And fragrance has such a long lead time as well. French Grey and Amethyst, I feel like we worked on them last year, so I'm happy everyone finally gets to explore and experience them."

Do you guys have similar tastes in fragrances, personally, in what you wear or when developing them?

Mary-Kate: "Yes. I think we like similar notes, like if you look at notes individually. Sometimes Ashley's more sensitive to things that are overly fragrant, so I like to break down every scent and know, what is the top note? The bottom note? I want to know how much water or alcohol is in each scent. If I don't like a scent, I take out a certain note to see if we like two scents together and then if not, we go back to square one. And then we smell every single musk note, every single sandalwood, every single peony, because there's so many different version of each note and they all react differently. Something that you like on its own, or that you don't like on its own, can be partnered with something else that makes it come to life."

Having worked on fragrances, do you ever envision doing something else beauty-wise in the future?

Ashley: "Well, the fragrance is also in the dry shampoo as well, but yes, there are other things within of beauty that Mary-Kate and I are attracted to and have done a lot of research on."

When you started out designing, did you ever imagine that you would go into beauty like this?

Ashley: "I feel like when we were younger we were also in beauty, but at another level, so we were aware of that world."

Mary-Kate: "I also think working with top makeup artists and really thinking about how one does their makeup every day, and the fact that Ashley and I usually do it in the car ride in two minutes, where you have your three pieces to get it done...Someone asked us earlier about how our beauty has evolved or changed, and I just think as you get older, you just simplify, and it's hard to change your routine once you've really narrowed it down. You don't want to take as many risks so anything that feels familiar is really good. Everyone's constantly on the go, so I literally do my makeup in the car every morning..."

Ashley: "Me too..."

Mary-Kate: "Or on the way to dinner..."

Ashley: "And I live five minutes away from the office, so it's like, I have three minutes to figure it out."

Mary-Kate: "I've narrowed down my makeup to just my lips."

It's funny how as you get older you become more confident in yourself and your aesthetic and everything, yet your actual beauty routine becomes so much simpler. You don't take as many risks even though you're more comfortable with yourself.

Ashley: "Yeah, totally."

What are your biggest beauty indulgences?

Mary-Kate: "Foot massage?"

I love reflexology.

Ashley: "Yeah, reflexology. But I also get facials. Yoga. I find if I'm doing yoga or I'm hiking or I'm outside...To me, I definitely look and feel a lot healthier."

I know it's probably hard to choose just one, but if you had to, is there one of your scents that you especially love or feel best embodies your aesthetic?

Ashley: "I do really like the way the Rose turned out. It reminded me of a scent we worked on a very long, long time ago. I think that was more of a nostalgic thing for me."

Mary-Kate: "I don't have a favorite one. Some were easier to put together than others, but I think as a perfectionist and someone who likes things to evolve and constantly wants to tweak something, I'm always looking for the next scents."

I really like Amethyst and Nirvana Rose is just so interesting. You don't smell anything like it on the market.

Mary-Kate: "People are scared to put out scents like that and it's refreshing to smell scents that are possibly a bit more complex and maybe not as commercial and they feel like they're thoughtful."

Ashley: "Yeah, they're a little bit more niche than what's out there."

I remember talking to a perfumer and asking him what he thought made a scent feel modern and fresh and truly of this era. He said he didn't believe in such a thing but I do think you guys, with your entire collection, really embody what is going on in fragrances these days, and what appeals to our generation.

Mary-Kate: "We got a lot of push back for Black when we first created it. I think it was just because it was sandalwood, it was vanilla, it was all those darker notes. It was something that was less commercial."

Ashley: "I think all [our scents] aren't very commercial, but I think that's what makes them really special."

Mary-Kate: "We always said when we launched Black and White, if you smell White and think of it in the Black bottle it becomes this totally dark scent. Smell them blind and then you see a different color."

That ties back into what you were saying about how all your senses get involved with a fragrance — so how sight and smell are inextricably linked.

Ashley: "Right, and we played around with that concept with the new scents, for example a lavender note is in the French Grey and not in the Amethyst, which has the purple bottle."

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Discover more fragrances in the links below:

1. 12 Best Fragrances — Best of Beauty Awards 2017
2. Fragrance.com Reveals Most Popular Fragrances By State
3. The American Perfumers Modern Approach to Fragrance

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