Selena Gomez Opens Up About Launching Rare Beauty’s First Perfume

With the debut of its first fragrance, Rare Beauty enters a new chapter. For founder Selena Gomez, it’s personal.

“Some of my best memories were when I was creating this, in our little test tube, when I got engaged, when I got to celebrate my birthday, 32nd birthday,” Gomez said. “It was just something that made me feel like a piece of me. And I wanted everyone to enjoy it. I was hoping that it would embody the place of life that I’m in.”

Gomez is now 33, as of last week. It’s been two years of her life — as a music artist and actor — since she began developing the scent. In that time, yes, she got engaged to Benny Blanco, the American record producer. The two released a collaborative album together, her fourth, “I Said I Love You First.” Gomez also earned her first Emmy nomination as a performer for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for “Only Murders in the Building.” And then there’s the other headline-making milestone: She reportedly ranks among the youngest self-made billionaires in the country.

In the midst of it all, she was quietly testing the fragrance, Rare Eau de Parfum. It drops on Aug. 7 at Sephora (with early app access on Aug. 6), as well as sephora.com, Sephora at Kohl’s and rarebeauty.com, priced at $75 for a 50-ml. bottle. Crafted in France with globally sourced ingredients, the fragrance is cruelty-free, vegan, paraben-free and dermatologist-tested, making it suitable for sensitive skin, according to the brand.

“It was really funny, because sometimes I would accidentally — I would accidentally or purposefully, I should say — get close to people and see if they could smell anything,” Gomez said. She used everyday moments to gauge reactions. “I would just flat out ask everyone I was around. I would tell them what it is, and say, ‘What do you think?’”

The launch of fragrance comes at a pivotal moment for the brand, which has experienced exponential growth since its launch in 2020. Yearly sales in 2024 were said to hit $400 million, up 14 percent from the prior year. After Gomez and her team hired Goldman Sachs and Raymond James last year, speculation has swirled around a potential IPO or sale, especially as beauty M&A has gained steam since May with Rhode’s billion-dollar sale to E.l.f., Church & Dwight acquiring Touchland and L’Oréal purchasing Color Wow.

“We haven’t made any decisions about any of that at all,” said Rare Beauty chief executive officer Scott Friedman, when asked for an update on the future of the brand. “The rumors that have been out there have not been accurate. We’re focused on doing what we do best, and we have no idea how that will evolve in the future years.”

For her part, Gomez remains grounded in her priorities. “I think it’s important for me not to focus on the logistics, if that makes sense, for me and my personal well-being,” she said, reflecting on the brand. “I put my heart into it. I work really hard, and I love our community, especially my fans. They have gotten me through all of the ups and all of the downs of life, and they are with me.”

She continued, “I’m so grateful that I’m in this place in my life where, you know, things could have looked differently, and the future for Rare for me is just the fact that we want to continue to create products. There’s still so much more room, there’s still so much more places we could go. But specifically with the fragrance, I just thought it was time.”

Perfumer Jérôme Epinette is behind the juice, a warm scent with a touch of spice and top notes of caramel, pistachio, pink pepper; a heart of vanilla, ginger and cocoa beans, and finishes with sandalwood, tonka beans and skin musks.

“Skin musks sounds weird, but it actually makes it smell really good,” Gomez smiled. The note is typically used to help a fragrance last and dry down smoothly.

“Because I was thinking, this is weird, if I tell people it’s skin musk,” she went on. “But it’s actually really amazing.”

Epinette also helped create Rare Beauty’s Find Comfort Body & Hair Fragrance Mist — the brand’s entry into scent as part of a collection centered on wellness and mood-enhancing rituals. Leaning into that sensory-first approach, alongside Rare Eau de Parfum, Rare Beauty is also introducing four Fragrance Layering Balms. Coming in pocket-sized, 20-ml. tubes at $19 each, they can be applied solo or combined for personalization: Floral Peony Blossom, Amber Vanilla, Fresh Bergamot and Woody Oak.

Gomez likes to mix the eau de parfum with the woody oak balm, she said. “When I get out of the shower, I use the fresh balm.…Basically, I wanted to try something so cool and different, because I think it would be fun for people to make their own fragrances.”

Gomez is no stranger to a fragrance launch; naturally, she was approached for her influence as a teen and released two scents through a licensed partnership with Adrenalina Inc. when she was 19 years old.

“I was so young,” Gomez said of the past experience. “The sweetest thing — a few months ago, [I saw] someone had saved the box that my [first] fragrance was in. It’s so long ago, I couldn’t help but laugh, because it had just been a trying time in my life where I really was trying hard to be cool. I don’t even remember what it smells like. I don’t think it would be anything I’d wear now. This is definitely more me.”

With Rare Eau de Parfum, it all started with Joyce Kim, Rare Beauty’s chief product officer, who worked closely with Gomez and the in-house team to bring the fragrance to life.

“For me, I feel like out of everyone on the team, I can tell her anything,” Gomez said of Kim. “It’s not that I wouldn’t share my life with anyone. But, you know, if I have a stupid idea and I’m nervous to tell people, or if I have a question that might be embarrassing, if I don’t understand how something works, I’ll say, ‘Hey, what about this?’ Random things. And she always responds, even when she’s away.…She’s my complete right arm. I don’t know what I would do without Joyce.”

“I feel the same way,” Kim jumped in. “Because she’s my right arm. I can’t do what I do unless I’m completely inspired by her.”

Gomez is curious, open and involved in every step, Kim said. “What I love about working with Selena is she wants to learn everything.”

They went through roughly 20 iterations of the scent before narrowing it down to two finalists. It was important for Gomez to hear feedback from the office team. “At one point, you have to say, this is it, and I feel confident, and let’s just see how everyone else feels,” Gomez said of the final product.

The Rare Beauty community has been ready for it, Kim said. From the moment the brand was first announced, fans were already asking for fragrance.

“Twitter went off,” Kim recalled. “It wasn’t even on our radar. But from Day One, it was in the back of our mind.”

Kim is one of the brains behind Rare Beauty, along with Friedman; Mehdi Mehdi, chief operating officer, and Katie Welch, chief marketing officer.

“The decision was made a couple of years ago, and it was more of a progression,” Friedman said of entering the category. “Because we wanted to continue our goal of helping people feel good about themselves, and that’s the focus from the beginning. It’s giving products that help people feel good — fragrance has always been tied to emotion, and we’ve been tied to that from the beginning.”

“We’ve always wanted products that feel timeless and that people are going to keep in their routines for their entire lives,” added Mehdi.

Welch has been leading the charge on bringing the fragrance to life visually, creating a strategy that leans into storytelling and emotion.

“We have cleared our Instagram grid in anticipation of the launch,” Welch said.

The account, with 8.3 million followers (Gomez’s personal one counts 418 million), was wiped clean — until it was updated on her birthday with a nostalgic childhood shot of Gomez, followed by a few intimate snaps from her life the next day.

“The community has been abuzz, truly,” Welch said. “You think, ‘Will anyone notice?’ And they have.”

Clearing the grid makes space for a new chapter, she added. It gets the community talking and sets the tone for what’s next: “And so it’s more than just a visual refresh. It’s a creative reset. It’s an emotional reset. This whole collection is all about celebrating rare moments and making rare moments yours.”

There’s a campaign film coming, shot by Brianna Capozzi.

“It’s a collection of moments that Selena experiences, and so we try to bring that to life in social, in out-of-home, in digital, in all of the marketing channels that we can,” Welch said, noting the rollout will include Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Product sampling will be offered, alongside upcoming hosted events, both in-store at Sephora and with beauty creators.

The Rare fragrance bottle also reflects the brand’s ethos of inclusivity and health through its packaging. Created with the help of rehabilitation facility Casa Colina and in collaboration with certified hand therapists and engineers, the design offers a comfortable dispensing experience for those with limited dexterity.

“I have dexterity problems from my lupus, so sometimes it’s hard for me to open a bottle of water or do anything,” Gomez said. “Sometimes I’ve had to use a spray and, like, put both my fingers on it. It’s not as sad as it sounds. I’m alive, and that’s all that matters.”

After spending most of her life in the spotlight, in 2017 Gomez revealed she’d received a kidney transplant as part of an ongoing treatment for lupus. She then opened up about mental health, her struggles battling anxiety, depression and ultimately her bipolar diagnosis. That vulnerability has deeply resonated with fans and the public, and it’s reflected in the mission behind Rare Beauty, which donates 1 percent of its sales to the Rare Impact Fund dedicated to expanding access to mental health services, particularly in underserved communities. It has collected $20 million to date, according to Rare Beauty, supporting 30 nonprofit partners across five continents and reaching more than 2 million youth annually. The goal is to raise $100 million over 10 years.

The latest initiative is the fund’s Giving Circle, launched in partnership with Dollar Donation Club — a platform that makes giving back easily accessible. Starting at $1 a month, members receive curated mental health content, updates from nonprofit partners and opportunities to engage with the Rare Impact Fund community.

“It’s leading with our purpose,” Friedman said of staying true to Rare Beauty’s core values as it continues to expand internationally and across categories.