2019-10-16 The Hollywood Reporter

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International Flavors & Fragrances to develop

her five-piece collection with only 10 percent

of the ingredients it usually uses to ensure

the scents were clean. “I would fly in for

meetings with IFF, or IFF would send me lab

samples, and I’d send back notes via email and

phone,” she continues. “[Entrepreneurship

is] a challenge I’m still adjusting to, espe-

cially now that I’m beginning a press tour for

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. We have an office

space in L.A. that I work out of daily with the

team. We are not even six months old yet, so

I’m still very involved in every aspect of the

day-to - day.”

3. KNOW THAT A MARQUEE NAME NO LONGER
   GUARANTEES SALES Five years ago, Elizabeth
   Arden struggled with a significant drop in
   demand for its fragrances licensed with Justin
   Bieber and Tay l o r S w i f t. The slump hurt the
   beauty company’s turnaround plan, and the
   once-iconic firm was acquired by rival Revlon.
   Artists who want to ride this entrepreneurial
   wave must have a point of view. “What doesn’t
   work is saying, ‘Here’s a standard formula

— I’m tossing it out to the world with my

name on it,’ ” says perfumer Douglas Little,

who crafted fragrances for Goop.

4. WINGING IT ISN’T THE BEST LOOK Less than
   two weeks after launching Florence by Mills
   in August and selling out the $34 whale-
   shaped Swimming Under the Eye Gel Pads and
   other Gen Z-focused products on its website,
   Stranger Things actress Millie Bobby Brown,
   15, posted a video of her nighttime skin-care
   routine ... that didn’t involve any products.
   She was spreading air on her face. In response
   to backlash, Brown wrote on Instagram:
   “I’m still learning the best way to share my
   routines ... I’m not an expert. I thought doing
   a quick video replicating my personal process
   for that night was okay, but that’s not what
   was conveyed.”


5. MAKE A REAL COMMITMENT Nowadays, a
   license deal requires time and energy from a
   star to guarantee success. Noreen Dodge, CMO
   at Luxe Brands in New York, met with Ariana
   Grande at the singer’s L.A. home as well as her
   tour stops in Belgium, Germany and Brooklyn
   to collaborate on her fragrance franchise.

Grande goes through 10 rounds of samples,

wearing each scent for a week. Describing

her vision for the bottle containing Thank U,

Next, named after her hit song, Grande told

Dodge, “I want to do this heart where the

bottle is sitting inside, like a fractured heart.”

Adds Dodge, “She has a creative vision. It’s not

something that is presented to her.”

Retailing from $22 to $62, Grande’s per-

fumes have posted double-digit growth

globally year-over-year. In less than four years,

through five scents and one limited-edition

perfume, Grande’s franchise has exceeded sales

of $300 million worldwide through retailers in

the U.S. and 25 other countries. In the first four

days after posting on Grande’s YouTube chan-

nel, her one-minute video poking fun at how

she made the Thank U, Next perfume racked up

6.2 million views. According to Dodge, Grande’s

brand is the fastest growing in Luxe’s history.

Luxe hopes to replicate Grande’s success

with the new beauty brand it’s developing

with Jennifer Lopez (her current fragrance

deal is with Designer Parfums). While Dodge

couldn’t share the timeline for the launch, she

says Lopez will “be equally involved.”

6. PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE Ryan Seacrest
   plugged men’s skin-care line Polished —
   developed with his longtime dermatologist
   Harold Lancer — on his radio show, QVC and
   through his Twitter, Instagram and Facebook
   accounts to more than 21 million followers.
   As a result, the 50/50 joint venture “became
   profitable really fast,” says Lancer. With social
   media supplanting the need to pay out “mil-
   lions of dollars for a TV commercial,” says
   Linda Levy, head of educational nonprofit The
   Fragrance Foundation, the pathway to profit is
   that much shorter.
   At Haus Laboratories in the run-up to
   launch, Gaga stayed up until 4 a.m. tweak-
   ing images for her brand, interviewed all the
   executives, requested that financiers teach
   her how to read a balance sheet and brain-
   stormed a dramatic curtain drop at her debut
   party to promote the moment sales went live
   at 9 p.m. Pacific on Sept. 16. Gaga’s devotion to
   Haus instantly translated to sales surpassing
   expectations, Lightspeed’s Quinn says. As the
   exclusive retailer outside of Haus’ ecommerce
   site, “Amazon was very happy,” Quinn adds.
   “We’ve been happy.”

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1 Liquid Eye-lie-ner, $20, from

Lady Gaga’s Haus Laboratories line.

2 A promo image for the line

named after Haus of Gaga, her

creative team.

3 Gaga presents to the Haus

Laboratories team in June.

4 Le Riot Lip Gloss, $18. The line also

features a $25 reusable face sticker.

From top: Gwyneth

Paltrow’s Goop

Microderm Instant

Glow Exfoliator, $125;

Edition 01-Church

eau de parfum, $165.

In September,

Millie Bobby

Brown

addressed

backlash to a

Florence by

Mills video of

her mimicking

a skin-care

routine.

Michelle Pfeiffer insists on full control over her Henry Rose fragrance line.

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