Ask Khloé Kardashian her ideal beach vacation and she’ll tell you the same thing Kylie Jenner told Jake Shane: Turks and Caicos, babe.
“Turks and the Bahamas are so beautiful,” she said during an exclusive interview with WWD, ahead of the launch of her latest fragrance, XO Blue. “It’s white sand, it’s the Turks turquoise water. It’s absolutely beautiful. It’s what I envision when I wear this.”
A sweet and sultry blend of lychee, bergamot, dewy magnolia and creamy coconut, XO Blue, out now, is designed to transport its wearer to the tropical destination of their choice, awakening not only the senses, but a state of uninterrupted bliss. This marks the third fragrance in Kardashian’s line, made in partnership with perfumer Clement Gavarry and prestige beauty conglomerate Luxe Brands.
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Like her first two scents — XO Khloé and Almost Always — Kardashian knew exactly when she wanted the third fragrance in her hero collection to drop, making the rest of the design process — scent and packaging included — “seamless.”
“Having the bottle be blue was a nonnegotiable,” Kardashian said. “We also tried to come up with all these creative, clever names, and I was like, ‘No, let’s do XO Blue.’ The fragrance is so transportive, so vacation, so tropical, in my opinion. It all made sense.”
Shot inside a studio lined with LED panels, the corresponding campaign sees Kardashian splash around in a shallow pool of water before she’s joined by a shirtless model on a motorcycle. Conceptualized by her longtime photographer, the provocative video aims to capture the allure of the scent. “Isn’t it a little sexy? Greg [Swales], who’s my photographer, he is the best. I told him I wanted it tropical and beach and all of that, and then, that little sly dog, brought in Brandon, the male model, and was like, ‘You guys have three minutes before you’re going to be wrestling around,’” Kardashian recalled.
The creative direction pushed the reality star out of her comfort zone, as did the fragrance formulation. “I have always been a creature of habit and, dare I say, a little more rigid,” she confessed. “I don’t really explore, I sort of wear the same scent. The consumers pushed me into wanting to do something new and do something that I don’t think I typically would go out and smell and wear, and it was so fun. It’s so fun to be transported, it’s so fun to try new things.
“I love that when you wear new scents, you feel new about yourself, you exude or evoke a different personality. You channel somebody else,” she continued. “So, when I am trying all these new scents, which I do like, not all of them, some I don’t like, but then when I go back to one of my OGs, I’m like, ‘OK, we still got it, we’re still here, and I’m still in love with you.’”
With her core three nailed down, Kardashian has big plans to expand her fragrance horizon in the future. Noreen Dodge, chief marketing officer and chief strategy officer of Luxe, teased a potential expansion into home products and revamped packaging. “Even though we’re launching this, we’re working on the next. There’s also things that we do along the way to surprise and delight her fans,” Dodge noted. “There’s been such a response to Khloé and her authenticity in this space that has grown globally, that we’re very excited by.”
“I’m excited to push myself in a way that I haven’t before, and I’m excited for the next — hopefully the next — one to have a different bottle and just do more. I really want to switch it up completely,” Kardashian added.
