Global pop star Tate McRae is translating her artistic taste into the fragrance world for the first time.
Created in partnership with Scent Beauty, her inaugural eau de parfum is said to sit like a “second skin,” marrying top notes of sparkling bergamot and clary sage with base notes of moss, creamy tonka and aura accord. At its heart are orange flower, Hedione, and Iso E Super, forming a subtly floral yet fruity finish designed to enhance the wearer’s pheromones. Prices range from $30 to $82, depending on size.
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At 23, McRae finds herself chasing the same scent trail. “I’m constantly trying to walk into rooms that make me feel good, and wear clothes that make me feel good, and wear scents that make me feel like the most feminine and sensual version of myself,” she told WWD. “I am also very picky with smells and perfumes, and I connect smells to memories and eras of my life. Creating my own was very aligned with where I’m at right now. It feels like this year of my life and this time as a woman.”
Scent Beauty brought in master perfumers Adriana Medina and Antoine Maisondieu to help lead the fragrance formulation, though McRae was also heavily involved — maybe a little too much, she cheekily admitted. “I honestly wanted to be at every single meeting. I wanted to be cooking up all the smells, smelling every single texture and tone, and bringing in perfumes that I was obsessed with, and talking about what I wanted people to feel,” she said.
The same is true of her involvement in the bottle design, a process McRae likened to her songwriting. “I had to go through millions to arrive on a final one,” she said, calling the minimalistic milky cube timeless. “Anything too crazy or girly or decorated would not feel genuine to me.”
Maintaining McRae’s understated vision was challenging, admitted Steve Mormoris, chief executive officer of Scent Beauty. The bottle alone is unlike anything in the fragrance developer’s portfolio of artist-led perfumes, which includes Dolly Parton’s Scent From Above, Cher’s Eau de Couture and, most recently, Megan Moroney’s Calliope. “There’s lots of subtlety in the fragrance. Then, in the package design, we have a beautiful bottle that looks extremely simple, but upon closer examination is quite complex,” he said.
Tate 01 will be sold exclusively on tatebytm.com, a 360-degree contextual website, first before entering Ulta Beauty’s online and in-store assortment on Oct. 16 and Oct. 25, respectively. Industry sources forecast this will be an eight-figure launch in terms of revenues, with nine figures by 2027.
The scent is also slated to hit retail shelves across the globe, including premium beauty retailer Douglas and Boots in the U.K. “This shows you Tate’s ascending power as a brand and the degree to which she’s reaching fans worldwide.” Mormoris said, teasing the future expansion of the line.
“At Scent Beauty, we are looking at 2027 and 2028 as years in which we are going to deepen our footprint with new brands in the fashion category, and also indie brands to broaden our portfolio and also look at key markets like India and Brazil, which have lots of cultural specificities that we think that we can create beautiful fragrances,” he continued.
