Katy Perry Talks Killer Queen Fragrance Inspiration, Morning Beauty Routine (It Takes Over An Hour!) And Possible Future In Fashion
Katy Perry and her Killer Queen fragrance.
Photo: Getty Images
It's been more than two months since we discovered/freaked out about Katy Perry's latest fragrance, Killer Queen, but to be totally honest, we still don't really, well, know much about it. Sure, we got to peep the bold red bottle and KP rocking some killer (heh) Thom Browne duds at the launch party, but we got no insight into the inspiration behind her third fragrance, what it smells like, or, heck, when it's gonna hit stores! Luckily, WWD caught up with the singer to get all the deets on her latest perfume, and we have some vital nuggets of info to share with y'all! Check 'em out below.
The name was inspired by a Queen song: “Killer Queen has been in my vocabulary since I was 15, because of the song ‘Killer Queen’ by Queen. Freddie Mercury painted the lyrics of this woman who I wanted to be. She seemed very powerful, and she captivated a room when she walked in. I named my company Killer Queen after those lyrics. I feel like, after all this time, it was appropriate to use that name in association with something I did. I feel like I’m falling, finally, into that woman Freddie painted.”
The new scent reflects her new music: “Killer Queen is powerful, edgy, sophisticated--and that’s exactly where I’m trying to be now with my music. There were two different aspects in creating the fragrance. It’s almost like [using] two different parts of your brain--the packaging and bottle and marketing, but essentially all that doesn’t matter unless you have the juice. It’s for someone sophisticated, who wants a little edge and can wear it all day, and still wants that sexiness.”
A lot of research went into getting this scent right: “It took us something like 30 or 35 tries to get it right. I wanted some floral [notes], like jasmine, but I also wanted red velvet flower, which is incredible--it gives it the edge that makes it Killer Queen. It does have a bit of a gourmand thing to it--but gourmand like high tea at Claridge’s. I wanted the scent to have a little bit of ambiguity. I was attracted to scents in the last couple of years like Alien by Thierry Mugler and Black Orchid from Tom Ford. They’re too strong for me to wear all the time, and I didn’t want to them to be [copies], just to have a hint of ambiguity like they do. It’s sophisticated, but it’s not alienating my main group of people. The patchouli heart gives it ambiguity and this thing called cashmeran is really cool. It has this real curve ball in it that I think is sophisticated but still supersexy.”
Katy's serious about her morning beauty routine: “I’m a product whore. I have a [beauty] regimen that spans an hour and a half, and nothing goes out of order," which she said is hard to do "if you’re sleeping over at a new boyfriend’s house. I wouldn’t say never on anything, but my heart isn’t drawn to that area just yet. I’m really excited for the newer, bigger, better launch of my fragrances.”
Katy wants her scepter-inspired bottle to stand out: “One thing I was really inspired by was Jean-Paul Gaultier’s fragrances, time after time after time. There was the snow globe [Fragile], he was doing a bust [Signature], he was doing this or that. But he always did something that made me want to keep the bottle as a keepsake afterwards. I felt cool if I had one on a shelf in my room, even if there was no juice left in it. That inspired me. There isn’t any point for me to put out something that doesn’t stand out--because that is so not like me.”
Katy explains her hesitation to go into the fashion world just yet: “I would like to [branch into fashion], but this circus act can only juggle so many balls. It’s to be determined, but we’ll see how it goes. It’s a long process, and I want to find the right place for me. There are a lot of people I really look up to in fashion--[like] Alice + Olivia and The Row--and I like that price range, too. I love what Victoria Beckham did, but I also have to figure out with myself what actually is the market I want to be in. Is it a high fashion market or is it an accessible market? Nothing is [currently] being created; there aren’t even sketches on the table, nor a contract.”
Katy Perry's Killer Queen perfume will hit 3,000 U.S. department stores this August and will retail between $20 and $59.99. To read the full interview, head on over to WWD.com!
{via WWD}
