Tate McRae Made A Perfume for Her Most Feminine Era

For her first fragrance, the pop star got involved in basically everything: the scent, the textures, the bottle, the mood, the memories it was supposed to evoke. She wanted to be in every meeting, smell every version and talk through exactly what she wanted people to feel.

Images via @sabanoreensabanoreen6 @t8mcrae.feed

So yes, Tate 01 is a celebrity perfume. But it also sounds suspiciously like Tate McRae bottled an entire era of her life.

She Wanted to Smell Like Her Most Feminine Self

McRae describes Tate 01 as a “second skin,” built around the idea of feeling feminine, sensual and completely comfortable in your own atmosphere.

The fragrance opens with sparkling bergamot and clary sage before moving through orange flower, Hedione and Iso E Super. Moss, creamy tonka and an aura accord sit underneath it all, giving the fragrance a soft, subtly floral finish.

Images via @makesy mariundanne.com

It sounds less like walking into a room wearing perfume and more like changing the temperature of the room around you.

This Perfume Is Basically a Memory Machine

McRae says she has always connected smells to specific memories and periods of her life.

That makes the whole project feel much more personal than simply picking a few notes from a fragrance menu and putting your name on the bottle.

Images via scentbeauty.com  @t8mcrae.feed

She wanted Tate 01 to capture where she is right now: this particular year, this particular version of herself, and the woman she is becoming.

Which is probably why “second skin” feels like the right language.

The whole thing is supposed to stay close.

Tate Wanted to Cook the Perfume Herself

And she really did get involved.

Scent Beauty brought in master perfumers Adriana Medina and Antoine Maisondieu to lead the formulation, but McRae says she wanted to be involved in every meeting, smelling different textures and tones, bringing in perfumes she already loved and explaining what she wanted people to experience.

Images via @adrianamedinaperfumer valor.globo.com

Honestly, I respect the level of obsession.

Perfume is one of those things that can become very abstract very quickly. “I want it to feel sensual” could mean absolutely anything. McRae seems to have treated the process more like songwriting, obsessing over the tiny details until the feeling actually matched the idea.

And Then She Made the Bottle Extremely Simple

This might be my favorite part.

After apparently looking at millions of options, McRae settled on a minimal milky cube.

No giant bow. No excessive decoration. No hyper-feminine ornamentation screaming “CELEBRITY FRAGRANCE” from across the bathroom.

Images via scentbeauty.com @thfragrancevault

She wanted something timeless because anything too crazy, girly or decorated wouldn't have felt genuine to her.

And that restraint makes sense next to the fragrance itself. Everything is soft, understated and deliberately close to the body.

Quiet Perfume Is Having a Moment

There is something very current about Tate 01's whole approach.

We're seeing more fragrances built around skin, musk, warmth and atmosphere rather than giant clouds of sweetness. The goal isn't necessarily to smell like the loudest thing in the room.

Sometimes you want the person next to you to notice.

Images via @maisonlouismarie @Jasinobe

That's the space Tate 01 seems designed to occupy: sensual without being aggressive, feminine without becoming sugary, polished without feeling overly decorated.

Basically, perfume for someone who wants to smell incredible but doesn't need the bottle to scream about it.

Tate 01 Is Starting as a Very Tate-Only Thing

The fragrance launches first through Tate's own website before expanding to Ulta Beauty online on October 16 and in stores on October 25. It will also roll out internationally through retailers including Douglas and Boots in the U.K.

Prices range from $30 to $82 depending on the size.

Images via @tatemcrae @t8mcraetours

And considering how much McRae has put herself into the project, I'm not surprised the brand is treating Tate 01 as the beginning rather than a one-off celebrity vanity project.

Because if this really is a snapshot of Tate McRae at 23, I'm curious what the next version of her smells like.