Lauren Conrad made her mark on a generation when she starred on MTV’s Laguna Beach and The Hills from 2004 to 2009. While those shows emphasized teen and workplace drama, Conrad has led a less dramatic yet wildly busy life. She’s married, raised kids, founded a fair trade non-profit (The Little Market), and even started clothing lines for adults and little ones. Somehow Conrad still had the energy and inspiration to develop a fragrance.
LOVED by Lauren Conrad ($59), which recently launched at HSN, is Conrad’s first signature scent. In keeping with her likable, down-to-earth reputation, the fragrance is feminine and floral, with grapefruit, peony, white tea, and rose notes. A musky backbone rounds out the scent, grounding it with cool earthiness.
We chatted with Conrad to learn about her favorite smells and the inspiration behind LOVED. Read more ahead.
On her favorite notes:
“I’ve always gravitated toward feminine scents like heavy florals. I appreciated musks and smoky notes later in life, but I loved a clean fragrance closer to cologne in my earlier years. However, my favorite notes are ever-changing. I like my fresher and lighter scents in the spring and summer, and then I love something that smells warmer during autumn and winter.”
On her first perfume experiences:
I’m pretty sure my first fragrance was Ralph by Ralph Lauren or Clinique Happy. I can’t remember, but I know I owned both early. I loved them because I was still pretty young, and they smelled really sweet. I probably bought them because that’s what everyone else was wearing, but I still like Ralph. It’s a cute scent that takes me back.
On the scents that transport her back to childhood:
Freshly cut wood and sawdust remind me of childhood. My dad is an architect, and I was always visiting job sites. I always filled my pockets with sawdust, which I’m sure drove my mom crazy when she did the laundry. Whenever I go somewhere, and something is being built, it transports me back. I love it.
On the smells that remind her of Laguna Beach:
Laguna Beach is home and the smell that reminds me of home—which I didn’t realize until I left—is the salt in the air. I didn’t notice it until I started traveling because every time I came home, there was a little bit of salt in the air that you could smell. We’re right on the water, and it’s always in the air. It’s that subtle but coastal smell.
On the smells that comfort her:
I love earthy scents—freshly cut grass, florals in the garden, anything that smells like being in my yard. I’ve always done light gardening, but I recently fell in love with it. Like so many people, I worked from home with my kids, and going out in the garden was my quiet time.
On the candles she makes for The Little Market:
My favorite candles that we do are Fig. I love our seasonal candles. We worked hard not to make our candles too much like a single holiday, but more with notes from throughout the season. We also developed one called Laguna Beach that I have throughout my house right now. It has fresh cotton notes and is clean but still beachy.
The fragrance that makes her feel powerful:
The scent that makes me feel most powerful is my LOVED. It’s exciting to wear something I created, and I am proud of it. It took years to develop, and it’s my powerful scent now.
Favorite scent to destress:
Honestly, I walk outside, and the fresh air is the best. Every window in our home is open right now.
The scents she associates with falling in love:
LOVED was inspired by falling in love with my husband. When we went on our first few dates, I wore a floral scent, and he always brought scotch. The combination of those two scents brings me back. That was the inspiration. I wanted to create a fragrance with these beautiful soft florals, like peony, rose, and white tea, but also musk to balance it out. We wanted to create a scent that felt like an embrace, with a warmth to it.
15 Summer Fragrances That Will Mentally Teleport You to the Beach
