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Courtesy of Victoria Beckham Beauty Beauty Mind & Body Victoria Beckham on Polarizing Perfumes, Peptides, and “Staying in Love” Victoria Beckham on Polarizing Perfumes, Peptides, and “Staying in Love” Bazaar sits down with the fashion designer and beauty mogul to chat about her newest scent, Hotel Portofino, and why it’s a staple in the Beckham household
When David and Victoria Beckham wed in 1999, it was the nuptials (and matching purple outfits) heard around the world. If you’re wondering about the secret to 27 years of marriage, Victoria Beckham just hinted at the answer with her newest fragrance.
“While Portofino ’97 is all about falling in love and the rush of infatuation, Hotel Portofino is inspired by the same trip [David and I took] in 1997, but this is a new chapter about staying in love and the deeper echo of enduring love,” she tells Bazaar of her newest extrait fragrance in the Victoria Beckham Beauty lineup, Hotel Portofino extrait perfume. The scent features bergamot like its predecessor Portofino ’97, alongside saffron, incense, wild fig, and a pinot noir accord for a spicy, layered, and complex scent—the olfactory version of a realistic marriage, err, one with the longevity of 27 years.
“I think our fragrances are very unique, interesting, and undoubtedly ours; there’s a strangeness that is very on brand—it’s almost addictive, as well,” Beckham says. “To have something polarizing is a compliment because I would always rather be part of the conversation and have something interesting than something boring and safe.”
Ahead, Beckham tells us about the original Italian getaway that inspired the new scent, the wellness routine she and David do daily together, and the city that may inspire her next hit scent.
Oh my God, we love that. Well, then they will be very excited to know we’ve got lots more Portofino ’97 coming very soon—a hair mist, body lotion. We see so much potential in Portofino ’97. You know, the success of that fragrance has really blown us all away. We see it as a stand-alone franchise now, so I’m glad to hear that it’s gone down well in the office.
This is the first time that we have created an extrait, so it was a deliberate step up in craft. The longevity was very important to me, especially when you look at the storytelling from Portofino ’97 to Hotel Portofino. For me, it’s all about luxury. It’s about never compromising, and I think this is the ultimate in luxury—from the juice to how unique it is. But then you look at the bottle—how beautiful it looks in your bathroom and how it feels when you hold it—and it’s an item that you want to own. It feels like a piece of jewelry. Quality was always important, but we took it to a whole other level with this fragrance.
If something is polarizing, that’s a good thing. When I first smelled Portofino ‘97, for example, I put it down and was like, “My gosh, that’s really strange.” But then I picked it up again, and I put it down again, and then I picked it up, and then I could not stop—that’s how I fell in love with it. With Hotel Portofino, it’s deeper, woodier, and spicier. It’s important when working with Jérôme [Epinette] to be very honest to create ultimately what I want and what I desire. When I’m picking colors with fashion, for example, I like to pick colors and mix color palettes in a very unexpected way, and I think that ha…