As make-up maven Charlotte Tilbury launches her first perfume, her muse and best friend, supermodel Kate Moss, speaks exclusively to HELLO!
Watching Kate Moss and make-up queen Charlotte Tilbury together reminds you of those ultra-cool and popular girls in school who you so wanted to be best friends with. With their heads bent forward in a gossipy, conspiratorial way, you long to lean in and be part of their crowd.
The enduring supermodel and the global beauty phenomenon have virtually grown up together in the fashion world. "Forever, a life time, I don't know!" laughs Kate when HELLO! beauty editor Nadine Baggott asks how long they've been bosom buddies.
Photo: Greg Williams
"Charlotte's always been around. Well, I have always been around. We would always meet when we were out, then it became more than just work."
So much so that there was never any doubt that Kate would star in the campaign for Charlotte's divine first fragrance. "I said yes because I was so excited," says Kate. "I've been there from the beginning, when Charlotte started doing her own product. I had to do it."
Heaven scent
The campaign for Scent of a Dream was, explains Kate, like re-creating a fun night out for the pair. Asked whether there was a highlight of the shoot, Kate, 42, says: "Oh, so many," before rhapsodising about a scene where she gets spun on a turntable.
Photo: Greg Williams
"It was at night, the last shot, everyone was running on adrenaline. It all came together at that moment – the music and everything – and it was really emotional.
"The music [You've Got the Love by The Source featuring Candi Staton] is such a classic. When we see each other and when we're dancing to it at a party and when you say, ‘You've got the love,' it's for real.
"I loved being with all those dancers. I knew a lot of them – it was Charlotte's family and old friends. Everyone was feeling really up for it. It's great to have that connection with people rather than being on set by myself.
Photo: Greg Williams
"We could have stayed there all night having a rave," adds the fun-loving mum of one.
The fragrance – with its accents of lemon, tuberose, jasmine, frankincense and patchouli – was inspired by Charlotte's childhood in Ibiza and her global travels making up the world's most famous and beautiful faces.
Says Charlotte: "When I met my ‘nose' I told him, ‘I want sexy, I want seduction but I also want sophistication. I want the sort of scent that makes a man fall in love with you and a woman want to be you.' Who doesn't want that?"
"Scents have the power to transport you," agrees Kate. "They trigger memories – Mexico 1989, New York 1992. I've worn a scent that my mum wears and friends have said, ‘Oh my God, what's that smell?' Because their mums used to wear it in the Seventies."
Photo: Antoine Wagner
For Charlotte, her debut scent had to be all about that emotional pathway between your sense of smell and your memories and emotions.
"I want to ignite people's senses. I want people to become intoxicated. Like make-up, scent is the universal key to attraction,” she says. "But be warned, it's addictive."
"I'm really excited about it – for everyone to be able to feel the euphoria," says Kate before dancing off to be with her friend.
Charlotte Tilbury's Scent of a Dream, priced from £49, is available from 15 August at charlottetilbury.com, Selfridges and Brown Thomas.
