Courtesy of Elizabeth Arden
Mariah Carey has topped the pop charts for almost two decades, and now she’s setting out to conquer the fragrance world with her first signature scent, M by Mariah. With the fragrance just hitting shelves, Mariah chatted a little about the process of making a scent with PEOPLE. Buy the fragrance for yourself, $63 at elizabetharden.com.
What was it like collaborating with Elizabeth Arden?
“It was so much fun working with Elizabeth Arden. I mean, I never expected such a huge corporation to feel like a family. and that’s what it feels like to me. Like every time I work with them, they’re so welcoming in terms of the concepts. If I have an idea or something that inspires me, there’s never a time where they’ve been like ‘No, we hate that.’ Every single person from Arden has been fabulous.”
Did you tell them what your favorite scents were?
“Before I went there, I told them some of my favorite smells, and I described the Tiare flower — and they actually knew what it was. They had never used it as a base for any person before. When I got there, there was this huge board of all the things that I said that I loved. The thing about the blue grotto, Capri, and just all these references that I had given them. The sunset. It looked like it was a done finished thing. I didn’t realize how next level it was going to be. It was really amazing.”
So then you went back and forth with the perfumers? Did it take a couple of tries?
Well, we went to a few different perfumers and every time we would test a different fragrance. It was very similar to writing and recording a song for me. And not everybody realizes that I write my own songs — and they definitely don’t realize that I produce them. It’s a process that I’m really used to. They have told me that no one has been this involved in creating their own fragrance before. So I was like ‘Oh, that’s cool.’”
Where do you spray the perfume?
What I do is I spray it — and then walk into it.
NEILL J. SCHUTZER/RAMEY 
