Rare Beauty’s First Fragrance Is Here — & I’m Obsessed

As much as I love the idea of smelling like a sexy cupcake, the truth is that most gourmand scents aren’t really my cup of tea. I’m all for intoxicating and warm, but heady and saccharine get a pass from me. I have a few fragrances that I genuinely love and reach for often — 7 Virtues Vanilla Woods and Gucci Flora Gorgeous Orchid being a couple of favourites — but a new bombshell has entered the villa, and her name is Rare.

When Selena Gomez announced her debut fine fragrance for Rare Beauty, I was intrigued and cautiously optimistic; I’m a genuine fan of the brand, and admit that there isn’t a Rare product that I haven’t tried and loved. Described as a “warm, spicy scent” with notes of vanilla, caramel, and sandalwood, the scent intrigued me. It’s admittedly hard to judge a fragrance from an on-paper description alone, but I was eager to test it nonetheless. Perhaps most notably, Rare Beauty also announced an accompanying suite of fragrance layering balms designed to be worn alone or with the Rare eau de parfum to customise the scent to the wearer.

To establish a control, I first embarked on wearing Rare alone to see how much I liked the juice itself before adding the balms. At first sniff, I definitely got that creme brûlée-y, vanilla scent, but it was more warm than sugary. However, as it dried down, I noticed that it was the nutty, woody notes that lingered most. (Also, it’s worth shouting out the bottle design; it was designed in partnership with certified hand therapists and a team of packaging engineers to be ergonomic and easier to dispense for those with limited mobility and dexterity.) 

Onto the layering balms — there are four in total, retailing for $34 apiece: Amber, Fresh, Floral, and Woody. While the names reflect some of the most popular categories in perfumery, each balm has a curated blend of notes and can be worn alone as its own fragrance. Unlike solid perfumes (which can be kind of Vaseline-y), these remind me of a silicone makeup primer in texture — clear, with a satiny-matte, dry-touch feel. 

As I tested each balm over the course of a (very good-smelling) week, I found that each one really transformed the Rare scent itself into something totally different. (This is a nerdy analogy, but it’s sort of like how the Pokémon Eevee can be evolved into a variety of different forms depending on the stone used.) I must be full of surprises lately, because my favourite of the bunch ended up being Amber, which has prominent notes of vanilla and candied amber. When paired with the Rare perfume, it truly felt like the olfactive equivalent of a warm hug with your favourite person, with a subtle hint of fresh cookies being baked in the background. Honourable mention went to Floral (again, not something I would’ve predicted), which was a youthful, bright blend of peony blossom that made me lean into my feminine side. (Bonus: I feel like the balms helped extend the wear of the fragrance itself – I couldn’t stop smelling my wrists throughout the whole day.) I almost preferred Fresh and Woody worn alone, but I can’t wait to experiment with layering the balms with other fragrances in my collection — the concept itself is a true joy for any perfume lover.

At $135 for a 50mL bottle, Rare is actually one of the more affordable scents in the prestige scent space. It’s a really elevated take on gourmands, and one that I personally haven’t stopped wearing ever since receiving it. Because it has such a warm, almost skin-like quality, it doesn’t feel seasonal or trend-focused; rather, it feels at once modern yet timeless – and that’s rare.