Over the past few years, Charli D’Amelio has become a household name, amassing 146 million TikTok followers and counting, starring in her own reality TV show on Hulu, and becoming a mogul within the beauty industry. In 2020, the TikTok star and her sister Dixie D’Amelio became the faces of Morphe’s GenZ-centric makeup line Morphe 2. The same year, the sister duo launched a nail polish line with Orosa Beauty. You can also find an array of ‘get-ready-with-me’s’ and ‘my favorites’-style beauty vids on her social channels. But fragrance is a new frontier for D’Amelio.
On a recent phone call, the 18-year-old said she’s never had a signature fragrance, but was always jealous when her mom and dad would spritz on their go-to scents before a night out. Now, she has created one of her own, with Born Dreamer, currently available at Ulta.
The process to create the scent took a full two years. D’Amelio said she flew to the south of France to meet with experts and test an array of scent blends before landing on the combination that is now Born Dreamer. “For me, fragrance is something that I’ve grown to love and to learn about. It’s just been such an incredible thing to hear how it works and how much goes into developing a fragrance,” D’Amelio said.
Born Dreamer is comprised of fruity floral top notes and skin musk base notes so that the fragrance is amplified differently with each user’s natural aroma. “It’s individual to each and every person,” explained D’Amelio. She describes the fragrance as a clean, confidence-boosting scent. When asked what TikTok sound it would be, she explained it would be one of the ones added to the background of “extra clean, simple aesthetic videos.” “I just think that kind goes hand in hand with the fragrance.”
One of D’Amelio’s goals in creating the scent was to inspire people to reach their goals and achieve their dreams. For the original promotion, D’Amelio created a TikTok that users could stitch and film themselves, inviting them to share their dreams. She chose several people who fronted the social media campaign for the fragrance’s launch, including makeup content creator Melz Morales and model Lori Ann.
“I could have put a casting out to people that are professional models or people that do campaign shoots,” D’Amelio said. “But to me, I wanted this to be a little bit different. I wanted to hear from people that don’t do this for a living, their real thoughts…I think I’ve been able to develop a little bit more of a relationship with the fragrance by hearing what they think about it.” D’Amelio hopes to continue exploring new scents and perhaps expand the Born Dreamer collection.
The Born Dreamer Eau de Toilette by Charli D’Amelio is now on sale at Ulta for $48 and the refill is on sale for $35.
Emily Burns is the assistant beauty editor at ELLE Magazine. When she’s not writing, she’s probably drinking an Aperol spritz and cuddling with her cat Wednesday….or scheming how to date Pete Davidson.