New Beauty Rules: Dua Lipa Is the Face of Yves Saint Laurent’s Latest Fragrance

While Dua Lipa was growing up between Kosovo and London—long before her career-making set at Glastonbury two years ago, or her Best New Artist nod at the Grammy Awards in February—she developed a bad habit. “I used to bite my nails,” the now 23-year-old confesses. Holed up in a Los Angeles studio in Laurel Canyon, where she is recording her highly anticipated sophomore album—a follow-up to 2017’s chart-topping self-titled debut—Lipa’s perfectly polished acrylic tips tell a different story. “I love nails now. Big, big fan,” the British-Albanian pop star says by way of explaining that she has stared down her early beauty demons, which also included a brief fragrance tryst with Curious by Britney Spears. These days, Lipa’s manicurist, Michelle Humphrey, changes up her nail designs every two weeks when she’s in London, much to the thrill of her more than 30 million Instagram followers. Her signature scent also just got a big upgrade.

Lipa is the new face of Yves Saint Laurent Libre, a gender-bending riff on fougère, the traditionally masculine fragrance category that is heavy on herbaceous lavender and earthy oakmoss. Thanks to an infusion of hyperconcentrated Moroccan orange blossom, and a proprietary note exclusive to YSL called—wait for it—Diva Lavender, which isolates the freshest elements of the aromatic purple flower, any overt muskiness is effectively tempered. The perfume, which stops just short of being billed as a unisex offering, is a nod to the sexy independent streak of Saint Laurent’s boldest designs, and a duality the singer can get behind.“I am not a high-maintenance person,” Lipa insists, distancing herself from the pop-diva archetype, which she has successfully avoided since exploding onto the scene with her breakout single “New Rules,” the tropical house track that surpassed one billion streams on Spotify last fall. She is just as comfortable makeup-free in a Vetements sweatshirt dress as she is in a heavy lash and Christopher Kane’s lace-and-satin gown, which she wore to this year’s Brit Awards a mere 48 hours after its fall runway debut. It’s the kind of fluidity that Libre seeks to bottle, and that has helped make Lipa a beauty icon for a new generation.

Born in the U.K. to Albanian immigrants who fled the country in 1992 during the turmoil in the Balkans, Lipa grew up in Northwest London where her parents held service jobs to make ends meet. They returned to Kosovo when she was 11, and after a few years, Lipa campaigned to return to London so she could attend the Sylvia Young Theatre School, the legendary performing arts academy that counts Amy Winehouse and Rita Ora as alumnae. When she was 15 her parents agreed, and she moved back, alone, to live with a family friend. In those days, it was all oversize T-shirts, leggings, UGGs, and “streaky foundation,” Lipa recalls with a shudder, admitting that it has taken her a while to find her look—which hinges on a black, angular bob—and her sound. She owes her record deal to some good digital-era networking (interest in her demos on Twitter and a few fortuitous DMs led her to a music lawyer, who ultimately made the connection to Ben Mawson, Lana Del Rey’s manager); but it’s the husky, deep vocals that can be heard on such anthemic hits as “Be the One” and “IDGAF” that set Lipa apart from the indistinguishable monotony of Top 40 radio playlists. Hers was the only voice that super-producer Mark Ronson says could “convey the emotion, sultriness, and diva shit” on “Electricity,” the addictive electronic track Ronson coproduced with Diplo that won Lipa her second Grammy of the year for Best Dance Recording. Lipa’s complete mastery of the material warrants Ronson’s use of the D word, but there is very little else about her that feels entitled or aloof. “When people started stopping me for pictures, I thought I had to wear makeup to look decent. Then I started caring too much about what I looked like, and decided I didn’t want to care,” she reveals. “If I’m looking tired it’s because I am working and I’m happy to be working. If I have a breakout, I have a breakout. These things make me who I am.”

At the moment, Lipa has no plans to follow Rihanna and Lady Gaga into that other 21st-century pop-star archetype: makeup mogul. She’s too busy anyway—performing, recording (among the rumored projects: taking on the theme song for Cary Fukunaga’s highly anticipated Bond 25), and enjoying the relative calm before her new album drops next year. In June she attended Glastonbury again, this time as a fan, to dance and sing along “too loud” to Janet Jackson, Miley Cyrus, and Kylie Minogue. Nearly bare-faced and wearing a bedazzled bralette and oversize track pants, she might have gone unnoticed among the half-naked throngs, were it not for the trail of orange blossom, lavender, and oakmoss scenting the air in her wake.

Originally Appeared on Vogue