Lionel Richie has launched two Hello fragrances, one for women and the other for men.
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https://scmp.com/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/article/3075364/lionel-richie-and-perfume-singer-releases-hello-his-own Fashion & Beauty
Lionel Richie and … perfume? Singer releases Hello, his own fragrance for men and women
- The latest celebrity to release a fragrance, Lionel Richie says his were inspired by the gardens of his Beverly Hills area home
- The singer, who launched the perfumes at trendy Los Angeles restaurant Ysabel, says the decision to make a perfume was ‘right on point’
Lionel Richie has launched two Hello fragrances, one for women and the other for men. Photo: Arnold Turner/Getty Images
Lionel Richie stood half-hidden in the background as a video of his many accomplishments unspooled on a large screen. First, it was Richie the global superstar, entertaining hundreds of thousands of people at vast stadiums. Then, it was Richie the philanthropist, working with Britain’s Prince Charles’ The Prince’s Trust.
And then it was Richie in his latest incarnation – the perfumer, sauntering through his elegant gardens at home, from where much of the inspiration for his new fragrances came.
“It’s like a great song,” Richie says in the voice-over. “It’s a search for the right set of notes. This journey has brought me back home where the notes have been waiting this whole time.”
As the video wound down, Richie appeared from stage left, to rousing applause, his arms outstretched, every inch the showman.
The pre-happy hour shindig, at trendy Los Angeles restaurant Ysabel, was held to celebrate the launch of Richie’s two Hello fragrances, one for women and the other for men. The man himself, impossibly youthful-looking at 70, stood on a terraced seating area on the covered patio and beamed broadly at the gathering
The first question he answered was the one uppermost in everyone’s mind: why?
“It’s so right on point, as far as I’m concerned,” said Richie, who is the latest in a line of celebs launching perfumes, clothing and anything else they can conceivably get away with. “I got you through school, I got you engaged and married. I just forgot to go home with you.”
Richie is, of course, referring to his instantly recognisable body of work, the songs that have withstood time and transcended generations, ever since those first hits in the 1970s with The Commodores.
In his solo career, there was hit after hit through the 1980s and 1990s, including the plaintive Hello, after which his debut fragrances are named. The charismatic singer likes to joke in interviews that for decades, people have walked down the aisle to his songs, have conceived babies to them, and walked their own children down the aisle with him crooning on a recording in the background.
“There are songs that I have that are so familiar … how do I get it to the next level?” He said. “Well, the next level for me was creativity. And for me, creativity never stops with just one thing.”
Richie, who was accompanied at the launch by his blogger girlfriend Lisa Parigi, was not embarrassed to admit that he had to go back to the drawing board before becoming Hollywood’s next fragrance entrepreneur.
“I had to learn some things,” he said. “I had to actually sit down in a lab and had them teach me about fragrances.”
Julissa Bermudez (left) was one of the attendees at Lionel Richie’s fragrance launch at Ysabel. Photo: Arnold Turner/Getty Images
It was the sheer array of options, he said, that threw him for a loop.
“In the music business, there are only 12 notes. In the fragrance business … I could drive myself crazy. You have an open palate for whatever you want to do. I’m a Gemini – you do not give us too many choices. They only gave me about a million ways to make these fragrances.”
Still, instead of sitting in a lab concocting scents, his collaborators came up with a better idea; they suggested a walk in the garden of Richie’s splendid Beverly Hills area home, with its lush, quiet gardens. They asked him, “What do you have in this garden that you love to smell?” He pointed out some lavender and orange here, some tuberose and pear there.
“I started realising, ‘Let’s start here’,” he said. “We narrowed it down, and then we started playing with notes.”
Hello, Lionel Richie's fragrance line.
The Eau de Parfum for women has a light, fruity sensibility, and is made with pear, lemon, grapefruit and pink pepper white flower, as well as jasmine and tuberose, honey and patchouli. The men’s version, an Eau de Toilette, is made with bergamot, grapefruit, mint, cashmeran and vetiver.
The experience of perfume-making and fragrance-brand building has been such a fun one for the superstar that he says there are more in the works.
“At this stage, it’s like having your first performance,” he enthused. “You walk out on stage and you’re not quite sure if you like this job or not and then you realise it’s not a job. Once I found I could actually create this, that it’s my fragrance and we could expand on it, oh my God, are we in for a journey. We’re just getting started.”