“I’ll never forget the moment that David Letterman licked the body cream off my arm,” stated Jessica Simpson from her house workplace in Calabasas, California.
It was 2004 and the pop star was selling her first-ever private care line, an edible vary of lotions and shimmer powders known as Dessert Beauty, created by the entrepreneur Randi Shinder and endorsed by Simpson in a collection of extremely publicised Sephora visits. (Simpson informed People Magazine in 2006 and in our interview that she didn’t personal the model however “was just something that I was promoting and a part of endorsing.”) The line went bust in 2006, however Simpson admitted she nonetheless thinks about it “all the time” as an early lesson in magnificence advertising. “It taught me that people want to be complimented for smelling beautiful.”
Fans of Simpson’s everygirl magic will quickly have one other probability to scent like Simpson’s sugary desires. After a Lifetime film’s value of obstacles — substance habit, breakups, chapter — Simpson is re-entering the perfume market with Mystic Canyon, her first new scent since 2020. With notes of vanilla and orchid, Mystic Canyon retails for $35 for 30mL and $65 for 100mL. Parlux, the producer behind superstar scents for the likes of Billie Eilish and Drake as properly Simpson’s earlier line, is producing the vary.
When Simpson first launched an eau de parfum in 2008 — Jessica Simpson Fancy, impressed by a tune suggestion from the singer Willie Nelson — it made $6.5 million in eight weeks and helped increase Parlux’s backside line by 43 p.c, in response to earnings calls. But the market and its gamers have radically modified in these 12 years, and Simpson is going through competitors not simply from fellow pop idols but in addition from indie perfume homes with scents like Glossier You and Sol de Janeiro’s Cheirosa ’62 which have develop into as acquainted to Gen-Z consumers as Simpson’s pop songs had been to Millennials and Gen X.
Simpson isn’t deterred. “I’m going back to what works for me. This smells the way my emotions feel right now. That is always how my greatest successes have happened.”
A Mogul in the Making
Simpson was a media punching bag for a lot of her profession, derided as “dumb” by the identical males who wished thus far her and ladies who wished to decorate like her. “I was just very young and very enthusiastic, unguarded,” stated Simpson of her Y2K persona, which beamed into hundreds of thousands of homes first on MTV for her music after which by way of her actuality present “Newlyweds.” A now-infamous incident considering “chicken of the sea” wasn’t tuna however poultry sealed the deal on public opinion.
After Simpson’s first foray into magnificence with Dessert, she recorded one other album after which obtained dumped by her report label, Sony Nashville. “It was 2008 and I had the number one country album and still, they dropped me… that really made me just focus on the Jessica Simpson Collection and create that.” The model, created in partnership with style entrepreneur Vince Camuto, launched with cowboy boots impressed by her Dukes of Hazzard character Daisy Duke and Fancy, which spawned 5 spinoff fragrances. By 2014, it was producing a billion {dollars} in income.
After Camuto’s demise in 2015, the model was acquired by licensing firm Sequential Brands for $117.5 million in money. But below Sequential’s possession, the line faltered because of mismanagement and overlicensing. Sequential filed for chapter in August of 2021; in November of that 12 months, Simpson and her household purchased again her stake for $65 million.
Customers are nonetheless interested by Brand Simpson: Her candid 2020 memoir, Open Book, offered half 1,000,000 copies in 14 weeks, touchdown it on the New York Times bestseller listing. (The New Yorker known as it a “mesmerising account” of her spotlit life.) Simpson has about 10 million followers throughout social media platforms; her TikTok movies garner a median of 100,000 views, with some reaching hundreds of thousands. This isn’t a assure of perfume gross sales, but it surely is a sign that Simpson’s viewers is massive, engaged, and unfold throughout a number of channels, together with Instagram and YouTube.
Buying again her identify, says Simpson, represents part of rebuilding her life as an impartial grownup. “Even when I was [in rehab]I knew your name was the best thing you’ve got.”
Spurning the “Cool Factor”
Simpson is considered one of many superstar founders in magnificence. While Rhode and Rare Beauty, based by Hailey Bieber and Selena Gomez respectively, relaxation on premium positioning and a curated product edit, Simpson is used to working for the everywoman. She’s offered sneakers, purses, clothes and perfume offered by mass retailers at worth factors common consumers can afford.
“I’m a preacher’s daughter. My dad made $30,000 a year. I know what it’s like to go to discount stores and really search for something great. I knew if we made those great things for people, we would succeed,” she stated.
For Simpson’s model of magnificence, there’s an enormous alternative. Not at Sephora or Violet Grey however Walmart, Belk and JC Penney. And as a result of the Jessica Simpson Collection has established infrastructure at these mass hubs, she has a bonus over new magnificence manufacturers. Her crew already is aware of who to name about shelf area.
She stated she admires the likes of Ralph Lauren and Armani as a result of they’ve constructed broader life-style manufacturers with out dropping their identities, and she or he follows superstar luxurious manufacturers with curiosity. “But our goal was never to be at Fashion Week and to be the coolest brand. It was to be really relatable. And it doesn’t matter how famous you are,” she stated “We all are trying to save money right now!”
The Phoenix at Walmart
Once Simpson determined her new perfume could be “a signal flare” for the Jessica Simpson Collection model’s reemergence, she started engaged on a scent profile that may be approachable sufficient for the lots, however distinct sufficient that individuals would affiliate it with the singer herself.
“I’m single again,” she stated, referring to her latest divorce from soccer participant Eric Johnson. “So I’m thinking, what can I wear on a first date that will be memorable to somebody that I’m interested in?”
In addition to vanilla and creamy orchid, Mystic Canyon was impressed by the metallic twang of an previous guitar. The bottle takes cues from Simpson’s stash of classic jewelry, hammered silver and carved turquoise, most sourced from her house state of Texas.
“People say to me, ‘You’re country.’ But it’s not country music; it’s not country style or perfume. It’s Americana. It’s classic and it’s not one region. I’m making this fragrance line for all of us,” she stated.
Is there room for Simpson’s imaginative and prescient of 1 nation below vanilla bean accord? Simpson says her Calabasas associates take pleasure in it simply as a lot as her Texas household. She is assured consumers will, too. “It gives off a romantic, grounded feeling that gets you noticed a little, but not in an overpowering way,” she says. She additionally sees the model as being rooted equally in magnificence, attire and life-style, with a full house assortment together with wallpaper launching later this 12 months.
Simpson is cautious to level out that her perfume’s softness shouldn’t be confused for weak spot — or with a passive stance on turning into considered one of 2026’s most auspicious magnificence entrepreneurs.
“I love being the underdog,” she stated. “I love being the little engine, because I don’t lose endurance and I haven’t gotten to the top.”
She pauses. “Yet. Because the reality is, I would not have a business if I’d gotten everything I wanted as a celebrity.”
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