Emily Weiss has been thinking a lot about martinis. Not about drinking them, but how they’re made. “You can get a classic martini that’s just like pure vodka, right?” she says. “Then you can get a dirty martini with olive juice. A martini with a lemon twist. A martini with lychee. A martini with espresso. You have all these different versions of basically a glass of vodka.”
Weiss has been thinking about these cocktails in the context of her smash-success perfume, Glossier You. If the original Glossier You is a classic martini, then her two newest scents, Glossier Rêve and Glossier Doux, are martinis with a twist.
Both Rêve and Doux have the same base notes as the first Glossier You—ambrette and ambrox, which lend a musky, warm, and animalic quality to the scents. Like a dirty martini versus a lemon drop, the base is where the similarities end. Rêve, which means dream in French, is an airy gourmand with buttercream at the top and plum butter, toasted almond, iris, and sandalwood at the heart. “It’s not edible-smelling in a sweet, heavy way,” says perfumer Frank Voelkl, who also made the original in collaboration with perfumer Dora Baghriche. “It’s more fluffy, more light.” Doux, on the other hand, is a woodsy scent, with violet at the top and palo santo, frankincense, and myrrh in the middle; it lives up to its name, which means soft. “[We wanted] to go to a mood that inspires confidence,” Voelkl says. “It’s more serene, more grounded.”
Each perfume still keeps You’s spirit, where the ambrox and ambrette mingle with pink pepper and iris. “It’s definitely a challenging exercise to stay within a [fragrance] DNA, yet still be very different,” Voelkl says. “I’m really excited about where we got with these two scents, because I really think we achieved keeping the base note, [yet] creating something completely new.”
For Weiss, each scent represents something totally unique. “Glossier Rêve is kind of this heady, almost bacchanalian night out,” Weiss says. “For me, it’s a sexy, sweet, petty, rich, nighttime moment. It would have been very brat summer. It would have been very Julia Fox. It would have been very Charli XCX. It’s like an Alaïa, Pieter Mulier woman. She’s showing nipple. She’s braless.”
If Rêve is a hedonistic night on the town, Doux is much more subdued. “When I think of quiet luxury, that’s Glossier Doux,” Weiss says. “It’s the Toteme, the Row, the Khaite girl. When I think of Glossier Doux, I think of cashmere and marble, a lot of woods, and this duality of hard and soft.” Rêve is your third espresso martini at 1 A.M., and Doux is a single Gibson martini—stirred.
Though they have big personalities, Doux and Rêve are both skin scents, perfumes with minimal projection that are meant to be smelled at close range. Skin scents have been having a bit of a moment lately on TikTok, largely thanks to the original Glossier You, which was many people’s introduction to the category. “They are really becoming a part of you,” Voelkl says. “They are not meant to be extremely outgoing.”
As Glossier nears its 10-year anniversary, Doux and Rêve are its first foray into the extended You universe. As for what’s next? It sounds like the brand might be stocking its bar cart. Until then, keep reading for five ELLE beauty editors’ thoughts on how the new fragrances smell on them. The two scents will be available to purchase on October 3.
Glossier Doux
Kathleen Hou, beauty director: “If Rêve is a nighttime scent, Doux is a daytime scent. It smells like sunlight in a dry forest, with a woodsy, powdery feeling. It smells like someone who loves a pressed flower bookmark (me), is allergic to wool and must wear cashmere (me), and who hates the cold (also me).”
Katie Berohn, beauty editor: “Doux is my ideal version of Glossier You. It’s creamy and spicy, and I love how it smells on me. It’s like a spice cake in a bottle. This is a scent that could easily become a signature for me. It’s like if your favorite cashmere sweater was distilled into a fragrance.”
Nerisha Penrose, beauty commerce editor: “Doux smells like the OG Glossier You wandered into a desert and found some worthy companions to help it find a home. The most captivating note here is musk, which dances around a blend of earthy woods and a hint of smoke, and deepens as it settles. The final dance, however, is a sweet, delicate step led by violet.”
Carol Lee, associate beauty commerce editor: “My fragrance tastes have evolved significantly over the past year, and the ones that appeal to me most right now are skin scents with a powdery, slightly spicy quality to them. It’s almost like Glossier peered into my head and my heart, because Doux fits the bill to a tee. Doux possesses everything I love about Glossier You, but it somehow feels more like me as I am today.”
Tasha Smith, beauty assistant: “Doux reminds me of everything that I love about autumn. The sweet yet spicy aroma feels like being bundled up in a sweater as a cool breeze passes by, signaling a season of endless possibilities. To me, this scent signifies everything I love about Glossier You, the individual experience of a fragrance. I’m able to get the sweetness that I love with the powdery top notes, but the notes of palo santo and musk pull me in and leave me wanting more.”
Glossier Rêve
Kathleen Hou, beauty director: “There’s that saying about a ‘freak in the sheets, lady on the street.’ I think this fragrance is the inverse of that: a freak on the street, lady in the sheets. In the first spray of Rêve, I was smelling raspberry and metals, maybe with a faint whiff of parchment. In accordance with Emily’s description, maybe a woman with nipple rings, who likes to write poetry by hand, and favors muddled raspberry cocktails? A woman we’d like to know! But as it wore over time, the scent became cozier and started smelling more like cuddling after sex. It smells like a toasted, warmer version of Glossier You, giving the vibe of warm laundry, straight from the dryer. Maybe it’s freshly laundered clothes after a night out, that still hold just the slightest whiff of cigarette smoke.”
Katie Berohn, beauty editor: “To me, Rêve is a warm, almost papery scent—it smells like sugared flower petals on me, but it gets deeper as it settles a bit. It’s definitely a sweet scent, and the buttercream note gives it a plum cake-like quality.”
Nerisha Penrose, beauty commerce editor: “Dark and sultry, it makes sense that plum is at the heart of this gourmand delight. Rêve feels like the first brush of your favorite cashmere sweater on a crisp autumn morning; it’s warm and soothing and caresses the skin with a touch of vanilla, almost inviting you to hug yourself to maintain warmth.”
Carol Lee, associate beauty commerce editor: “The first note that hits me is the plum—Rêve is an unapologetically sweet fragrance that reminds me of my favorite Japanese fruit gummies. That doesn’t mean it lacks depth or complexity; as it wears on the skin, floral iris and woody sandalwood also make an appearance, giving it a more sophisticated vibe than the fruity body sprays of middle-school locker rooms.”
Tasha Smith, beauty assistant: “Don’t let the sweetness of this scent fool you. There’s an unexpected complexity that shines through with this iteration of Glossier You. The sugary smell of Rêve as it hits my nose feels soft—almost Play-Doh-y—on the surface but is quickly elevated by the deep richness of plum that swirls as the fragrance dries on my skin. It’s equal parts complex, youthful, and alluring. It feels both aspirational and nostalgic.”
Katie Berohn is the Beauty Assistant at Good Housekeeping, Woman’s Day and Prevention magazines, all part of the Hearst Lifestyle Group. She graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder, with a major in journalism and minor in technology, arts, and media, and earned her Master’s Degree at NYU’s Graduate Program of Magazine Journalism. In addition, Katie has held editorial internships at Denver Life Magazine, Yoga Journal, and Cosmopolitan, a digital editorial internship at New York Magazine’s The Cut, a social good fellowship at Mashable, and has freelanced for HelloGiggles. _When she’s not obsessing over the latest skincare launch or continuing her endless search for the perfect shade of red nail polish, Katie can be found in a hot yoga class, trying everything on the menu at New York’s newest restaurant, or hanging out at a trendy wine bar with her friends.