Adria Arjona is Getting Personal

You smell good. To any budding beauty enthusiast, these words are a rite of passage. Being complimented on your scent for the first time is a proud moment—a small but significant achievement in successfully curating your tastes. For actor Adria Arjona, that memory is tied not to a perfume but to Moroccanoil’s Treatment Original, the fan-favourite argan oil hair serum with a Mediterranean-inspired aroma. She’s had a special association with the scent ever since. “Fragrance is so exploratory,” she reflects. “When you’re young, it’s one of the first things you figure out about what works with your body.”

On the day we meet in an airy Brooklyn studio, she smells of florals, woody notes and warm amber. Familiar yet fresh, it’s not overpowering but rather comes through in welcome whiffs as she stands to shake my hand. It’s Moroccanoil’s L’Originale Eau de Parfum — the brand’s first-ever perfume — of which Adria Arjona is the face.

Born in Puerto Rico, Arjona first experimented with baby cologne, or “Violetas”, to stay refreshed in humid weather. “It’s very Latin,” she says. “It’s ingrained in my culture.” She also recalls the canon tween event of overdoing it with cucumber melon body spray from the mall. (“Dark times.”) But the most constant scent in her regimen came from Moroccanoil’s hero hair product. And over a decade later, it’s finally being released in perfume form.

For many — including Arjona — the scent is both sophisticated and nostalgic. According to co-founder Carmen Tal, this is precisely the idea. The entrepreneur can’t even pinpoint the first time someone asked her to make a Moroccanoil perfume. “It’s just been constant,” she says of the request over the years. The now-iconic scent, and its warm, exotic essence, has become a staple of the brand’s identity, garnering compliments long before it entered the category.

Capturing the atmosphere of calming beach days and balmy summer nights, the eau de parfum is inspired by the brand’s fan-favourite aroma. Top notes include violet and soft citrus, with a heart of lily of the valley and sheer vanilla. The base is white sandalwood, ethereal musk and spicy amber. Building on years of beloved beauty moments, the goal is to transport the wearer, with a tagline that reads, “Where will it take you?"

Why the wanderlust theme? “Life is full of experiences,” Tal begins. “People should always take journeys and dream about something.” She adds that perfume can take you anywhere — from a happy memory to your favourite city. “I hope people spray it on and just dream and feel themselves becoming whatever they want to be.”

This rings true for Arjona, who now uses fragrances in all facets of her life. Case in point: the first thing she does to prepare for a new role — whether it’s Hitman’s Madison or Andor’s Bix — is to find her character’s signature scent, she says. Much like how perfumes help her embody her onscreen counterparts, her current go-to in Moroccanoil’s L’Originale coincides with a new personal era. “It’s simple, warm, calm,” she says of this stage in her life. “I’m 32 and coming into my own. I’m figuring shit out.” And these days, she knows she smells good.