Dua Lipa Hosted a Fiery Launch Party for YSL Beauté’s Latest Fragrance

On Monday night, a blend of beauty and music industry giants swarmed to a warehouse in Hudson Yards’ backyard to celebrate the latest fragrance from YSL Beauté. The perfume, named Libre, is campaigned by Dua Lipa, who was also in attendance.

VIPs including Anwar Hadid (Dua’s love interest du jour), Kaitlynn Carter, and Diplo also turned up to the industrial space, which was ornamented in the fragrance’s signature motifs—a honey gold YSL logo was emblazoned at the entrance, and a gargantuan installation of the word “LIBRE” was just beyond it. The fragrance’s notes, orange blossom and lavender, were imbued throughout the event—orange trees and lavender blooms framed the space, while orange-blossom margaritas and sparkling lavender lemonades rotated across the cocktail bar. One could have referred to the event as “fire” as there were flames flickering all about—an element pulled from Dua Lipa’s sultry campaign photos.

Firey basins dotted the black carpet as guests arrived before torching marshmallows over an open flame at the Dominique Ansel outpost overlooking the Hudson River. The Libre bottles themselves were on display at a spritzing station, where fragrance experts could answer questions. All in all, photo ops were abundant.

Partygoers were inspired to speak to the concept of libre (the French word for “free”) through an interactive, inscribable wall, which offered the prompt: “I am free to_.” By the end of the evening, inscriptions included “Live my dreams,” “Be mYSLf,” and “run the world”—all in varying sizes and languages.

“It’s about the freedom to be your authentic self; to express who you are with no constraints. Libre is about being free to do what you want, when you want, with whom you want,” said Doreen Arbel of YSL Beauté. “Dua is such a perfect representation of this.” Added Lipa, the “New Rules” songstress, who was donning Saint Laurent from head to toe for her toast at the culmination of the evening: “I am so, so proud of this project.”

Mr. Yves Saint Laurent himself always took a front seat in liberating women, from converting the tuxedo into an alluring staple of women’s evening wear to conceptualizing a proactive miniskirt made for those on the move—in his words, he was “allow[ing] women to access a world of freedom that was prohibited to them until then.” Consider Libre a continuation of this very mission.