Two million people gather every Sunday morning for Deuxmoi’s “Sunday Spotted” segment on Instagram Stories, bright-eyed and eager to hear the latest—and juiciest—celebrity gossip. The pseudonymous operator, who has been described as “the real Gossip Girl,” started her account in 2013 as a place for the public to learn and dish about gossip, star sightings, and—for lack of a better word—tea.
True anonymity is hard to come by these days, with the internet making it so easy to share and reveal secrets. But Deuxmoi has built a business on celebrity gossip (including sold-out custom merchandise and a novel, Anon Pls., which is being adapted into a Max series) while keeping her real identity out of the spotlight. Though skincare, makeup, and the like are sometimes topics of discussion in her posts, it wasn’t until earlier this year that Deuxmoi made her first foray into the beauty world, launching a beach-inspired scent with indie fragrance brand Voyage et Cie. “Besides the fact that people want to know what celebrities smell like, there’s no synergy between my account and fragrances, to my audience,” Deuxmoi tells Bazaar. But the risk paid off: The fragrance, Plage, has already sold out three times.
Today, Deuxmoi is bringing it back permanently with the help of retailer Violet Grey. “She slid right into our email, so it was not lost on me that we were the ones getting a tip from the queen of insider intel,” says Violet Grey chief brand officer Sarah Brown.
Although celebrity fragrances seem to launch every week, what do gossip and perfume have to do with one another? We caught up with the Instagram mogul herself (off-camera, of course) to get the exclusive scoop on her fragrance and the juiciest details on all things celebrity beauty—including a rumor about a potential launch from Blake Lively.
Why enter the fragrance category and the beauty world in general?
I’ve done segments where we polled the audience on the fragrances they know celebrities wear. Many of the scents celebrities wear are well known—like, everyone knows what Taylor [Swift] wears. But I’ve had some people submit fragrances they’ve smelled on celebrities. A nice but funny one I remember was that one person who worked at the perfume counter at Nordstrom wrote in that Keith Urban smells amazing—although they’ll never divulge what he actually wears.
Is fragrance the biggest category you’re asked about?
Fragrance and skincare are the two categories above makeup. No one really asks about hair—it’s strange.
Have you ever been asked about celebs who smell bad?
We just did a whole segment on the feed where people submitted their interpretation of what celebrities that they’ve encountered smell like. It had nothing to do with perfumes—just smells. People went crazy for it. The descriptors that people used for celebrities were so funny. Someone said that Leonardo DiCaprio smelled like pancakes and syrup, and that Michael Fassbender smelled like sex, which totally tracks.
[For that segment] I also went through the Violet Grey website, and I picked out products that I thought were synonymous with certain celebrities, or that I would recommend for the celebrity based on their persona. I’m a sucker for Blake Lively, so I picked out a texture and thickening spray, which is related to Serena van der Woodsen, because she always wore those crazy fishtail braids. For Sarah Jessica Parker, I did a foot care product, because all you do is see her run around the city in heels. She has to take care of those little tootsies! Then for Bad Bunny, we picked a facial hair product, because he’s always well groomed.
How did you and the Violet Grey team get connected?
The real story is that the founder of Violet Grey, Cassandra Grey, reached out to me years ago—not for collab, but to give me advice from one female entrepreneur to the next and to provide mentorship. So we’ve been in touch for years. So many people think this is just a gossip account, but Cassandra was so intuitive and saw this as a celebrity news business, which is what it truly is. Then, when I started selling third-party products on my merch website, I reached out to Violet Grey and inquired about selling their product, too, like the Violet Grey makeup bags I love. After creating the fragrance with Voyage et Cie, I knew I wanted it to be sold in a retail space where people could experience and smell it for themselves. I thought Violet Grey was the perfect fit. A month later, they told me it was “Violet Code–approved.” I was so excited, because I’m actually a Violet Grey customer.
When you originally launched with Voyage et Cie, were you expecting the fragrance to sell out?
I sold direct-to-consumer three times in small drops, and we sold out all three times. I’m like a huge fragrance junkie, and love Voyage, which is why I partnered with them. I have so many of their perfume oils and candles, so I was confident in the product. I reached out to Melanie [Apple], who owns Voyage, and asked: “Would you ever want to make a fragrance?” I don’t even know what came over me that day. Voyage has been around since 2005 and has tons of celebrity clientele, even though Melanie doesn’t really talk about it that much. I flew to L.A. and brought all the discontinued perfume oils [I’d kept because I loved them]. Personally, I feel the whole suntan fragrance vibe is what I feel most confident and sexy wearing, and the old fragrances that I had collected were that vibe. That’s how we came up with Plage.
If you could pick any celebrity to wear Plage, who would it be?
That’s such a good question. Jennifer Aniston, for sure, because this fragrance is very beachy and she’s the ultimate California cool girl. Throughout the years, she’s had streaks in her hair, beachy waves, perfectly tan skin, so she always pops into my mind when I think about the beach. She also had a beachy fragrance, Beachscape, years ago.
So many celebrities have touched fragrance. Do you have a favorite celebrity scent from over the years?
I loved the Jennifer Aniston fragrance and Jennifer Lopez’s Glow. I don’t buy fragrances at department stores, but I bought those two in stores. I tend to go the more niche or luxury fragrance route, but those two stand the test of time. There are celebrities that I had no idea even had fragrances. For example, did you know that Lionel Richie had a fragrance? It’s actually not bad. I love Kate Moss’s Cosmoss. Then, obviously, there’s Paris Hilton, who is one of the most successful celeb fragrance creators of all time. I just reviewed a bunch of fragrances, and Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty fragrance is amazing. Out of the newer ones, Rihanna’s is definitely my favorite.
Is there a celeb you wish had a fragrance?
I’m going to sound like such a stalker, but: Blake Lively.
What type of scent would you imagine from Blake?
She likes to bake, so it would be sweet. Gourmands are so in right now, too. If you remember her website Preserve, I think that’s her vibe. That aesthetic is very specific. That was obviously a passion project for her, but that was the closest we’ve seen of her true vibe—aside from what we see on the red carpet, which is very Serena van der Woodsen–coded to me. Also, I just saw Ryan Reynolds post photos of their home and it looked very rustic, so I think a combination of sweet and rustic.
What’s the cool new celeb vacation spot? I’m sure you get DMs all the time about celebrities on vacation.
I do get so many sightings of celebrities on vacation. I try not to post them in real time, because I don’t know if they’re still there or not. I just got one for Britney Spears at Las Ventanas al Paraíso in Cabo. We get a lot of sightings at Nobu [Los Cabos] lately. Mexico, Turks and Caicos, and the Cayman Islands are the three big spots. But I have an app that is a catalog of all the “Sunday Spotted” postings from the past three years, and there’s a reader recommendations section on the app for restaurants, hotels, and resorts. What inspired that—and truly, the fragrance—is that people take my book Anon Pls. on vacation and tag the hotel or location. Someone wrote in and asked for a roundup of my followers’ favorite spots. That’s truly what inspired the app and the scent Plage.
Have you heard any celebrity beauty news that hasn’t been released yet? Or if not, what do you predict will be the next big celebrity line that isn’t out yet or hasn’t been announced?
Again with Blake Lively, but: Over quarantine, she was supposed to start a hair product line. I’m wondering if it’s still in the works and if it just hasn’t launched yet. All of the other ones I’ve heard of have been announced. Beyoncé’s hair line was another rumored one that I knew about before it launched—but then she announced it. I think the next category celebs tap [will be] something we aren’t familiar with, like nail polish or false eyelashes. Every other category has been done.
This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for length and clarity.
