I Wasn't Allowed to Wear Perfume, so I Created This Viral, Compliment-Inducing Scent

The Lineup is a monthly series where we're giving you an inside peek at the beauty lineups of the most sought-after experts and tastemakers in the industry. Get ready for a behind-the-scenes look at all the can't-live-without products that make their worlds go 'round.

Perfume was the product that sparked my love affair with beauty. In elementary school, going to the mall and browsing the fragrances at Macy's, Bath & Body Works, and Victoria's Secret became one of my favorite hobbies. I started building my collection, and soon my dresser was decorated with countless perfume bottles. But DedCool founder Carina Chaz had a very different introduction to the world of fragrance. "As a kid, I wasn't allowed to wear conventional perfumes," the founder of the sustainable fragrance brand says. "So I started creating my own. At 13, I made my first fragrance—Taunt ($90)—which still exists in our line today and is one of our best sellers."

Chaz started DedCool as a passion project in 2016 when she was only 21 years old. "By this time, I'd been making scents for myself and friends for years and finally decided to share them online," she says. "I wanted to challenge the binary, overly polished norms of the luxury fragrance world with something genderless, clean, and expressive." This scrappy start-up began with a little bit of savings, DIY labels, and stock bottles, and nine years later, it has become a best-selling fragrance brand whose latest launch—Mochi Milk ($90)—garnered a wait-list of thousands.

So what exactly launched DedCool into social media virality and onto the best-seller list? If you guessed XtraMilk ($90), you'd be right. According to Chaz, this creamy, musky scent is just what the community asked for. "People loved the original Milk ($90) but wanted something a little stronger and longer-lasting, so we built on that," she explains. "It still has that cozy, skin-like vibe, but with more depth and staying power." Chaz went on to tell me this ultra-personal and easily wearable scent embodies her brand's ethos as a whole. "DedCool is about creating your own vibe, not following someone else's," she says. "I want to empower people to wear scent however they want, wherever they want, and to see it as part of their everyday life, not just a finishing touch." Preach. Considering Chaz's über-popular fragrances, I had a feeling she had some other cool-girl beauty recs to share, so I asked her to spill them all below. Keep scrolling to shop her favorites, from glass-skin serum to her go-to brow gel to the spray she calls a skin savior.