"It Becomes a Second Skin": Victoria Justice on Pop Star Perfume, Nostalgic Roles, and Her New Clean Scent

If you were born between roughly 1996 and 2002, you likely grew up seeing Victoria Justice’s name splashed across the TV screen in your family room. Whether you knew her from Nickelodeon’s Zoey 101 (my senior editors and directors, please rise) or Victorious (my hand is raised high in the air right now), Justice was the hallmark of cool-girl style—from the bright blue streaks in Lola Martinez’s hair to Tori Vega’s trendy L.A. outfits and long, blown-out, bouncy curls. But when I meet Justice over a call, I find the star in a much more relaxed state, wrapped up in a robe and ready to divulge the latest in her personal beauty journey: a brand-new fragrance venture called Naked Perfume.

The brand, launched in collaboration with longtime beauty founder Randi Shinder, almost felt fated as the two bonded over a shared passion for beauty and an unlikely health issue that linked them together. “We connected immediately over the fact that we both have Hashimoto's, which is an autoimmune disorder,” she tells Who What Wear. The disease, which happens when the immune system attacks healthy thyroid glands (according to Mayo Clinic), caused both women to approach beauty—especially the products they used on their skin (“It’s the largest organ on your body!” Justice says in exasperation later)—in a much different way.

“[Shinder] was telling me about how much it's affected her life… and how she wanted to create a fine fragrance that was not going to harm people in any way,” Justice explains. “Hearing that was like music to my ears. We both immediately locked in and said, ‘Well, we need to do this together.’” From there, Justice—who had taken a sad hiatus from perfume due to the adverse side effects it posed on her immune system—rejoined the world of fragrance wearers with Naked Perfume’s Honey Cream. “I've been wearing it all the time recently,” she divulges before raving about the fragrance’s alluringly sweet skin scent, made from a total of six ingredients that don’t read like science experiments.

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Keep reading for our entire catch-up with Justice, involving everything from her current fragrance obsessions to early memories on set, and how wellness continues to shape her approach to beauty, style, and life.

How do you feel about this exciting new venture?

I'm so, so, so excited. I wanted to create a brand for a long time, but I wasn't going to do anything unless it felt right, and it felt completely authentic to me. I'm just so passionate about Naked Perfume. I love the smell—it’s completely addicting—but the fact that I know that it's not going to harm people who put it on their bodies just makes it that much better.

We’re starting out with two scents, right?

Yes, we’re starting with two scents. The first one is Honey Cream, which is what I've been wearing all the time recently. It has honey, vanilla, and sweet cream notes, but it kind of just smells like a warm hug. It's very comforting, sweet, and beautiful without being overpowering. I think that's what I love most about naked perfume: that it becomes a second skin. It’s never going to be too strong or too much, which was one of the requirements for me.

Fresh Lather is our other scent, and it's gorgeous. It's just this clean, bubble-bath, soapy scent. It's just really fresh and clean and delicious. I love them both. And then there's even more to come, so this is just the beginning.

Break down these two scents for me. What scenarios are you spraying them for? What kind of moods do they put you in?

Right now, Honey Cream would be my go-to date-night scent because it's subtly sexy, inviting, and sweet. As soon as I spray it, I feel that boost of confidence, and the final step in my getting-ready process is complete. But Fresh Lather, to me, is an everyday scent. It feels like you're a working woman, you're out and about on the town, but you still want to feel clean.

The composition of this fragrance is deeply personal to you. Can you tell me why the idea behind going "naked" matters today?

People in general are becoming a lot more conscious. They're becoming more mindful of the things they put into and onto their bodies, and I think we're expecting more from brands. … So many fragrances have ingredients that we can't even pronounce, and we don't even know what they are. Ultimately, a lot of them are really harmful to women, our hormones, and our endocrine systems. That was really important to both Randi and me: creating a fine fragrance while being transparent about the ingredients and [that] there are zero hormone or endocrine disruptors.

When I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's, I became a lot more conscious of my lifestyle and the things I was putting into and onto my body. Fragrance is one of the things where I was like, “Okay, most of the perfumes that I like are harmful to my endocrine system and my hormones,” so I stopped wearing it for a while, which was a bummer because it becomes such a part of your identity.

I was looking for something in the clean-perfume space, and I reached out to my agent. As soon as I tried Honey Cream, I was addicted. I was wearing the sample every single day—I was completely obsessed with it. I loved that it wasn't too overpowering—it just felt sexy, warm, and inviting—and I also loved that all the ingredients were clean. I love the fact that it’s micellar water–based, that it comes from coconuts, [and] that it's naturally derived [and made with] natural aromas.

Now I’m a cofounder with [Shinder], and we've created multiple other scents that have yet to be revealed. We're working on some peptide perfumes—which is kinda top secret right now—but I'm very excited about that as well. … If we can help women in any way to not compromise their immune systems or deal with a thyroid disorder, we want to do that. It’s a fine fragrance that's better for you.

Wait, a peptide perfume?

Yes! We're definitely gonna be announcing more soon. There are a lot of other really exciting products to come, but right now, we’re launching with our first two babies.

I can’t wait. Taking it back a little, what are your earliest memories of beauty?

When I was younger, I loved playing dress-up with my friends. After Halloween, all the costumes would be 50% off, and my mom would buy so many amazing dress-up clothes for me and my friends. I remember putting on these little sequin dresses and my feather boa, standing in front of my little vanity, stealing my mom's lipstick, and applying it in the mirror. And my mom always wore blush, so I remember being in elementary school and begging her every day [to let me] put blush on, too.

Dress-up makeovers were everything. What about fragrance?

One of the first perfumes that I was either given for Christmas or that I bought was a Britney Spears fragrance called Curious. It was in this turquoise, diamond-looking bottle, and it had two pink heart charms on it. I just thought that was the coolest thing ever—I felt like the coolest girl ever having that perfume.

Having that perfume would, I think, make you the coolest girl ever. You were working on famous TV sets around that time as a teen—what were your beauty rituals like then?

Honestly, when I was doing Zoey 101 and Victorious, I didn't really have any crazy beauty rituals at all. The craziest thing is, my skin was so perfect at that age that I would come home and wash off my makeup from set with Softsoap. I didn't even use a normal face cleanser—I was so uninformed that I would just use hand soap, and it didn't matter. But I turned 20, got hit with Hashimoto’s, and was put on a thyroid hormone, which I believe activated adult cystic acne. From then on, I was definitely not using Softsoap anymore.

Skincare evolutions—we all go through 'em. Did you ever pick up beauty tips on set that you still use today?

Being introduced to individual lashes… as soon as I saw what those babies could do to make your eyes pop and take a look to the next level, I was like, “This is nice!”

We love a good lash. Speaking of sets, what do you think Lola Martinez [Zoey 101] and Tori Vega [Victorious] would smell like today?

For Lola, we have a fragrance that we're planning for this summer. It smells free. It's beachy, it’s sun-kissed—it smells like summer and wet skin. I think it's triggering sense memory because we filmed Zoey 101 at Pepperdine University in Malibu, so you're right by the ocean. We were always out in the sun and by the water, so I see her wearing this easy, breezy, summery scent.

And Tori Vega feels more classic to me. I could see her wearing either Honey Cream or Fresh Lather. I feel like she would oscillate between the two—maybe Fresh Lather when she was going to class at Hollywood Arts, and then I see Honey Cream when she's hitting the stage, performing, or doing something really creative and fun.

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