thirteen fragrances in nine years, one of them a genuine phenomenon and several of them variations on it. what each one is actually going for, and where to start.
the short answer
she has released thirteen main fragrances since 2015, made under licence by luxe brands. cloud (2018) is the one that turned the line from a celebrity side project into one of the best-selling fragrance ranges in the world, and it is still the one to try first. if cloud is too sweet for you, mod vanilla is the warmer, quieter version of the same idea, and r.e.m. is the strangest thing in the range.
celebrity fragrance is a licensing business. the artist lends a name and a level of involvement that varies enormously, a fragrance house does the formulation, and a licensee manufactures and distributes it. hers is with luxe brands, and the reason the line is worth taking seriously rather than filing under merch is simply that it worked: cloud is one of the highest-selling fragrances of the last decade, celebrity-attached or not.
the whole line, in order
| fragrance | year | the idea |
|---|---|---|
| ari | 2015 | the debut. pink, fruity-floral, aimed squarely at the my everything audience. |
| sweet like candy | 2016 | gourmand, and unembarrassed about it. blackberry and marshmallow. |
| moonlight | 2017 | the first one that tries to be pretty rather than fun. peach and plum musk. |
| frankie | 2018 | unisex, named for her brother. the outlier in the range and the one nobody bought. |
| cloud | 2018 | lavender, pear, whipped praline, musk. the one that changed the business. |
| thank u, next | 2019 | the album as a scent. pink berries and a very loud vanilla. |
| r.e.m. | 2020 | the odd one. fig, salt and pear — closer to a niche fragrance than a pop one. |
| god is a woman | 2021 | the most grown-up of them. ambergris, sandalwood, a wet-stone freshness. |
| mod vanilla | 2022 | cloud with the sugar dialled down and the wood turned up. |
| cloud intense | 2022 | the same accord, denser and longer-lasting. a flanker, done properly. |
| mod blush | 2023 | peony and vanilla. the softest thing in the line. |
| cloud pink | 2023 | the fruity reading of cloud. raspberry over the same creamy base. |
| eternal sunshine | 2024 | tied to the album. cool, clean musk rather than another gourmand. |
cloud, and why it took over
cloud arrived in 2018, between sweetener and thank u, next — the eighteen months in which she went from a very famous pop star to an inescapable one. that timing helped. it is not what made it sell for eight years.
what made it sell is that it does not smell like a celebrity fragrance. the category convention at the time was fruit and clean florals over a synthetic musk, priced to move. cloud is a gourmand — lavender and pear at the top, whipped praline and coconut cream in the middle, a soft woody musk underneath — and it is legitimately well constructed. it also has enormous projection for its price, which is the single most reliable driver of word-of-mouth in perfume.
then the internet decided it was a dupe for baccarat rouge 540, the maison francis kurkdjian fragrance that costs roughly ten times as much. that comparison is overstated — br540 is saffron, jasmine and burnt-sugar amber, cloud is dessert and laundry — but the two share a sweet, ambery, everyone-asks-what-you-are-wearing signature, and the claim did more for cloud's sales than any campaign could have.
which one should you actually buy
- start with cloud if you have never tried any of them. it is the reference point for the whole range and the one everything else is measured against.
- mod vanilla if cloud reads as too sweet on you. same family, more wood, less sugar, and it sits closer to the skin.
- god is a woman if you want something you could wear to work. the least sweet thing in the line by a distance.
- r.e.m. if you like fragrance as an interest rather than as a product. fig and salt is not a mainstream idea and it is the one release here with any real strangeness in it.
- cloud pink or cloud intense only if you already know you like cloud. flankers are for people who have made up their mind.
- thank u, next if you are buying it because you love the record, which is a completely legitimate reason to buy a perfume and the one the whole category is built on.
r.e.m. beauty is not the perfume line
this catches people out constantly. r.e.m. is a 2020 fragrance in the range above. r.e.m. beauty, launched in november 2021, is a separate cosmetics brand — she is founder rather than licensor, and it sells make-up. the fragrances are sold as ariana grande fragrances; r.e.m. beauty sells its own products under its own name. two things, one word.
questions people ask
what is ariana grande's most popular perfume?
cloud, released in 2018, by a very large margin. it is the best-selling fragrance she has released and one of the best-selling celebrity fragrances ever made.
does cloud really smell like baccarat rouge 540?
not really. they share a sweet, ambery, high-projection character, which is why the comparison spread, but baccarat rouge 540 is built on saffron, jasmine and burnt sugar while cloud is a praline-and-coconut gourmand. they are recognisably different fragrances at any distance closer than a corridor.
how many perfumes does ariana grande have?
thirteen main releases between 2015 and 2024, plus flankers and limited editions that come and go. the full list, in order, is in the table above.
is r.e.m. beauty the same as her perfume line?
no. r.e.m. beauty is a cosmetics brand she founded in 2021. r.e.m. is also the name of a 2020 fragrance in her perfume line, which is where the confusion comes from, but they are separate businesses.
who makes ariana grande's perfumes?
luxe brands, under licence. that is the normal arrangement for celebrity fragrance — the artist lends the name and a degree of creative involvement, and a licensee handles formulation, manufacture and distribution.