Austin Butler's evolution from tween heartthrob to full-blown beauty icon is unfolding before our very eyes.
The actor, who got his start playing Disney and Nickelodeon love interests like Derek Hanson (Hannah Montana) and James Garrett (Zoey 101), joined a new class of Hollywood heavyweights when, in 2019, he was cast as the famously handsome Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s biopic on the King of Rock 'n' Roll. As Butler forges on from the triumph that was Elvis — a performance that earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor — he takes on a new role: YSL Beauty ambassador.
To kick off the partnership, Butler stars as the face of YSL's new fragrance, MYSLF, formulated as an ode to the orange blossom by perfumers Daniela Andrier, Christophe Raynaud, and Antoine Maisondieu.
The pairing seems something like kismet. "When I was a kid, we had this orange tree in our backyard," Butler says over the phone. "My mom and I used to go out and we'd pick the oranges... I have such good, vivid memories of being five years old with my mom in the backyard, and the smell of orange blossoms and oranges. That really is one of my earliest memories." Unbeknownst to the perfumers, of course, the scent would bring Butler right back. "It's one of those serendipitous things where when I smelled it, I thought, 'Hey, what is that smell?'" he says. "Then I realized it reminded me of being a kid in my backyard."
Butler's affinity for fragrance stretches as far back as his orange-picking days. As a child, he would sneak into his parents bedroom and spray himself with his mom and dad's fragrances. "[It was] a way I could carry them with me throughout the day when I went to school."
Today, Butler still dabbles in scent — he has a few fragrances on rotation that he'll wear according to the mood he wants to set for the day. "It's the same as choosing what to wear," he says. Butler also uses scent on the job. "[Fragrance is] a way of breaking through your conscious mind and eliciting things from your memories and your subconscious. I find it really valuable when I'm exploring a certain character."
While the scent of orange blossom might transport Butler to his childhood backyard, it will likely evoke something different for you. There’s a subjectivity to scent, and beauty in general, that Butler takes care to point out: “I've realized more and more that beauty is related to the lens with which we view the world.”
