Jaclyn Smith is launching a new fragrance with HSN, and it’s inspired by some of her favorite people and things.
“I’m thrilled with it,” the Charlie’s Angels star, 78, tells PEOPLE of her new JACKIE by Jaclyn Smith fragrance, officially launching on July 24.
“It’s authentic to me. It’s from my heart [and for] my family, especially my mother who introduced me to fragrances as a young girl. She loved fragrance, and the fragrance she wore would be reminiscent of this one. It’s from my travels, my garden. This has been really exciting for me.”
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Smith’s new fragrance was also influenced by a romantic gift from her husband, Brad Allen, years ago, that he got her on a trip to France. She says he surprised her by taking her to a little shop where she was able to mix her own fragrant oils into one scent that was uniquely her own.
“I came up with a fragrance that I liked, and I wore it for maybe 15 years, but then I couldn’t get the oils anymore,” she says. “So when the opportunity came up to create my own fragrance, I knew I wanted to recreate something I had done years ago in a true fragrance, not as an oil.”
The result is JACKIE by Jaclyn Smith, which she says took at least 50 tries to get exactly right. The 3.4-ounce bottle, which retails for $75, has top notes of bergamot, aldehydes and amber, heart notes of ylang-ylang, orris and French rose and base notes of earthy musk, sandalwood and heliotrope.
Before landing on the right combo, Smith says she would wear all the notes separately to really understand how each one smelled, and then she worked on combining them. The final product is exactly how she dreamed it would be — and not only is her husband happy with the outcome, but so is Smith’s granddaughter Bea, 7.
Smith wrote on Instagram on June 27 that Bea was also one of her inspirations for the fragrance, because her young granddaughter revealed in a school project that her grandmother (whom she affectionately calls “Mimi”) smells so good!
“That was one of the best compliments I’ve ever gotten,” Smith tells PEOPLE. “You know what I mean? It’s not usual for a little girl at that age to tune into a very personal part of me. My daughter goes, ‘Mom, Mom, I got to step up my game!'”
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Much like the way Bea gushes over Smith for her delightful scent, Smith also has fond memories of her childhood and the perfumes her mother, Margaret Ellen Hartsfield, used to wear. Smith says her go-tos were Guerlain’s Shalimar and Jicky — she was rarely without one or the other.
“Fragrance was always a part of my young life because she loved it,” Smith says. “I just always associate scent with my mother because our home was filled with fragrance. And when she’d come visit me, I’d help her unpack, and the scent would be in her suitcase.”
While recalling fond memories of her mother, Smith briefly pauses, then shares, “Fragrance sort of speaks before you speak, and it leaves memory. I love that it leaves a memory.”
Get JACKIE by Jaclyn Smith on HSN.com.