Old Navy’s Beauty Era Has Arrived

For many people, a quick trip to Old Navy usually turns into a full-blown shopping spree. You go in for denim shorts and leave with a new swimsuit, three tank tops, and a pair of flip-flops, too. (The sales are really good.) But your next haul is about to look a little different.

Old Navy Beauty Co. is officially launching online and in stores nationwide, marking the brand’s latest push into beauty. Priced under $15, the collection includes hair and body mists, body washes, and lotions in seven different fragrances, ranging from fruity gourmands and musky skin scents to warm ambers — all developed in collaboration with Jérôme Epinette, the perfumer behind cult-favorite fragrances like Sol de Janeiro Cheirosa '62, Byredo Bal D'Afrique, and Lore Disfruta.

“I wanted to bring a sense of luxury to a more mass-market brand, to bring my love for beautiful ingredients into something accessible that could touch a lot of consumers,” Epinette tells Bustle. Translation: These aren’t your average $15 body mists.

First, though, Epinette had to figure out what Old Navy Beauty should smell like. So, naturally, he went shopping. He spent time in stores watching customers browse, taking in the mix of ages and bright colors — which quickly began sparking ideas for different ingredients. Seeing families shopping together, for instance, inspired Fresh Splash, a sparkling, aquatic scent with pear and white woods that he wanted to feel easy for just about anyone to wear. “It’s super energetic and happy,” he says. “You’re going to smile when you smell it.”

That sense of accessibility carries through the rest of the collection, though each scent has its own personality. Take Vanilla Crush, which pairs its namesake note with orange blossom and lavender, plus a hint of black pepper on top. “It gives you a little zing, a little wink,” Epinette explains. “So the vanilla isn’t too sticky and fatiguing.” That same balancing act shows up in Gourmand Thrill, where creamy pistachio and coconut are grounded by warm sandalwood. On the other end of the spectrum, Amber Vibe — one of his favorites and “the most genderless” of the bunch — goes smokier, with palo santo, amber, and mandarin. Meanwhile, Floral Sweet plays into what Epinette sees as a major return to florals, but with a more modern spin: raspberry, rose, and peony alongside the earthiness of patchouli.

The one thing they all have in common? They’re designed to keep you coming back for another sniff. “People might buy a fragrance for the first time because they’re curious and want to try something new,” Epinette says. “But the addiction is what’s going to make them come back — that’s what my perfumes are known for.”

Another part of Epinette’s signature is at play here, too — one that makes these scents particularly easy to customize. “I structured them in a simple way, so there aren’t too many ingredients,” he says, describing his style as minimalistic in general. “By doing that, I was anticipating that people would layer them together.”

After developing five fragrances, Old Navy released them in select stores last fall, then spent the next several months gathering feedback on everything from the scent lineup to the formulas themselves. “We wanted to deliver a level of quality and sophistication that surprises people,” says Deb Redmond, head of beauty at Gap Inc. “We definitely saw customers embrace our initial five scents, but we also learned that they wanted enhanced body care.”

Along with reworking the formulas to offer more hydration, Old Navy expanded the collection with two new scents. Sorbet D’lish fills the fruity gap Epinette felt was missing from the original five, with a blend of pineapple, passionfruit, peach, and guava that he describes as “extremely juicy and mouthwatering.” Suede Embrace, meanwhile, brings a softer, muskier option into the mix, pairing honey and jasmine with warm woods and white musk for an “intimate, second-skin” effect.

Together, they round out a fragrance lineup that has a little something for everyone — which, admittedly, will make sticking to a shopping list at Old Navy that much harder.