It was a cosmic kind of coincidence. Mia Khalifa, the former adult film actress and recent founder of swimwear and jewelry label Sheytan, had been burning an orris and frankincense incense so often that friends came to associate the smell with her home. That incense was called “Witchy Woo,” one of the first scents launched by Yasmin Sewell’s fragrance label Vyrao in 2021.
Sewell and Khalifa hadn’t met until this year, when the former contacted the latter about being one of Vyrao’s first faces for an upcoming dual fragrance launch. Khalifa was shocked and spooked.
“I feel like I manifested this campaign!” Khalifa told The Business of Beauty.
Sewell cast Khalifa alongside Isamaya Ffrench, the makeup artist and founder of Isamaya Beauty, to front the campaign for the brand’s two latest eau de parfums, Ludeaux and Ludatrix, which launched on Sept. 1 at Space NK. Photos featuring Khalifa and Ffrench, shot by Alex Leese, will be posted on a billboard along Oxford Circus and in Space NK stores; Violet Grey will launch the scents in the US.
Following Vyrao’s proposition of fragrances that invoke spiritual benefits, the new duo is inspired by sexual energy, or “looking at sexuality in a very playful, joyous, let’s say very high-vibration way,” Sewell explained.
It had been seven years since Sewell officially left her career as a luxury fashion buyer and four since she launched Vyrao, but her mind often returned to the language of fabric. As she thought about capturing the smell of sexual energy, Sewell thought of latex. “Not dark, black latex, but pink, fleshy, joyous, red, peachy, milky latex,” she said. IFF perfumer Meabh McCurtin helped whip into a number of distinct scent expressions. They winnowed the list down until they had two and Sewell could not winnow any more.
Ludeaux and Ludatrix are the ninth and tenth fragrances in Vyrao’s three year-old portfolio — each one, according to brand lore, infused with a single intention and a tiny charged quartz stone included in each flacon. Through a partnership with IFF, the brand is able to use the manufacturer’s claims that its “neuroscents” can affect mood. Ludeaux, which is formulated for seduction — its color palette of softest pink, its scent profile of furry peach skin and musk — also carries a claim to boost self esteem by 62 percent.
The crimson bottle of Ludatrix, with waxy notes of lipstick and iris, promises an 81 percent increase in feelings of sensuality and a 56 percent surge in energy.
Sewell said, “It’s going to give you the stamina to really have some fun.”
This fall, Vyrao will unveil its first branded retail concepts in London and in cities in the US. “There’s a physical world we’ve created for Vyrao,” Sewell said, “not purely just about scent, but how we heal and shift through the senses of smell, touch, sound, taste.” Sewell also alluded to new categories, including bath and body products.
Sewell tends to describe Vyrao in mystic, let’s say very high-vibration terms, but they clearly resonate. In 2024, the brand closed a round of funding led by LVMH-backed private equity firm L Catterton, with other participants including Estée Lauder Companies’ New Incubation Ventures and Manzanita Capital, which sold Byredo to Spanish conglomerate Puig in 2021 for an estimated $1 billion. Vyrao is perfectly positioned for the niche perfume boom, but is especially attractive to investors for its position at the intersection of luxury fragrance and wellness. In an increasingly value-driven market, Sewell shrouds her scents in the ultimate benefit of metaphysical healing.
Khalifa continues to stock Vyrao’s incense, but recently added Ludatrix to her perfume collection. A houseguest who was looking for a sexy scent picked it up without Khalifa’s prompting, and fell in love with its latex and lipstick notes. “She was like, ‘I love it! What is this?’ And I told her, and our minds were blown,” Khalifa said. “She’s a little witchy too.”
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