Khloé Kardashian: Her All New Era

Words by Olivia de Courcy


As Khloé Kardashian marks a milestone birthday by unveiling her most sophisticated scent to date, Beauty editor Olivia de Courcy sits down with the icon to discuss confidence, memories, social media, and of course, XO Khloé.

A member of arguably the world’s most famous family, Khloé Kardashian has been on all our radars for the past two decades, via her early brushes with celebrity, and then through her young-mum and entrepreneur eras. We probably think we know everything there is to know about her – well, almost everything; we don’t know what she smells like. But as luck would have it, filling that gap is precisely what I have come here – to the penthouse suite in Claridge’s, in the heart of Mayfair – to do.


As the conversation gets under way, Kardashian is sitting cross-legged on a chaise longue, her eyes locked on mine, her aura exuding a soft power. She comes across as warm and kind, but she means business, enthusiastically telling me about her new perfume XO Khloé, launched exclusively at Harrods. “Yesterday, my sister Kourtney posted something like – ‘Khloé has had a specific scent since she was 15, and when I smell this, this is so identifiably Khloé.’ And that meant so much to me, because when we landed on this juice, I was like, this is me, this is exactly what I was envisaging, this is how I want to smell.”

Khloé 4.0

Essentially, this is Khloé Kardashian 2.0 – or 4.0 if her last, landmark birthday is anything to go by. “I was so excited to turn 40,” she says. “I really wanted my forties to be a new version of me. I felt like, a few years ago, I lost a lot of my confidence, my self-esteem, and I was really nervous to do things by myself – which is so not my personality.” To turn things around, she set her sights on the billion-dollar fragrance industry, and while not technically her first foray into fragrance (or her first business), this was a bit different. “I’ve done scents collaborating with my sisters [her first fragrance was released under sister Kim’s KKW brand] and I did one with my ex-husband [Lamar Odom]. But it was always a partnership. I never did something on my own, so I was like: I want to do this, I’m in a new decade, I want to test and push myself.” And push herself she really has.

It wasn’t just any fragrance that Kardashian set out to create; XO Khloé – a sophisticated blend of gourmands with cool green notes and florals – feels a big step away from a traditional celebrity offering. But then it did involve partnering with two master perfumers: Alberto Morillas and Clement Gavarry of fragrance creation house Firmenich. “He just got me,” she says of Morillas, the nose behind myriad high-fashion fragrances – spanning Mizensir to Gucci – in reference to how he pushed her out of her olfactive comfort zone. “I love the crystallised rose, and the praline and the peach, but they’re very sweet. Moss is not necessarily a scent I like on its own, but he said, ‘No, we need some moss in there… and a little wood.’ I was like, ‘Moss, really?’ But when he added it, it brought such luxury, and it elevates the smell. That’s not something I would have known or something I would have gravitated towards.”

Creating ‘The One’

So how did she know when she’d found ‘the one’? “I tried, I think, over a hundred different samples and knew they weren’t right, but I said let me try them, because things could read differently with your natural body oils. I knew I didn’t like them, though – and I never got a compliment for them! But when I tried the first modification of this final scent, I knew it was the one – and so did everyone else.” There was also a precise moment when she had her instinctive reaction confirmed: “I was taking my daughter to dance class and I tried [the fragrance] on because I wanted to ‘live in’ everything. And four different moms at the dance studio were like, ‘You smell so good.’ No-one knew I was doing a fragrance at the time, so that was the most rewarding thing… I knew I was definitely on the right page.” Fragrance has always been important to Kardashian, who has precious memories of her Armenian grandmother’s perfume bottle collection from when she was very young: “I must have been eight or maybe 10, and would go in and spray [the bottles]. It would just be air coming out, but it made me feel really grown-up and fancy. Now, if I leave the house and I forget to put my fragrance on, I feel… naked!”

It’s been well documented – not least via some hard-to-watch scenes on The Kardashians and to her 308 million followers on Instagram – that the past decade has not always been the rosiest. “A lot of people don’t want to show the bad things they go through, and I understand,” she says. “But everything looks so easy on social media – and it’s not. So it’s not fair for me to just be like, ‘Oh, I’m perfect, I’ve never gone through anything,’ just to avoid the chit-chatter and the gossip [that comes with opening up]. I can’t pretend it’s rainbows and butterflies every day. That’s not life. We all have our highs and lows, and even the most confident person definitely still has their bad days. I don’t care who you are, we all sometimes struggle with confidence. But we also have to remind ourselves that we are effing fabulous! So I want this fragrance to highlight all the best parts of you, to make you feel beautiful and confident… for times when you’re having that day when you don’t feel great. Like, when I sometimes feel my worst internally, I need something extra glam to psych me up – and that definitely includes fragrance.”

Taking Risks

Now, Kardashian is able to reflect on this period with new-found clarity. “There were so many things that happened in my thirties that took a shot at my confidence. And I know how I got in a darker place. But now that I’m so out of that place, I’m like, ‘Yeah, hell yeah, let’s take risks!’” That said, she has a pretty stellar entrepreneurial record, having co- founded the size-inclusive jeans and apparel brand Good American, which, just six years after launching, was on course for revenue of $200m. But there’s no danger of her resting on her laurels. “Let’s just say – which won’t be the case – but let’s just say that it [XO Khloé] doesn’t do well. That’s OK, because I took a risk and I can try again. I think we get so afraid to fail, but if we don’t fail, that means we’re not trying. So isn’t the better thing to try and take those risks?” And the learning curve never ends. As she picks up a bottle of her perfume, which is printed with raised roses all over alongside her name, she reflects, “It’s silly, but even though I love this box, I don’t think I thought it through, that I was gonna have to sign them – so my signature isn’t great. The next one has to be smoother…”.

Community First

We switch back to talking about Instagram and using the platform to engage with her followers. “Some of social media can be great,” she says (though she freely admits some of it can also be horrible). “Those people that are so kind, they make me stronger. That’s why I try so hard to comment back to people… I try to be engaging because I truly am so appreciative.” And one area that’s really touched her – away from the limelight, the TV show, the glitz and the glamour – is her community’s response to the way she cares for her ex-partner Tristan Thompson’s brother Amari, who has severe disabilities. “There are people who will write me the longest things in comments, and I read them all. They literally take my breath away – I can’t believe just by me, say, posting a happy birthday tribute to Amari, it gives someone so much hope or it makes them feel like, OK, we’re in this together.”

As Kardashian talks about Amari, and later her own two children, I feel like I see another side to her. “My kids bring me the most joy in life, for sure,” she says. And even though she’s chatting to me in a full Stella McCartney rhinestone runway look, I can suddenly picture her in sweatpants, chilling out away from the public glare. “I’m such a homebody,” she says. “I love being at home and cooking – mainly baking. I love holiday baking shows. Sure, there’s a little competition, but it’s silly, it’s baking. The world is so heavy, I want to watch something that’s easy and light.” Brilliantly, she even confirms she is a fan of Channel 4’s The Great British Bake Off. “My daughter asked me the other day, ‘Why do you watch so many baking shows?’” says Kardashian, laughing. “She thinks I’m nuts.”


As our time at Claridge’s comes to an end, the conversation turns, finally, to the event she’s about to host at Harrods for the XO Khloé launch. She recalls seeing the first renders of the windows and the moment her pop-up space went live in-store in December: “I was like, ‘Are we effing kidding?’ To have a fragrance in Harrods, it’s such a huge accomplishment for me personally. In America, Harrods is the store that symbolises luxury and, like, you’ve made it.”


In some people’s eyes, Kardashian has already made it. Arguably, many, many times over. But with this latest independent risk-taking venture, the best has possibly only just begun.

Shop XO Khloé

This article was originally published in the February/March 2025 issue of Harrods magazine. Harrods magazine is available to Harrods Rewards members who opt in to receive. Sign up to Harrods Rewards or Log In to update your preferences now.

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Photographer Greg Swales



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