Charlotte Lawrence Wears This Fragrance to Feel “Sexy and Powerful” On Stage

The High Note

Welcome to The High Note. Here, we interview your favorite musicians about the ins and outs of their beauty and wellness routines, as they perform and record their hits. We’re diving into the iconic makeup looks they wear on stage, the signature scents they spritz while in the studio, how they care for themselves when they’re on the road, and so much more.

Charlotte Lawrence takes my call from her pole dancing room turned home office. Despite a cold, her personality is just as vibrant as the room’s red, zebra-printed wallpaper and striped couches. She just wrapped her 20-city Somewhere tour in honor of her first-ever full-length album brimming with confessional lyrics and ’90s-tinged angst. (Luckily, the cold held off until she was back home in Los Angeles.)

The singer has just a moment to rest up before her latest big moment: On September 3, news will break that she’s the face of shoe brand Sam Edelman’s latest fragrance, Duet. It’s a natural fit for Lawerence, who is just as much a Gen Z style icon as she is a musician, as she’s been a longtime fan of the brand.

The campaign is an homage to Duet’s ballerina flat-shaped bottle, and uses Lawrence’s song “Ballerina,” naturally. She tells me how much she admires Sam and his wife Libby’s relationship—the name Duet is a nod to their partnership—as well as their creative vision. “They both love music and love creativity in different forms of art, not just the lane that they stand in,” she says. “When they approached me about doing the campaign, they liked my vibe and that I was a musician, and they wanted the campaign to really reflect Sam Edelman and their vision, but also who I am as a creative person and a musician. It feels really authentic.”

Ahead, Lawerence gives us the download on her tour, the fragrance that makes her feel sexy onstage, and the products that keep her skin in check, even on a van.

Courtesy of Sam Edelman/ Byrdie

On Her Debut Album, “Somewhere”

“I made a lot of it with Ben Gibbard [of Death Cab for Cutie], who is an idol of mine, and is kind and is the best. I really wanted to create my first-ever full-length album that felt completely just me, and that I could be uninhibitedly vulnerable with. I wanted to feel confident enough to say all the things that that were going on inside my mind, whether they be deemed as like ‘crazy’ or ‘angry’ or weak or whatever it is, and just be honest, be truthful, write all the things I wanted to write about my life and my pain over the past three or four years.

“We wrote the album, and I love it very much. It just feels very me, and it feels like there’s almost something for everybody. There’s a sad, depressing song, a few of those, there’s some acoustic guitar songs, there’s some super upbeat rock songs, there’s pop songs all over it. It feels like what I would want to listen to if my name wasn’t on it; I know I would love the album if it wasn’t me. It feels like the inside of my brain in a good way, like my diary.”

Her On-Stage Fragrance

“When I [played in] New York, [Sam and Libby] sent me beautiful flowers and they sent me a personalized perfume bottle with my little tattoo of a ballerina on it right before the show to wish me luck. I sprayed [Duet] right before I went on stage because I wanted to feel strong and powerful and sexy.

“I feel like scent can control your mood and your vibe for the rest of the day and this one makes me feel really strong and awake and powerful and womanly. It’s fun and sexy, and sweet and floral, and sophisticated. It has all these dualities to it, hence the name Duet.”

Instagram/ @charlotteslawrence/ Byrdie

Her On-Tour Beauty Look

“I feel like who I am on stage is extremely authentic, and I try, at least for this tour specifically, to create a very safe and comfortable environment where there doesn’t feel like there’s much separation between stage and audience.

“I really enjoy just being human and messing up and cursing, and embarrassing myself and being funny and being really real, because that’s who I am and that’s who I want to show as an artist. I always felt like, if I was a kid and going to shows and there was a musician on stage that I loved, that was like picking a wedgie and being crazy and just being herself, I would feel so heard and loved. So I try to have the makeup reflect that, at least a little bit, and just stay really true to myself.

“My makeup is as natural as I can be while still feeling pretty—like mascara and blush and the whole thing—but I stay very, very real. [On tour] I always do my own glam—for events and photo shoots and stuff, I always have my go-to glam team who are incredible, and I could never touch the surface of what they’re able to do with hair and makeup. But for stage, especially just like the fact we were in a van going across America, we did not have the budget for that, so it’s 100% me all the time.”

Courtesy of Sam Edelman / Byrdie

The Beauty Look That Always Makes Her Feel the Most Herself

“I think just natural glam. Either super, super, natural, or I really like when I do no foundation, barely any concealer, no mascara, no nothing, but a bright red lip, like a French girl look. I love that and I always feel really beautiful when I do that, and really cool looking.”

On Her Tour Skincare Routine

“Skincare is my one thing—like I won’t be able to brush my hair or something because my brush is in the van, or I have to wear dirty stage clothes for two hours in the car ride from one city to the next right after the show, but I make my skincare routine a point. Every single night the second I got off stage I’d clean off my makeup and I’d wash my face and I’d do my skincare routine. I am so particular about my skin, and if I accidentally slept in makeup one single time, I would have broken out immediately.

“I have a proper skincare routine and I was very particular about it. I use the Youth to the People Kale Superfood Cleanser. I have this spray, it’s Korean skincare, the Dermarssance Highprime Collagen Ampoule Mist, that I’ve maniacally used. I’ve literally gone through two bottles in the past two months, I spray it all day, all night. And then I use Rhode moisturizer and Rhode Peptide Glazing Fluid. [I also use] the Surya Wellness Balancing Collagen Cream, that’s a thick cream, and the CosRX Ultimate Nourishing Rice Overnight Spa Mask. And Aquaphor, and that’s my skincare.”

Her Onstage Style Icons

“I’d say there’s a mix of a lot of different things. I love ’90s Kate Moss, how she always had like really natural hair and makeup, but then like a beautiful slip dress. It was sexy, but it was sexy in the way that she didn’t try hard to be sexy, it wasn’t like va-va-voom. It was just like simple, understated, almost like innocently sexy.

“I also love Mazzy Star on stage, and Fiona Apple. Fiona Apple was way more casual than I’m dressing, but I like completely natural hair, natural glam, and then a really beautiful vintage slip dress. And I wore, no joke, my black suede Sam Edelman boots every motherfucking show, I’m not exagerating. Any photo from tour, it’s either the red boots or the black boots, I wore them ever single show. A high boot is hot.”

Her Pre-Show Routine

“I don’t really feel like I need much mental preparation because I love it so much, I feel so comfortable on stage. I definitely have like my little routines, I do vocal warmups before stage, always. I do my own makeup and I’ll do vocal warmups while I’m doing my makeup. Before stage, I always give my bandmates and tour manager and our little team a hug and be like ‘love you, love you, love, you, love you.’

“I have my little things that I need to do or in my brain I’ll be like, ‘I’m gonna have a bad show,’ but I think that’s more [anxiety] than it is like mental preparation. But I physically prepare, and I just love being on stage so much. In L.A. I was nervous before the show, because so many of my friends were in the crowd, so I took time to breathe and and vent to everybody around me about my nerves and took a little shot of tequila and then I was totally fine.”

Courtesy of Charlotte Lawrence / Byrdie

What’s Inspiring Her Right Now

“One of my favorite movies is the cartoon version of Alice in Wonderland. But last night, because I’m not feeling that good, I rewatched the live action movies, and I thought those were really beautifully done, and those were inspiring to me. Like just all the little quotes and the costumes and set and decor, it excited me and I was like I kind of want to write a little funky weird type of song inspired by it.”

On Her Perfect Day Off

“We did not have any days off on this tour because we were in a van, so we would do a show day, and then the next day we’d have a day off, but it wouldn’t be an actual day off, it’d be like a 14 hour travel day from like DC to Austin, Texas, and we would just be in the van all day. So realistically a perfect day off would be just sleeping all fucking day and staying in bed and watching movies and like maybe getting a perfect incredible fancy amazing dinner, but absolutely nothing the entire day. Sleeping until 3PM, that’s a day off.

“I’m still in the tour mindset, so when I hear ‘day off,’ I think of tour mindset. But also I guess back home too, a perfect day off would be going to the beach, surfing, and then sleeping for 25 hours.”