Tate McRae Is Entering Her Beauty Era With Her First-Ever Perfume

Tate McRae is no stranger to reinventing herself, whether through her music, dance moves or ever-changing looks. Now, the singer is bringing that same creative energy into the beauty world with a new venture that is all her own.

On Thursday, Oct. 1, McRae, 23, introduced her first-ever fragrance, TATE 01, marking a new chapter in her growing career. Created in partnership with Scent Beauty, Inc., the fragrance was developed alongside Givaudan master perfumers Adriana Medina and Antoine Maisondieu, bringing together a blend of warm, youthful and feminine notes.

After completing her successful Miss Possessive arena tour in 2025 and delivering a headlining performance at Lollapalooza in August, McRae is expanding her creative reach beyond the stage. In a recent conversation with PEOPLE, the singer opened up about the inspiration behind her debut fragrance, her personal beauty choices and how she is already thinking about her next musical era.

“I’ve always wanted to venture off into creating my own business at some point in my life,” McRae told PEOPLE, adding that it felt “so exciting” to have something of her own.

TATE 01 opens with sparkling bergamot and clary sage before unfolding into white floral notes. As the scent settles, warm amber, creamy tonka bean, sandalwood and soft woods create a cozy finish. The fragrance was designed to enhance the wearer's natural scent rather than overpower it, giving each person a slightly different experience.

Finding the right combination of ingredients was an important part of the creative process for McRae, who wanted something that felt both familiar and unexpected.

“I’ve never gravitated towards florals before, but the balance of the woodiness and this ingredient called iso, which enhances your own pheromones, together was something that I just kept going back to and spraying on myself every day — and then getting compliments from other people,” she explained.

The iso ingredient was something McRae knew she wanted from the beginning, helping make the fragrance smell different on each person. That personal touch was central to her vision, allowing the perfume to feel less like a one-size-fits-all scent and more like an extension of the person wearing it.

Her inspiration also came from the supermodels of the 1990s, whose effortlessly cool style helped shape the fragrance's overall mood. McRae wanted to capture a sense of youth while balancing brighter notes with the warmer scents she naturally preferred.

“I think a lot of the references were [that] — and keeping that youth within the perfume,” she explained of the brighter notes like bergamot, “but then it has the warm woody sandalwood side that I feel is what I usually gravitate towards.”

The inspiration extended beyond the fragrance itself and into its packaging. With a minimalist design, TATE 01 was created to look right at home alongside the other bottles on McRae's vanity. Rather than chasing trends, she wanted a bottle that would feel just as appealing years from now.

“I genuinely just wanted to create something that I personally loved and wanted to put on my shelf,” she reflected. “Looking back at old references and looking at imagery and mood boards, this bottle was something that I just kept gravitating towards ... it felt like something that I would’ve wanted to buy when I was a young girl.”

For McRae, fragrance has always been closely tied to memories and different stages of life. She described how certain smells can bring a person back to a particular time, making perfume a meaningful part of her personal routine.

“I feel like you can be super enlightened by certain smells,” she said.

After spending the past year developing TATE 01, the singer has made it her everyday signature scent, replacing the perfumes she previously reached for. She admitted that once she finds a fragrance she loves, she tends to stick with it.

“I definitely am someone who sticks to one and I smother myself [in it]. I wear it in the morning and then I wear it to bed, too.”

Of course, fragrance is only one part of McRae's evolving beauty routine. Her hair has also undergone a transformation, with the performer recently taking her honey blonde color even lighter. The change was part of the look she envisioned for her festival appearances over the summer, showing how much thought goes into every new version of herself.

“I had a very specific vision of how I wanted to look,” she explained. “So that’s the process; it’s evolving and figuring out what character you’re stepping into for your next era and how does she feel and how does she act?”

That approach was especially clear during her Lollapalooza performance, where McRae made headlines for ending her show by dipping herself into a bathtub filled with what appeared to be gold paint. The dramatic moment made for a memorable finale, although the substance was actually a slime created by the team behind Nickelodeon's famous green goo.

“So, it looked like paint, and I remember running off-stage [to shower] right after,” she recalled.

While the eye-catching performance gave fans a glimpse of McRae's latest creative direction, it may also have offered a preview of what's ahead. The singer hinted that the character she introduced at Lollapalooza was connected to her next music era, suggesting that her artistic transformation is far from over.

“It’s so fun to start to tap into things [in a] live performance, because you feel like you’re walking into a new world and people are experiencing it in real time,” she said. “And I’m super excited. I’ve been in the studio a ton, and I have been working away and writing.”

With a new fragrance on the market and more music in the works, McRae is continuing to explore different sides of her creativity. TATE 01 gives fans a way to connect with her beyond her performances, while her evolving stage persona hints at more changes to come.

TATE 01 is available exclusively at tatebytm.com in sizes ranging from 10ml to 100ml, priced between $30 and $82. The fragrance will also launch online at Ulta Beauty on Oct. 16 before arriving at Ulta Beauty stores nationwide on Oct. 25.