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Beyoncé Knowles with Usher at the launch party for Beyoncé Heat.There are fragrance launches, and then there are fragrance launches. Without question, the debut of Beyoncé Knowles’s first-ever scent, Beyoncé Heat, fell into the latter category.
It’s a rare sight to see New Yorkers looking up—that’s something generally reserved for tourists awestruck by the city’s towering skyscrapers. But plenty of Manhattanites were craning their necks one evening this week in Union Square, trying to get a glimpse of the goings-on inside the old Tiffany building on the park’s western edge. Seven stories of floor-to-ceiling windows were flooded in red light, and a spotlight was swirling around the top of the building. Visible in the windows were the dark outlines of the partygoers—Beyoncé (in a flirty red Marc Bouwer cocktail dress), Jay-Z, and Usher among them—in the shadow of massive chandeliers.Inside the building was a surreal setup. After taking the elevator up to the second floor, about 200 guests wound through a dark fun-house-style hallway lit up only by fluorescent red beams, past waiters with trays of champagne, ready to help the many women struggling to navigate the carpeted maze in high-heeled booties. At the end of the labyrinth was a white room where beauty-industry insiders, media types, and familiar party animals were seated in rows of white chairs. The scene screamed sexy, sensual, and dramatic—which is exactly the vibe Beyoncé wants her fragrance to communicate.
Clockwise from left: Beyoncé and Coty C.E.O. Bernd Beetz; the party venue ablaze with red spotlights; the D.J.; Beyoncé’ Heat; inside the party.
The scent, developed over two years in collaboration with the fragrance house Coty, is a mix of floral, fruity, and woody notes inspired by the Creole cooking of Beyoncé’s mother—the spicy sweetness that always used to fill the kitchen when the songstress was little.
“I hope that everyone is ready to catch the fever!” the singer sang out to the crowd. After a presentation introducing the scent, the throwdown moved to various rooms in the building, Beyoncé’s younger sister, Solange Knowles, took to the turntables, and the revelry lasted late into the night. Beyoncé Heat is designed to unleash women’s inner fire, so it was comforting to know that F.D.N.Y. Engine 14 was located just around the corner. But, as far as we’ve heard, no 911 calls were made to cool down the party.
