Welcome to The Scoop, a weekly email series in which I quiz fashion insiders on the stories of the week.
This week’s guest is Cyrus Veyssi. A trained actor and performer, Cyrus found themselves without auditions and a lot of time to fill during the pandemic.
So they began posting about fashion and beauty, and as they say, for a bit they were flopping. Then one day they decided to try something a little more real, and posted a funny TikTok about “bonding with their straight dad” at a barbecue.
Within a day, the post had gained 10 million views.
I was one of those 10 million, and have been following Cyrus ever since. As they built their platform over the years, they began weaving in more content about products they loved, and just last week they were announced in the role of May in the Broadway production of & Juliet. It’s all come full circle. But the news doesn’t stop there, so I called Cyrus to hear about something else they are cooking up.
Hi Cyrus, what’s the scoop?
About a year and a half ago, Le Monde Gourmand reached out and asked if I wanted to create a fragrance with them. At first, I thought it was one of those licensing deals where I’d just have to slap my name on something, so I wasn’t interested.
But it turns out they were giving me full creative control. They got in touch because they had seen me post about Miel Bébé, a fragrance I must have bought more than 40 bottles of over the years.
We are now ready to launch L’Essence Shirin, which is the most beautiful iteration of the dozens created throughout the process. It will be available in Ulta stores across the US and Gourmandbeauty.com from October 5.
Can you describe the fragrance?
My mom used to own a boutique in Paris many years ago, which carried a fragrance called Reminiscence. She brought it to the US and carried many fragrances that they created for the store.
I always smelled notes of patchouli and amber at home and in the store. When we first started to brainstorm, I wanted to create a sweet but fresh-smelling fragrance that would bring me back to my childhood and remind me of my Persian heritage.
Pomegranate felt like the perfect starting point because it’s both tart and lush. And I love the idea of pairing that with juicy, bright, and warmer qualities like amber and jasmine.
Fragrance is famously hard to advertise. Any teasers you can share with us about how you might approach it on your social media channel?
I have lots of videos we have filmed with my family, which I can’t wait to release. And a lot of it is with my mum, who is very picky.
We’ve filmed these sort of reaction videos of her not knowing it was my fragrance because I always bring fragrances home to her. And we just got the best reaction.
Of course, we also filmed with my dad — funny videos of him wanting to take credit for creating the fragrance and so forth.
I never really understood why fragrance was marketed in a binary way. Why can I not wear cologne if I have boobs?
I was in a bar in New Jersey, of all places, with a friend of mine, and these two guys in their 40s came up to me, and they were like, “What fragrance are you wearing? It smells really good.” I started explaining to them what it was and said, “Your wives will love it.” They were like, “No, we’d like it for us.” That’s when I thought, OK, we nailed the brief, because I always thought about fragrance as so intimate and personal, and expanding across gender.
Like, my mom’s worn cologne her whole life, and I wear perfume.
Is your audience your customer?
I cover a lot of lifestyle and luxury on my page, but one thing people keep asking for is accessibility. So from the beginning, I wanted our price point to reflect that. It’s $30 and available at Ulta. It doesn’t sacrifice that elevated experience, and I hope it will resonate well with any demo. I know all my mom’s friends will be buying it.
What else are people asking for on your page? What are the main messages you’re getting?
A big one is about distilling things down into one product. Like, what’s the one moisturizer they should be buying?
I’m very lucky to have such a lineup of beautiful little comforts in my beauty counter that I post about, but if someone does make a purchase, it never happens the first or second time I post. I find that conversion typically happens by the fourth, fifth, or sixth time that I post about a specific product.
If my community is going to splurge on something, they want to know that it’s really something I use.
When it comes to fragrance, I find that Gen Z also love a cocktail. People are always telling me, “This is what I use as, like, an oil and let my skin marinate.
And then I grab the fragrance.” People are very crafty when it comes to creating their own signature scent now. So even if L’Essence Shirin isn’t the only thing they’re wearing, I hope they can layer it into what’s in their routine right now.
What are your rules for growing a brand on Instagram today?
I would say the number one thing is that I have never sacrificed my style of content for the business. The style of content I make is always rooted in comedy and a little bit of realness, and it’s lo-fi.
In the beginning, especially in the luxury world, it was really hard to get luxury brands to work with me because my content style isn’t typical. But I’m very funny, and I’m very charismatic.
And I think after showing proof of concept, I started to attract a lot of brands.
Conversion is key. If we look at the data and the sales and my metrics, especially within the sort of mid-tier product market, evidence for conversion is there. A lot of brands now see that there is a different way in for this consumer.
Any favorite moments from the shows so far?
I only went to NYFW because I am rehearsing, so I can’t travel. I loved Carolina Herrera — it was relaxed and felt accessible. But I’m also excited to see people doing things that are a little bit eccentric again. I was watching the Diesel show from afar; I don’t like it when people are provocative for the sake of it, but when it’s cohesive with the show and its energy, it’s fun.
I think we are in an era when executives are starting to recognize the need for fun and lightness. I love seeing Quenlin Blackwell at Chanel during couture; I love seeing Ziwe wearing all this fashion in her interviews. I’m of the notion that lightness and kindness should always lead, and they will again.
Catch up with last week’s Scoop with .SIR’s Nikki Campbell and Sophie Coote here.