Taylor Swift Gave a Rare Hint About Her Favorite Perfume at the VMAs

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In her song “Illicit Affairs” Taylor Swift says to “leave the perfume on the shelf”—the question is, what perfume, exactly? In their quest to figure out everything possible about music’s biggest superstar, Swifties have long wondered what the Chairman of "The Tortured Poets Department" smells like. Now, they have one of the biggest clues yet.

At last night’s MTV Video Music Awards, Swift posed for a photo with the cast of RuPaul’s Drag Race. One of the drag queens, Xunami Muse, said to Swift, “You smell so good. What is that?” Swift replied, simply, “Oh thank you! It’s Tom Ford.”

Naturally, that tidbit about Swift’s smell went viral—with fans hunting for what Tom Ford perfume Swift might be wearing. It’s likely Tom Ford’s Santal Blush for a few reasons. First, at Swift’s Secret Sessions for her album "Reputation" (where she invited her most dedicated fans to hear a new album early), some attendees reported that she wore Santal Blush. And, in Swift’s Netflix documentary Miss Americana, a bottle of Santal Blush sat in the background of one shot.

David Letterman also told Swift in 2010 that she smelled “like expensive wood,” which does track with Santal Blush’s scent. The fragrance is a blend of sandalwood, ylang ylang, cinnamon, and “sumptuous woods,” according to Tom Ford’s site.

While Santal Blush seems like a likely candidate, other fans believe Swift now wears Tom Ford’s Tobacco Vanille. It’s certainly possible that she’s changed scents over the years or switches up between the two. Tobacco Vanille is a sweeter blend of tonka bean, vanilla, cocoa, dry fruit accords—but it still has that woody element with notes of sweet wood sap.

Though Swift prefers Tom Ford scents now, she once was a perfumer herself. Between 2011 and 2014, Swift released five of her own fragrances with Elizabeth Arden. The first and most famous of her scents was Wonderstruck—a name pulled from the lyrics of her hit song “Enchanted.” Wonderstruck was a staple on many a middle school girls’ vanity, with its purple iridescent bottle, gold cap, and bird-themed charms at the top. The fruity scent is now long discontinued, with unopened bottles selling on eBay for hundreds of dollars. Indeed, Tom Ford is now ironically the cheaper way to smell like Swift.

So, while all of Swift’s friends, according to her song “Florida!!!,” “smell like weed or little babies,” Swift herself smells like sandalwood.

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