"If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It": Actor Alisha Boe on Why She'll Never Give Up Her Signature Scent

In an era of fragrance wardrobes, seasonal scent rotations and experimental perfume layering, actor Alisha Boe has decided to do things a little differently when it comes to her scent.

The 13 Reasons Why and Do Revenge star has little interest in switching between endless bottles, firmly in favour of one signature scent. "I'm the signature scent person," she tells Marie Claire UK. "Once you find one, you don't want to. If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

It's a refreshingly uncomplicated philosophy in a moment when fragrance has never been more experimental. While beauty lovers increasingly curate perfume wardrobes to suit every mood, Boe prefers one bottle that feels unmistakably like her.

The actor is the new face of Yves Saint Laurent Beauty's Black Opium franchise—a fragrance she knew well long before signing on. "Black Opium is such an iconic fragrance," she says. "I was very familiar with it, and I was so excited to jump on."

The latest interpretation introduces juicy strawberry alongside the fragrance's signature coffee, vanilla and white florals—a combination that initially caught Boe off guard. "What I love about the strawberry is that it's more like a farmer's market strawberry," she says. "It's very fresh and nice. I'm such a big fan of jasmine and vanilla, and I think marrying the two is so interesting. It's very warming and inviting and magnetic."

The Best Fragrances Aren't Worn for Other People

Perfume is often framed as something we wear to make an impression. Not for Boe. "It's more so how it makes me feel," she explains. "If I want to feel very confident and sexy, I'll throw on a really good scent."

Still, she believes fragrance is one of the few beauty choices people actually remember. "You remember if someone smells incredible," she says. "People talk about that for a long time. 'Did you meet that girl? She smelled amazing. What was she wearing?' There's so much mystery around it."

Unlike makeup or fashion, fragrance is invisible, which may be precisely why it feels so personal.

The Scent Memory She'll Never Forget

Despite fragrance's ephemeral nature, scent and memory are inseparable, and Boe is acutely aware of it—how a smell can outlast the moment it belongs to, resurfacing a whole place and time long after the details have blurred.

The fragrances that have stayed with her longest never came from a bottle. She moved from Norway to Los Angeles at seven, landing in an entirely new world—one she still recalls through smell more vividly than anything else.

"I remember the smell of dust and hot concrete, chlorine, because every house, it seemed, had a pool, and that was so, so exotic," she recalls. "Those three smells are my earliest memories because it was such a big change in my life."

Why Some Actors Wear a Different Perfume for Every Character

For actors, fragrance can double as a tool for stepping into character. Plenty of performers assign a different scent to each role, using it as another route into a fictional world. Boe has tried it herself.

"It is a fascinating technique," she says. "It goes back to how smell evokes memories and recall. I have done it once, and I think it just speaks to how important smell is to humans."

She spends much of her working life in the hair and makeup chair, but fragrance is the one step she keeps for herself. "My mornings are pretty different every day," she says. "I'll wash my face, shower, brush my teeth, floss—very important—and because I go into hair and makeup, I kind of leave that to them. Then the last thing I do is put on perfume."

"I've Never Really Cared About the Opinions of Strangers"

That same self-possession is what drew Boe to Yves Saint Laurent Beauty. The brand's message of unapologetic self-expression, she says, has always matched her own outlook.

"I've never really cared much about the opinions of strangers or how I might be perceived by other people," she says. "They really support that, and it felt like such a natural partnership because I believe that wholeheartedly."

It's the same logic that governs her relationship with fragrance. No chasing compliments, no collecting bottles for novelty's sake—just the belief that the right perfume should make the wearer feel good first and foremost.

In a beauty landscape built on chasing the next launch, Boe's approach lands as refreshingly secure and settled: find the scent that feels like home and wear it without wavering. Or as she puts it—if it ain't broke, don't fix it.