Willow Smith Is the Face of Mugler’s Alien Goddess Fragrance — Interview

ALLURE: Any specific products?

WS:  [I Love Dr. Jart+]. The moisturizing face masks are my everything. I’ve been implementing that into my skin-care routine at least twice a week.

ALLURE: I also want to talk a little bit about your band, The Anxiety. Y’all have been getting a ton of buzz. When I was a teenager (a long time ago!), I was super into emo. Seeing you give that alternative rocker aesthetic… I wish I had this representation in 2004!

WS: My mom and the main singer of Straight Line Stitch were the only two Black women that I ever knew who were singing rock music. Oh! and Fefe Dobson. Those three were the only ones and we need more than three! 

I just hope that, after me putting out this album, that more Black girls are like, you know what, eff it — I want to do this, too. I want to play guitar, I want to play bass, I want to sing, I want to scream, I want to play drums, I want to do this shit. We need more of us.

ALLURE: Especially in a genre that really comes from us.

WS: We have been so brainwashed by stereotypes. Sister Rosetta Tharpe, [was] one of the first black female electric guitarists so long ago, when that wasn’t accepted, when women weren’t even allowed to play electric guitar like that. The women played acoustic and the men did the electric. Sister Rosetta Tharpe was like, eff that, I’m going to pick up this electric guitar and thrash and sing the blues, honey! Even though it was inspired by blues, it was rock. When I say that to a lot of Black people, they don’t know. We need to remember. We need to remember that we did this shit. We need to remember that we were the beginning.

ALLURE: It’s interesting how we sometimes relinquish some of the stuff that we create. Who says Black girls don’t do rock and roll? Look at Tina Turner. Tina Turner specifically, was like, I want to do rock music, because that is what I do. 

Seeing someone who looks like you making this music — I really think that a lot of girls are feeling seen and feeling more open and inclined to embracing that part of themselves. The rock-and-roll aesthetic is fun. That shit is so cool.

WS: It’s so much fun and everyone should be able to live their best rock-and-roll life. No one should be barred off from that, because of the color of their skin or the texture of their hair or whatever it may be. 

You can pick up a bottle of Alien Goddess at  $85 for 30 ml, $120 for 60 ml, $170 for 90 ml, $32 for a 10 ml travel size, and $150 for the 100 ml eco-refill, starting July 23 on muglerusa.com, online at Sephora and Ulta Beauty on August 1, and in stores on August 15 .

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