IMAN's New Fragrance with HSN Pens a 'Love Memoir' About Love Story with Late Husband David Bowie

“I had a teenager who lost her father, so I was helping her through her grieving process. I ignored mine and all of a sudden when I was by myself at the house, it all flooded in. The house, the landscape, and the property actually helped me through my grieving process and instead of thinking of my memories as sad ones, my memories have become full of joy and that’s what has sustained me through the whole year that I have been here,” Iman said peacefully as she reflected.

The rounded silhouette of Love Memoir was inspired by her and Bowie’s beautiful property, down to the stacked, well-balanced stones. “Slowly, lo and behold, I saw everything in different eyes. The sunsets became more magical and more celebratory of love that existed rather than love lost. I started collecting stones on my property and I’ve always liked stacked stones. That’s very calming and repetitive so it’s in that way, it creates balance in your life, and there is balance also in your hands. Not all stones can go on top of each other and stay together because the wrong stone can just stumble down,” Iman explained. Moreover, Love Memoir‘s design and packaging are inspired by the aforementioned sunsets with an amber hue and a hammered gold cap representative of Iman and Bowie’s travel escapades.

Every note of Love Memoir is a nod to her and Bowie’s romantic time spent together during their 24 years of marriage – vetiver from the scent Bowie wore the day they met and every day thereafter; bergamot and blackberry to represent their Florence countryside wedding, and rose for his British heritage. For the fragrance’s debut on HSN.com, which is available for purchase now, Iman collaborated with award-winning product development and production atelier Batallure Beauty. When it came to her partnership with HSN, the decision was a no-brainer seeing as how she had been with them for the past 10 years for her Global Chick accessories launch. “I thought I already have a partner, why do I need to look for somewhere else?,” Iman asked rhetorically.

“I can take it to where my customer knows me for 10 years and I have an avid customer base that I can introduce my fragrance to,” she said. Though the Iman Cosmetics founder has been doing her thing in the beauty entrepreneurial world since 1994, she’s proud of herself for creating this concept of a fragrance at 66-years-old. “This was a great tribute that came out of nowhere and I don’t think if I was sheltering at home, this probably would not have happened.”

When asked about the importance of a signature fragrance as a means of self- care and incorporating it into her beauty routine, Iman shared her thoughts on the sentimental value of a fragrance as opposed to it as a luxury for self-care Sundays. “I wouldn’t call it self-care, but to find a scent that really evokes memories for you is a lovely thing. It’s a ritual that you can do every day,” Iman said. “Sometimes we think of self-care as a massage, but you don’t do a massage every day. I do a face mask, but we don’t do face masks every day. It becomes like a meditative form [of] fragrance because we do wear it on a daily basis.”

Iman continued, “Another question I’ve been asked is that, who did I create this fragrance for? I definitely have to say I created it for myself, but one thing is that, as a human, we all have memories. At the end of the day, that’s all we will have is our memories, especially when people pass away. What we have are the beautiful memories that they’ve left behind and that we share with them. Fragrance in itself, I can’t say it’s about self-care because it’s so personal – it’s like cooking at home, it’s like remembering things that you did. When I remember my mom, who’s no longer with us, I remember the oud incenses that she would do for me when I was a little girl, wash my hair and do all these rituals with me.”

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