Drag Race Star Trixie Mattel Launches Plastic, Her Debut Fragrance

Trixie Mattel is the most beautiful woman in the world. Her signature look is unmistakable. Created by combining elements of Dolly Parton and Barbie (as done by a birthday clown), Trixie’s features are sharp but her overall look is soft. Though her style is purposefully referential, Trixie herself has become the benchmark for countless young drag queens taking inspiration from Drag Race queens they look up to. Her look is singular; you can spot a pointy Trixie cheek from a mile away. And that is the point.

Sky high blonde hair, pink cheeks, lips, outfits, pink everything — Trixie is a combination of every iconic blonde we grew up idolizing. Sure, she is Barbie and Dolly, but she’s also bits of Anna Nicole, Angelyne, Tammy Faye Bakker. She takes all of the standout beautiful features from all of pop’s most glamorous women and paints them onto her own face every night.

Trixie won America’s hearts with her tepid run on season seven of RuPaul’s Drag Race where out of all the stunts and gags of the season, she managed to perform the most impressive feat of all: losing the race not once, but twice. Consecutively.

A quick stint on a reality TV competition typically sets you up to be a cultural flash in the pan at best, but Trixie is a face that’s hard to forget. For the last two years, Trixie found unexpected success with the help of her cohost, Katya, in their hilarious YouTube series, UNHhhh. There was also an appearance on her own favorite show, American Horror Story, two music albums written and performed by Trixie, a stage show with Katya, her own UK tour that just kicked off; and this month, you can catch her on not one, but two TV shows, on different networks: Drag Race All Stars Season Three on Vh1 and The Trixie & Katya Show on Viceland.

This whirlwind year and level of notoriety is something that few queens other than RuPaul have ever experienced. But Trixie has one other landmark that has always served as a true marker of one’s fame, reach, and influence. One that is only achieved by the true icons.

Trixie Mattel has her own perfume.

So, what does a drag queen smell like? What about a drag dressing room? And what makes Trixie, and Plastic by Trixie Mattel, different?

In her own words, “Just like a fragrance, a dressing room has notes. The top notes are body spray, hairspray, and cocktails. The heart notes are greed, shade, and Fireball. The base notes are scrotum, contemporary womanhood, and the door guy, Chad."

Plastic is a scent that shouldn’t be slept on, no matter if you’re a fan of Trixie, of drag, or of simply smelling glamorous.

“I was inspired by the way certain toys smelled in my youth,” Trixie told me. “When you unbox a My Little Pony or a Strawberry Shortcake doll, you were hit with a sweet, impossibly perfect fragrance of fresh, machine-made plastic. Often times infused with floral and fruity notes to bring the toy to life. That third dimension of sensory experience made the toy so real to me.”

Though the name might lead you to believe that Plastic is a one-note scent made to actually smell like a dismembered leg of a Barbie Doll — you know, that rubbery scent that smells like body lotion and a tire — you’ll be relieved. Plastic isn’t reminiscent of dolls as an artifact but the fantasy that was sold to you along with them.

Plastic by Trixie Mattel is candy sweet, bright, and almost tropical the whole way through. The toothache-inducing sweetness is tempered, only just, by florals, which come across as retro, powdery notes, kind of like your grandma’s vanity, kind of like the cheek of a new Cabbage Patch Kid. Fittingly, it smells like a doll come to life. From her contour to her eyelashes, everything about Trixie is exaggerated. This fragrance is no exception.

Plastic opens with bergamot, lavender, and guava. The guava note is front and center for the entirety of the wear, morphing a bit as it heats up but staying fruity and beachy, bouncy and tangy. Lavender adds the vintage powdery note. The scent begins with what you remember escaping from the box as you tore open a new Barbie Doll.

The heart of the scent includes cherry blossom and a note you wouldn’t expect to find in a Trixie fragrance: cedar.

“I wanted it to smell fresh out of the box. Factory-made perfection. But also toyish and colorful. I am a folk musician, so there’s notes of cedar for a woodsy, masculine base.”

The base notes of the fragrance include cotton candy, sandalwood, vanilla, and amber, which smells a lot like honey. The scent is so much fun. Syrupy, sweet, with just a bit of depth. Plastic is both Barbie and her Dream House.

Surprisingly, one of Trixie’s idols, Dolly Parton, doesn’t have her own fragrance, but until she does, Plastic could be the next best thing to a namesake fragrance from Dolly. “I imagine that Dolly literally just perspires White Diamonds by Elizabeth Taylor,” Trixie said. “But she would wear a mist of Plastic for a night out at Dave and Buster’s.”

Fragrance is obviously an intensely personal experience for both the wearer and the people around them. In the same way that in buying a Barbie doll you're buying the idea that comes along with it, you’re doing the same with any scent you choose to wear.

“I think people underestimate how a unique fragrance can become ‘your’ fragrance,” Trixie told me. “To this day I can’t smell Thierry Mugler Angel without thinking of Detox. When I smell Turquatic from M.A.C., I think of my manager from when I worked at a M.A.C. Choose something secondary, something environmental, unexpected. That’s how you make an impression."

Trixie's meteoric rise to the D-List has been like nothing Drag Race has ever spawned before. More than any queen from the hit series, she has taken her character from a made-for-TV schtick and turned it into a full force, three-dimensional brand that has outgrown the Drag Race universe. Along with being the most beautiful woman in the world, she is talented, whip-smart, and fucking hilarious. She is irresistible, and like any other folk star/comedian/fashion icon/political pundit, everyone wants a piece of her.

“We exceeded my wildest expectations,” Trixie told me. “My favorite thing about Plastic is when someone approaches me while I’m wearing it. They always say ‘You smell EXACTLY as I hoped Trixie Mattel would smell.’ I would call that a success.”

When life's a drag:

• Drag Queen Matte Is Behind the Bratz-Inspired Makeup All Over Instagram
• Everything You Need to Know About Drag Queen-Favorite Sugarpill Cosmetics
• Drag Race Finalist Peppermint Reveals How Drag Enabled Her to Experiment as a Trans Woman

Watch these makeup removers in action, drag queen-tested and (sometimes) approved: