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From the runways of Gucci to the aisles of Target and likely your TikTok FYPs, you’ve probably seen Calum Harper before. Over the past few years, Harper has been gaining momentum as both a model and a content creator. He has amassed 2.5 million followers on TikTok and modeled for the likes of Hermès, Ludovic de Saint Sernin, and more.
While the nature of his jobs means that his fans are typically only hearing or seeing him, Harper has still managed to go viral on the basis of scent a number of times. Whether he’s starring in a luxury ad or wandering through the duty-free shops of Heathrow Airport, it seems the English model and creator has similarly carved out his own space in the world of perfumes.
Harper’s love for perfume began in his childhood when his mother gifted him a bottle of Armani Code. He wore it to school, and a girl told him she liked it. “Because the compliment of ‘you smell so good’ is one of the best compliments you can ever get, I remember holding onto that. And so, I used that perfume for a long time,” Harper tells Teen Vogue.
It seems that sentiment has stuck with him. In a more recent TikTok video, Harper shared that he’d like to be known as someone who smells good. “I think it's always nice if you smell good,” he says. “And especially if you smell good in castings and stuff, you want to do anything to be your best self in a way.”
Below, we chat with Calum Harper about all things fragrance, from his signature scent to least favorite notes.
Calum Harper: Oh, well, I have so many. I'm going to go with Mason Margiela [Replica Lazy Sunday Morning]. If not that, I'll go for the Valentino green bottle one.
CH: I have a lot. So [for an] everyday fragrance, I would say... Gosh, Jesus Christ. This is so difficult. I would go Jo Malone Cypress & Grapevine.
CH: Oh. Valentino. Just the black Valentino one, I think. That one. Yeah, that one.
CH: I would say a Prada fragrance. Probably this Prada [Luna Rossa] fragrance. Because I've done a couple ads for Prada Beauty with that one. And I remember that was quite a process of trying to figure out what to shoot. We shot one of them in Switzerland on the ski slopes, so that was a really creative time. So I think that one. It refreshes, ‘Oh, sh*t, that was when I was really creative.’
CH: The Maison Margiela [Replica Lazy Sunday Morning] one, which is in my bag somewhere.
CH: Ooh. It's tricky, because I think rose can be oversaturated and made too sweet, but recently, my partner had a rose fragrance, and I was like, ‘That's lovely.’ I guess that answers neither question. Oh, okay, okay. There are a lot of fragrances like it, where they have [this note]. Let me search up the main note in that, because that note is overrated and overused. Sorry, let me find [it]. Also, I think leather is overrated. I personally believe [so]. Okay, here we go. Cinnamon. Cinnamon, overrated. I hate cinnamon fragrances.
CH: I know. Maybe I’ll dabble in them to see if I can get used to them. So far, not so keen.
CH: I don't really have a trick. I have no trick. I spray it in the morning, and usually I'm told I spray too much. But that's it. And then it usually does last all day, but it's probably quite intense for the first hour.
CH: Exactly. Don't hate the player. Hate the game.
CH: Ooh, that's hard. Do you know what, my best friend smells good all of the time. He has a lot of fragrances. Yeah, my best friend, Kit Price, my old housemate, he's a good smelling bloke.
CH: Oh my God. That's so difficult. I don't know. SpongeBob, because he's a sponge, and I like it to be clean. Is there a feminine character? Because I quite like feminine fragrances. So maybe whatever character is feminine. Because my favorite fragrance is quite a feminine and flowery and rosy fragrance. But then I also like the... I don't really know that many fictional characters. I'm sorry.
CH: Ooh. Ooh. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Let's do cities. That's fun. All right. So what's a floral city? I don't know. Paris. Rosy, rose, romantic, whatnot. Then I'm going to go for something oceany, somewhere like Santorini. And then somewhere with an odd, sometimes intense [smell]. What's an intense city? New York. Yeah. Let's go with that.
CH: Oh, if I leave the house, and I forget to spray it, I'm in a foul mood. Foul mood. I'm like, ‘Oh my God, that is such an error. I'm going to go around stinking awful.’ And I don't know. It really annoys me when I do that. Because if I forget my fragrance, I'm like, 'Oh, that's so frustrating.' Even worse if it's deodorant though. It's better to forget a fragrance. But no, I like experimenting. I'm fortunate enough to have a lot of fragrances. And every day, I want to wear a different fragrance. Because I still don't feel like I've found my signature scent, and the one that's me. So I like to experiment and try different ones, and I try to use different ones every day.
CH: Yes. It's not leathery fragrances, and it's not gingery fragrance or cinnamony fragrances. That's what I found. I like the rose ones, I like the kind of fruit sweet ones. Yeah, tricky.
[Editor's Note: This interview has been lightly edited to rectify a miscommunication.]
