Rachel Rabbit White’s
Misty Remembrances
In Conversation with Cat Marnell: The Poet and Perfume Expert On All Her Deepest Loves
- Text: Cat Marnell
- Images/Photos Courtesy Of: Jen Senn and Julia Comita
“It takes a lot of products to become a/ product just look at the state of this/ bathroom!” writes Rachel Rabbit White in “Celebrity Stage,” one of the many dark, girly, mischievous poems in her 2020 book, Porn Carnival: Paradise Edition. I can confirm that RaRa—as pals call her—has a gargantuan beauty product stash cluttering her Williamsburg boudoir. Her exquisitely-curated perfume collection is particularly inspiring.
I was intrigued to learn that the vixen-poet launched her own ultra-feminine, beachy-floral, totally intoxicating fragrance—inspired by her book and in collaboration with New York-based perfumer Marissa Zappas. “We ultimately decided to do a 90s ozonic jasmine perfume,” Zappas tells me in an email. “Despite the opulence in RRW's writing, there’s also a sense of detachment, of air and water, and of floating.” Each bottle contains four real pearls—an ethereal finishing touch.
Mine arrived on my Tribeca doorstep in December. By then, Rachel had temporarily relocated to Oxford, Mississippi with her fiancé, bank-robber-turned-novelist Nico Walker (whose book, Cherry, has been turned into a film starring Tom Holland, out now on Apple TV+). When asked to interview Rachel around Valentine’s Day—to talk about all things romance and fragrance—I was thrilled. Any opportunity to Zoom with my brilliant and extremely sexy friend!
Cat Marnell
Rachel Rabbit White
First of all, what are you wearing? And are you drinking Sugar-Free Red Bull?
Yes! This is a velvet Fleur du Mal bodysuit with a vintage American Apparel tan pleated skirt. I’m wearing white knee socks and chunky YSL heels.
Today Kim and Kanye announced that they are divorcing. Was Kim Kanye’s Cicciolina? You love Cicciolina.
Cicciolina is one of my deities! I stan her marriage to Jeff Koons. People thought their relationship was fake but I think it was a hugely romantic gesture, to turn that impulse to get married to the person you just met into an art project, Made in Heaven.
And then into a public divorce! I’m telling you—it’s all very Kimye. What fragrance would you put on Cicciolina?
Cicciolina’s so cute you want to put her on your vanity table. I think of...Lolita Lempicka. It smells like a mischievous angel, vanilla and licorice. It’s best sprayed on your clothes.
What perfume did your mother wear when you were young?
Red by Giorgio Beverly Hills. A spicy floral. It smells like a Victoria's Secret miracle bra. And there’s a Fleetwood Mac song playing.
My mom wore Cacharel Loulou, but she always got Lancome Tresor samples in the mail. I’d swipe them, but I actually hated it.
It was so popular!
I’ve been in your bathroom—every surface is covered with perfume bottles. Which one do you reach for more than any other when you’re home alone and no one is going to smell you but you?
Hmm.
Like, I wear Chanel Number 5 at home alone, but I would never want a dude smelling that on me. It’s too much for men.
I wear Si by Giorgio Armani a lot when I am home alone. To me it’s a cozy scent, it’s like wearing cashmere and a thong. But I also call it my mom perfume. It makes me feel mature. Like I can handle things when I wear it.
Your New York crib always smells good. What are your home fragrance must-haves?
I let people smoke in my apartment, so the secret there is candles. I love these obscenely expensive ones by Cire Trudon that have a bergamot, mint, tobacco thing going on. But I mix the high and low. You can mix in the cheap ones from Walgreens as long as the scents don’t clash.
I love Glade candles.
Yes! I also spritz the bedroom with perfume. I like to spray my “daytime” scents on the sheets at night. Lately it’s Antidris Cassis by Maison Louis Marie which feels fresh—like your sheets are clean even if you know they are covered in spray tan stains.
You are a domestic goddess. Speaking of stains, how do you get wine and liquor out of the carpet?
I do have a tip: alcohol and Dawn dish soap. If you do it as soon as it spills, it comes right out. But if it dries, you’re fucked. Mine and Nico’s WalMart sofa is fucked.
We’ll get to your amazing romantic life in a second. Let’s talk about fragrances for first dates. Well, I know you, and we can talk openly about sex work here. There have been work dates, and you have worn perfume for them. Discuss.
Let’s make it simple and say there are two basic work dates.
An incall date is where the guy comes to you. Usually those are daytime dates, for dudes who live in the suburbs and come on their lunch break. Two hours—or if they call off work, three or four, and you have mussels and white wine, or whatever people order at lunch, before bringing him back. On those dates, I wear Angel by Thierry Mugler. I love Angel, and I want to like what I’m wearing when I’m working because I want to turn myself on. I want to be into myself.
For an outcall, typically a dinner date, I keep the “scene” vibe and wear Alien by Thierry Mugler. It’s the scent equivalent of how you dress for dinner in New York: casual but chic, sexy but not without a certain sensibility for the moment—and for what might slightly subvert the moment.
My boarding school boyfriend left me for the girl across the dorm hall who wore ck Eternity for Women, and I still hate it. Has a man ever ruined a perfume for you?
Good Girl Gone Bad by Killian used to be my signature scent. But the thing was, it was my sugar daddy who first bought it for me. So I’d wear it around him. I’d wear it everywhere. I was obsessed with Good Girl Gone Bad, it was my thing. But then the sugar daddy who first bought it for me started wearing it too, which confused my senses—I thought it was supposed to remind me of me?
What perfume did you wear on your first date with your fiancé?
I went for a personal classic—Issey Miyake L’eau d Issey. It smells like a threesome under a waterfall. It was my stripper scent. It’s for when you want to get laid.
You're down in Mississippi with him now. What’s your everyday domestic bliss fragrance?
I’ve been wearing my own perfume which sounds like a cop-out but it’s true. Paradise Edition is an ozonic white floral. Bergamot tea with a burst of jasmine. To me it smells like you’re in an oceanview room in a luxury hotel with the person you’re obsessed with and you’re perfectly lotioned in a satin robe. Then the burst of jasmine, like you’ve been hit by a sex haze.
Your perfumer Marissa said every time she met with you, you were in Juicy Couture. What is the best fragrance to pair with a tracksuit?
Oh god, I’m sure I was always just waking up. Gucci EnvyMe would be historically accurate to the heyday of Juicy Couture.
I’m going to go with Pamela Anderson, Malibu. It’s still being sold on Walmart dot com for $7.99. Tell me about creating a perfume.
Marissa and I brainstormed what was right for a scent based on the new poems in the extended “Paradise Edition” release of my collection, Porn Carnival. These are love poems and I wanted something sexy but fresh. An all-day, in-bed perfume. I wanted jasmine and so many jasmines are too musky, too flowery.
Marissa is a perfectionist. She made sample after sample. I’d choose my favorites. When she came up with the final scent she brought it to me on a trip to the beach. I got to smell it for the first time by the ocean and it was undeniable. It smelled like magic.
Cat Marnell is the author of New York Times best-selling How To Murder Your Life and creator of BEAUTYSHAMBLES.
- Text: Cat Marnell
- Images/Photos Courtesy Of: Jen Senn and Julia Comita
- Illustrations: Michael Rinaldi
- Date: April 26th, 2021
