Carolyn Bessette Kennedy Swore by This Affordable Perfume—And Now I Do Too
2 min readLast night, I spent four hours straight glued to my couch watching Love Story—FX and Hulu’s series following the romance between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. As a mere 23-year-old, I had only ever heard stories of the eligible bachelor’s days in New York City and the mall-clerk-turned-fashion-It-girl’s effortless beauty. However, I never fully understood the allure of the power couple until lead actors Paul Anthony Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon recreated their iconic story in front of my eyes. Filled with equal amounts of awe and jealousy after wrapping up the latest episode, I immediately began researching every lipstick, headband, pencil skirt, and scent that defined Bessette Kennedy’s swift way of life.
While I wasn’t able to wear JFK Jr.’s white button-down into the office today, I was able to snag the affordable fragrance Bessette Kennedy swore by. According to The New York Times best-seller Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy by Elizabeth Beller, her signature scent was Egyptian Musk Oil. It’s a powdery-fresh unisex fragrance with creamy notes of musk, myrrh, and rose. The thick oil melts beautifully into the skin, and the scent truly comes alive (and seriously lasts) when warmed by body heat. With a clean, balanced finish reminiscent of fluffy white towels fresh out of the dryer, it’s no wonder the minimalist queen of the ’90s couldn’t get enough of it. Just one whiff is enough to channel quiet-luxury dressing with simple silhouettes and muted tones, and embrace unstyled beach waves in your naturally polished hair. Or, as Bessette Kennedy’s coworker says in the first episode of Love Story, enough to get “inhaled” by men at a bar. “By the way, I wore your Egyptian Musk last night,” she tells her work bestie in a crowded office elevator. “I’m not kidding, three different guys, like, inhaled me. One of them said I smelled like a laundromat.”
The good news is that Egyptian Musk Oil is conveniently available on Amazon. The bad news? The price has skyrocketed from $17 to $90 overnight, with the oil selling out across several sites at lightning speed. One eBay seller even listed an unused 0.5-ounce bottle for $5,000 amid the world’s renewed obsession with Bessette Kennedy’s effortless grace. Needless to say, it’s important to act fast on this CBK-inspired purchase.
But whether the frenzy fades or the price tag settles back down, one thing remains clear: Bessette Kennedy’s beauty ethos still resonates decades later. In an era of oversaturation and viral microtrends, her pared-back and personal approach to style feels almost radical. Maybe the real secret wasn’t just Egyptian Musk Oil, but the quiet confidence she wore with it. Still, if a single swipe on my wrist gets me one step closer to her level of understated elegance, consider it my new go-to.