Anok Yai Puts Perfume on Her Airplane Seat
Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.
When Mugler launched Angel in the '90s, it had a lasting reverberation across the perfume industry, essentially inventing the modern gourmand. Before Angel, fragrances were more subdued—after Angel, which was the one of the first 'extra' perfumes, with over 20 notes, they became tools for self-expression. Alien, Angel's counterpart, was first launched in 2005, and has met similar fanfare. The now-iconic fragrance has three main notes: amber, wood, and jasmine. It's mysterious, feminine, and edgy, all at once. In other words, it embodies super model Anok Yai, who has been an ambassador for Mugler since 2024.
Yai is the face of Mugler Alien Extraintense, a new transmutation of Alien. In this version, the jasmine notes are complemented by creamy vanilla, decadent tuberose, and biting cardamom. It's anchored by amber, musks, and woods. 'It's really dark and sensual,' Yai tells ELLE. 'I like to wear it on dates. It's like a touch of danger. I love how it smells. And I steal it off set all the time. There's always at least five bottles missing after I'm done shooting.'
It's high praise from someone who describes fragrance as her 'everything.' Yai says she wears perfume anywhere, at any time of day, and keeps a bottle in every single one of her purses. Here, Yai reveals how she feels about scents on an airplane, what keeps her inspired, and what Daniel Caesar thinks about the portrait she painted of him.
The first Mugler [fragrance] that I smelled was Alien Goddess Intense. I was at the airport. My favorite thing to do when I'm in airports is go to the stores and try a bunch of perfumes. I was running around, testing all the perfumes. It smelled so sweet and coconutty—I was obsessed. I actually bought three bottles. Ever since then, it's been one of my favorite scents. The crazy thing is, right after that, I got the contract.
When I think about femininity, I think about someone that's really confident in themselves. My spectrum for dressing is that either I'm wearing my brother's clothes, and I want to [look] like a tomboy, or I'm dressed like a vampire. That is my idea of a feminine woman. This scent is really dark, edgy, and fierce. It ties into how I naturally wear my clothes.
I'm obsessed with this campaign. I like how it feels really sexual and super dark. It's more than I usually [do], because of the editorials and work that I do for high fashion. We don't really get into sexy that much; it's more avant-garde and quirky.
On dates, I usually like wearing something that shows my neck, or a backless dress. In terms of products, I always like having a feline lash. I was just in Japan, and I got a tiny carry-on suitcase and went to Don Quixote, a really popular store there. I went to the makeup aisle—it was all eyelashes—and I just swiped it all into the suitcase.
I started wearing compression socks, because I noticed that my legs would hurt on a plane. I started doing super-hydrating face masks, because every time I get off of a flight, I feel so dry. And I eat Manuka honey before, during, and after the fight, and then I don't get sick. I always got sick after flying, and it was so annoying. Or [you can take] garlic, but I mean, it's going to be hard to talk to people.
I like to put fragrance on the seat. Usually I wear perfume to bed, and I perfume [it]. Because I spend so much time in hotels, there's nothing really grounding me. So I'll get a perfume that I use that's only for my bed and on the airplane seats, and I feel like I'm sleeping at home.
I always do 111Skin, the rose gold one. I sleep with it on. Then when I'm on a plane, that's when I do my teeth whitening. I used to try to do it at home, but I love snacking, and I can't sit with the teeth whitening thing for an hour or 30 minutes or anything.
I get a lot of inspiration from my dreams. I will wake up in the middle of my dream and write it down so I don't forget. I have a lot of friends that are musicians, so whenever they're in the studio, and we're in the same cities, I'll get a mini canvas or a sketchbook, and then I'll go to [their] studio sessions. I'll tell them to ignore me. I'll sit in the corner, and as they're making their music, I'll be making a painting that's inspired by the music or watching them.
Once I get five or six paintings done, I want to start doing exhibitions. Right now, I'm on my fourth painting. By the end of this year, I want to have my exhibition set and going. I'm the slowest painter ever. I started painting my friend Daniel Caesar around Christmas, and then I finished painting half of him by the end of spring.
This was one of the studio sessions. He was in the studio in London, working on his most recent album [Never Enough], and I just had a flash of this image of him. I'll wait for him to take a break, and then I'll have him pose somewhere in the room, set up lights, take photos of him at every angle, and then, I print out all those photos. As I'm painting, all the photos are blown up, and there's maybe 50 pictures of him that I'm looking at so I can get every detail correct. But all my friends are impatient, so even if I wanted them to sit and pose for me, they probably would sit there [only] for 15 minutes.
Yeah, he's seen it. At the beginning he was like, This doesn't look like me. And then I went back, and I worked on it more, and I asked his team, asked friends, and they were like, This is exactly him. It's really strange, because when someone paints you, you have this idea of yourself in your head, and then once you see someone else's work of you that they've done, the idea that you have is so different. It's like those mirrors that are flipped so you see the real version of yourself [versus] what other people see. I remember when I did my first self portrait in high school. After I was done, I was like, This looks terrible. It doesn't look like me. And then everyone from my class was like, Oh my God, it looks exactly like you. I was so angry.
You should romanticize every aspect of your life, because that makes life worth living. Anything that I can do to make something more aesthetic or even dramatic, I will do. I have a routine that I do every morning and every night, and I always stick to it. I like to end my nights with a little candle, my little journal, and spraying perfume on my bed. I like to take the extra step to make stuff feel good for me, even if no one else is seeing it. Sometimes I'll go to sleep in lingerie even though no one else is seeing—it's just for me, and it makes me feel good.
The more I've been working in the fashion industry, the more dramatic everything has become. I mean, I have perfume for my airplane seat. I don't know how much more dramatic I can get.
We love drama.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
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The crazy thing is, right after that, I got the contract. When I think about femininity, I think about someone that's really confident in themselves. My spectrum for dressing is that either I'm wearing my brother's clothes, and I want to [look] like a tomboy, or I'm dressed like a vampire. That is my idea of a feminine woman. This scent is really dark, edgy, and fierce. It ties into how I naturally wear my clothes. I'm obsessed with this campaign. I like how it feels really sexual and super dark. It's more than I usually [do], because of the editorials and work that I do for high fashion. We don't really get into sexy that much; it's more avant-garde and quirky. On dates, I usually like wearing something that shows my neck, or a backless dress. In terms of products, I always like having a feline lash. I was just in Japan, and I got a tiny carry-on suitcase and went to Don Quixote, a really popular store there. I went to the makeup aisle—it was all eyelashes—and I just swiped it all into the suitcase. I started wearing compression socks, because I noticed that my legs would hurt on a plane. I started doing super-hydrating face masks, because every time I get off of a flight, I feel so dry. And I eat Manuka honey before, during, and after the fight, and then I don't get sick. I always got sick after flying, and it was so annoying. Or [you can take] garlic, but I mean, it's going to be hard to talk to people. I like to put fragrance on the seat. Usually I wear perfume to bed, and I perfume [it]. Because I spend so much time in hotels, there's nothing really grounding me. So I'll get a perfume that I use that's only for my bed and on the airplane seats, and I feel like I'm sleeping at home. I always do 111Skin, the rose gold one. I sleep with it on. Then when I'm on a plane, that's when I do my teeth whitening. I used to try to do it at home, but I love snacking, and I can't sit with the teeth whitening thing for an hour or 30 minutes or anything. I get a lot of inspiration from my dreams. I will wake up in the middle of my dream and write it down so I don't forget. I have a lot of friends that are musicians, so whenever they're in the studio, and we're in the same cities, I'll get a mini canvas or a sketchbook, and then I'll go to [their] studio sessions. I'll tell them to ignore me. I'll sit in the corner, and as they're making their music, I'll be making a painting that's inspired by the music or watching them. Once I get five or six paintings done, I want to start doing exhibitions. Right now, I'm on my fourth painting. By the end of this year, I want to have my exhibition set and going. I'm the slowest painter ever. I started painting my friend Daniel Caesar around Christmas, and then I finished painting half of him by the end of spring. This was one of the studio sessions. He was in the studio in London, working on his most recent album [Never Enough], and I just had a flash of this image of him. I'll wait for him to take a break, and then I'll have him pose somewhere in the room, set up lights, take photos of him at every angle, and then, I print out all those photos. As I'm painting, all the photos are blown up, and there's maybe 50 pictures of him that I'm looking at so I can get every detail correct. But all my friends are impatient, so even if I wanted them to sit and pose for me, they probably would sit there [only] for 15 minutes. Yeah, he's seen it. At the beginning he was like, This doesn't look like me. And then I went back, and I worked on it more, and I asked his team, asked friends, and they were like, This is exactly him. It's really strange, because when someone paints you, you have this idea of yourself in your head, and then once you see someone else's work of you that they've done, the idea that you have is so different. It's like those mirrors that are flipped so you see the real version of yourself [versus] what other people see. I remember when I did my first self portrait in high school. After I was done, I was like, This looks terrible. It doesn't look like me. And then everyone from my class was like, Oh my God, it looks exactly like you. I was so angry. You should romanticize every aspect of your life, because that makes life worth living. Anything that I can do to make something more aesthetic or even dramatic, I will do. I have a routine that I do every morning and every night, and I always stick to it. I like to end my nights with a little candle, my little journal, and spraying perfume on my bed. I like to take the extra step to make stuff feel good for me, even if no one else is seeing it. Sometimes I'll go to sleep in lingerie even though no one else is seeing—it's just for me, and it makes me feel good. The more I've been working in the fashion industry, the more dramatic everything has become. I mean, I have perfume for my airplane seat. I don't know how much more dramatic I can get. We love drama. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
