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There’s something nostalgic about watching Jessica Simpson walk through a JCPenney salon with her longtime hairstylist Ken Paves—especially if you were once a teenager who marched into your own hair salon clutching a copy of ReJoyce: The Christmas Album, begging them for Simpson’s billowing blonde waves.
I recounted that memory to Simpson and Paves 20 years later—and confessed that my stylist told me getting those waves would be physically impossible without a pound of extensions. “Oh, I’m sure I had many,” Simpson says. “I’m sure my head was heavy!”
She’s in full glam on a rainy Saturday, surrounded by her team—which also included her mother, Tina, and makeup artist Joyce Bonelli—and sipping from a bedazzled black Stanley cup. Outside, a line of fans who’ve waited for hours snakes around the store. To reach our interview setup, she walks through the store’s fully-booked salon, passing patrons who did not expect a celebrity spotting along with their afternoon haircut. The dichotomy is the essence of Jessica Simpson.
The 20-plus years Simpson has spent in the public eye have not been without tribulations: In the early 2000s—at the height of tabloid culture—her talent and appearance were constantly compared to her competitors in the industry. As Newlyweds became a household reality program, there was endless scrutiny around her intelligence (and later, her divorce from Nick Lachey). Her body became tabloid fodder; she has said she developed body dysmorphia as a result. Her label dropped her after she had a number-one country music album in 2008 and she ultimately took a decade-long hiatus from music because of it. In her memoir, Open Book, she revealed she became dependent on alcohol during this time. Then, in 2021, the parent company of the massively successful Jessica Simpson Collection filed for bankruptcy, threatening a brand that had been valued at $1 billion. As of this year, she has separated from husband Eric Johnson.
But Simpson's willingness to talk about it all is part of the reason why people continue to root for her. She’s vulnerable. She’s relatable. She appears positive and bubbly despite it all. And she perseveres. She and her mother bought back Jessica Simpson Collection. Her memoir was a best-seller. She’s releasing music as an independent artist on her own terms. She’s single and ready to mingle.
We’re here today because Simpson, 45, has launched a new fragrance. Mystic Canyon is her first in five years, and a break from the gourmand wave that’s infiltrated the perfume world as of late. It’s not sugary-sweet at all, but a spicy floral with a fruity opening that settles into a vanilla-ambroxan-woody base.
Simpson posing with a bottle of Mystic Canyon on the day of our interview.
Like the fragrance, Simpson, too, is multi-layered. She’s taking a hit of a vape between interviews talking about God. She’s getting vulnerable about being divorced, then joking about her buttcrack size.
And so, after graciously letting me share that she was pivotal in developing my sense of beauty as a teen and fellow Texan, we dove into how Simpson balances the adoration and scrutiny that come with being woman in the public eye for decades, why she feels more youthful than ever in her 40s, her thoughts on plastic surgery, and creating Mystic Canyon.
Allure: How has the way you’ve wanted to smell evolved over the past 20 years?
Jessica Simpson: Life experiences are always a part of your makeup and your fragrance. As far as evolving, I actually feel younger in my 40s than I did in my 30s—maybe it's because I was having kids in my 30s, and there was a lot going on. It was a lot of “home life.” Now I'm in my 40s and releasing music, I'm back to being an entertainer, so I feel young again. It's like being born all over again and chasing my dreams. And that makes me feel young when I'm present with myself, when I'm writing in my journals. That's where all of my inner confidence comes from.
No matter what I was going through in my life, confidence was so important. And coming back to music, I was so ready. No matter what happened, I just had to focus on the light of it all, even if I felt like I was in some dark forest. The search for myself and my 40s is [inspired the scent of] Mystic Canyon. I mean, it was a mystery as to how I would even get the music out. I'm an independent artist, right? I didn't know how many ears it would reach, but I did know that it was my purpose.
As far as how I've smelled, I've always been a vanilla fan. Every candle I get has some vanilla in it. I'm a vanilla frosting girl. And I do like earthy types of smells, like cedarwood or sandalwood, and that happened more in my late 30s to 40s. I love things that remind me of something that I've gone through, persevered through, or a moment like my first kiss—I know that I was wearing Givenchy Amarige [for that]. Mystic Canyon represents how I felt in becoming an artist again, becoming an independent woman. It has a strength to it, but also, I romanticize everything, so the romance is there.
Allure: As I was walking in, I saw [the Jessica Simpson Collection], and there's a poncho. I was like, “Hell yes, bring ponchos back!”
Simpson: Love a good poncho.
Allure: This summer, I made a video about your aesthetic from 2003. You had a pulled back slick bun, a Juicy Couture wrap top with the shortest shorts you've ever seen, and wedge heels.
Simpson: Are you talking about [the photo] in the grocery store? I would say that is very “Jessica Newlyweds.” I was laying out by the pool, and there was going to be a barbecue, so I put the Juicy Couture [top] on and, of course, my Dior heels.
I have two storage units because I save everything. So I have all of these things saved that we're talking about.
Allure: That sounds like my dream closet.
Simpson: Unfortunately, my kids are so much taller than me, and [my 13-year-old daughter] Maxwell, I think her foot was a size 8 when she was probably in sixth grade. She wanted to go through my storage unit, because she was looking at clips on TikTok or something of Newlyweds, and she goes, “Do you still have that?” I was like, “Definitely, it's archived.” I love being able to give that stuff to my kids. That's why I have two storage units. We'll see if they actually ever [wear what I’ve saved]. I’m probably wasting money, to be honest.
Allure: We covered ponchos. Is there another 2000s trend that you want to bring back?
Simpson: I've never left the big hoops. I love a low-rise jean, because I have a long body and short legs, and my butt crack’s about the size of a pinky. [Laughs] I have the smallest butt crack. It just makes sense for me to wear low-rise.
Allure: Thank you for that visual! I appreciate it. That was great.
Simpson: [Laughing] Low-rise jeans look best on [my] booty.
Allure: I’m wearing low-rise jeans today, so you've influenced me.
Simpson: Well, let’s not forget me with “Mom jeans” that everybody wears now. I was scarred. [Editor’s note: she’s referring to the highly-critical discourse surrounding these images.] I was like, “I don't like any of you for making me put these on.” But [for the Jessica Simpson] Collection, we know that that's what people love to wear, and they look great on somebody like my sister. Just on me… I have a little bit of PTSD about them. People are like, “We love Mom jeans!” And I'm like, “I don't know that I could ever say that.”
Allure: You mentioned fragrance tells a story. What story haven't you told yet?
Simpson: There's a lot of stories I haven't told yet, believe it or not. We all know I'm an open book—too open at times. I like all the discoveries that I've been making in the last few years while making music. I feel like I haven't been able to get it all out, because I haven't released all the songs yet. There's still so much more that is a part of [my album series] Nashville Canyon that I haven't released yet, different emotions. Luckily, I have a documentary that we're about to start shooting.
Allure: I know you're a Cancer.
Simpson: I love that you know that.
Allure: Well, I wanted to look at your chart because people are obsessed with your appearance.
Simpson: Yes, they are…
Allure: They either want to be you or they want to scrutinize you. Do you think this is just something that comes with the territory of being a female celebrity in 2025, or…
Simpson: And in 2005. For me it's been every year, right? I had the Jessica Simpson Collection [as my work], but I really didn't entertain for 15 years, so I didn't understand why I would still be in the tabloids. I didn't understand the fascination. A lot of it has to do with my looks, like it has to do with either being scrutinized or “How did she rise above this?”
Allure: How do you keep yourself grounded amid all these outside opinions?
Simpson: I think we can get lost in people's opinions. We lose our own way, we lose ourselves. We let other people define us. And journaling for me has been a huge part of my inner confidence. It's been a big part of just knowing myself, knowing where I'm at without all the noise. If I can sit, even if it's for five minutes, to write a couple things down, going back to those journal entries saves my life in moments I struggle. Knowing ourselves makes us unique, because if we cannot listen to our intuition, we're letting everybody else tell us who we are, right? We are the only people that have our own answers.
Allure: Before we end our chat: I loved you in All’s Fair.
Simpson: Thank you! I'm shocked by everybody's response to be honest. I had no idea how people would respond. I just know that I enjoyed doing it.
Allure: You played a woman that went to an extreme with her looks because of a man. I was looking at your makeup—it was bonkers!
Simpson on-screen in All’s Fair.
Simpson: It was crazy!
Allure: Did seeing yourself like that impact you?
Simpson: It helped me for the role. If a man were to be able to do that to me, and that's what I ended up looking like, that botched… It was kind of easy to be a little bit psychotic, yeah? It’s like, I definitely wanted revenge, but I also feel like I carried her pain with it. She was vulnerable.
I really liked the character. I just feel bad for anybody that would do that for a man. I understand plastic surgery. It's for you, and if you feel you actually need it and would be happy with [the results], and it would make your day better, make your life better… but as far as make your relationship better, no. I would love women to know it doesn't work. It will never work, because men are men. There's always somebody that [is going to find] something in someone [else] that you don't have. And if you just keep chasing that, it's endless.
Allure: I’m going to end with this real quick. Two decades ago, you said in the song With You that, “I’ve never felt more beautiful than I do now.” What makes you feel beautiful today?
Simpson: I think dreaming, and hopes, and purpose. I feel beautiful when I'm focused on staying true to my purpose. Because no matter what, nobody's opinions are going to knock me out of that. I've known that since I was young, and I carry that confidence with me, like it was God ordained, like it was a prayer over my life that is still going.