The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Victoria's Secret named this one XO, Victoria, a name that carries the brand's identity right in the bottle. Launched in 2016, it landed during the brand's fragrance push, where every release felt like a mood board: confident, soft, a little flirty. The formula was composed by a team of perfumers, including Yann Vasnier, Stephen Nilsen, Adriana Medina-Baez, and Quentin Bisch, each bringing their own sensibility to the work. The brief seems to have been clear: capture something wearable, pretty, and just distinctive enough to stand apart on a crowded department-store shelf. The name itself carries the brand's signature, a quick shorthand of affection that doubles as a label.
What's interesting here is the choice to lead with apple and citruses rather than the more expected peach or berry. Apple's tartness gives the opening an edible but not dessert-like quality, something closer to biting into fruit still on the branch. The orchid in the heart keeps the composition from going too heavy, reading sheer, almost watery, which lets the rose breathe without turning soapy. And then there's the ivy in the base, an unusual call that brings a green, almost leafy bitterness.
The evolution
On skin, the opening is pure snap. Apple hits bright and slightly sour, the citruses lending a clean zest underneath, like peeling an orange next to an open window. It reads almost edible, which is both the charm and the first surprise, since most floral-led fragrances don't open this sharp. The transition into the heart brings the rose and orchid together, and the whole thing softens noticeably. The rose isn't deep or jammy. It stays light, petal-thin, the way a bouquet smells when you're still holding it. The orchid adds a cool, almost translucent quality, giving the florals an airy lift. This is the prettiest phase, the one that makes people lean closer. As the hours pass, the green takes over. The woody notes arrive, reading as a clean, slightly dry woodiness rather than anything dense or smoky.
Cultural impact
XO, Victoria reads as a softer entry in the Victoria's Secret fragrance catalog. The apple-and-ivy combination gives it a freshness that stands apart from the brand's heavier, vanilla-led offerings, making it a choice for someone who wants something lighter on the nose. The rose and orchid keep it grounded in classic feminine territory, while the green notes in the base offer something a little unexpected. It's the kind of scent that works well in transitional seasons, when heavy gourmands feel like too much and simple florals feel too flat.
The House
Victoria's SecretVictoria's Secret began as a San Francisco lingerie company founded in 1977 by Stanford graduate student Roy Raymond and his wife Gaye. The brand entered fragrance in 1989, launching its first perfume Victoria as part of a national magazine campaign. By the early 1990s, the company had grown to 350 stores nationwide with estimated sales of $1 billion. The beauty division grew substantially enough to generate nearly $1 billion in sales by 2006. Victoria's Secret fragrances are developed through Givaudan's Paris laboratory, the same fragrance house behind perfumes for Tom Ford, Prada, and Louis Vuitton. The brand works with a rotating roster of over 30 perfumers rather than a single in-house nose, creating scents for its Dream Angels, Very Sexy, Body, and Pink collections. Popular fragrances include Bombshell, Love Spell, Tease, and Heavenly, which ranked as the top-selling fragrance in the United States by both revenue and volume from 2005 to 2010. Victoria's Secret has won 20 Fragrance Foundation awards since 2001. The company offers fragrances alongside perfumed body care products including body mists, body lotions, and eau de parfum in various formats.
The Creator
Yann VasnierVasnier demonstrates notable versatility across gender and genre, yet his men's work carries particular distinction—often layering richness with unexpected precision. He favors compositions where restraint serves impact, as demonstrated in the twelve-ingredient structure he fo…
