The One Fragrance Jennifer Lopez Always Wore To Strip In Hustlers

"Dark, musky, deep, woodsy," Jennifer Lopez mused last night when I asked her what her Hustlers character, Ramona, would smell like in real life. We don't know whether the woman who inspired her character, Samantha Barbash, would agree, but there's no denying that fragrance has played a huge role in J.Lo's own career. In fact, it's how she got into her Hustlers character in the first place.

"Ramona was definitely a heavy perfume wearer," Lopez told me backstage at her fragrance launch event in New York City. "I always have Glow with me and… we set it up on the makeup table and I always do a quick spritz before I walk out. My assistant always says, 'don't forget!' because she knows I like to smell good when I am close to people."

For Lopez, last night marked yet another fragrance milestone. The multi-hyphenate star, whose fragrance empire is already reportedly worth $2 billion, gathered a room full of beauty editors into the Soho House in New York City to celebrate her 25th fragrance, Promise. The woodsy-meets-citrus-meets-amber blend is a mix of conflicting notes that take you in many different directions — not unlike J.Lo's own past year. She told me that the scent was created to encapsulate this whirlwind period, from her 50th Birthday Tour to her engagement to Alex Rodriguez (yes, he was patiently standing right by during our interview) to her role in the blockbuster film.

But this fragrance represents more than that to Lopez; it's also a tribute to her Latinx roots. "I remember my mom having her Avon perfumes all over the place... my grandmother's house, her little powder that had a little puff and a Flamenco woman on it," she says. "Fragrance was a part of their lives, it was a part of getting ready, part of making themselves beautiful and special occasions." For Lopez, those familiar scents especially take her back. "I remember that during holidays and special occasions, like going over to my grandma's house to eat or my cousins coming to visit, it was a big part of our lives, those smells," she says.

J.Lo's upbringing is undoubtably woven throughout her scents, she says, but this latest one taps into her success in a new way. She says that she was at dinner with Warren Buffett, the 89-year-old businessman worth nearly 80 billion dollars, when the name for this fragrance dawned on her. "He told me something that really resonated with me," Lopez says. "He said, 'a brand is a promise.' At this time in my life, it's the promises that I've made to myself that I've kept that have gotten me to where I am. A brand is a promise to deliver something of quality to people that they can count on."

Lopez feels that this 25th scent is the perfect blend of everything that has brought her to this moment, from her humble beginnings to her status as a worldwide icon. "Everything I'm doing, it all works together, because it's a feeling, a moment that I'm having," she says. Will that moment include an Oscar in a few months? Time will only tell.