Five Minutes With Catherine Walsh

Coty’s senior vice president of American fragrances, Catherine Walsh, can best be described as the Scent Whisperer. She’s the conduit between the perfumer and celebrities or designers including Jennifer Lopez, Sarah Jessica Parker, Marc Jacobs, and Nicholas Ghesquiere. She’s also a college pal of mine—and since I’ve admired her style since senior year, I had to get the scoop on how it all comes together.

The Lipstick: I’d been wearing Lancaster’s Celebrity, but we don’t make that line anymore, so I just introduced it in our CkOne color line so I could have it again—it’s the biggest perk of my job, by far. It’s called Must Do.

The Haircut: I get it done by Yung Hee, who I met on a shoot years ago, but Odile Gilbert cut it most recently. If I’m on a shoot, and Odile’s there, and she says “You could use a trim,” you’re not going to say no!

The Hair Product: Nivea. Yes, Nivea. I have a tendency to run my fingers thru my hair and one day I had some in my hands and ran it thru my hair and I thought, “ooh, this is good!” It was a total fluke. Whatever residual is on your hands, that’s all you need. But I’m very particular, because I only like it in the tin. It could very well be the same formula that’s in the plastic tubes, but it’s just more authentic to me in its tin.

The Watch: The day I signed the Jennifer Lopez contract I was in the car with my bag and I made the driver stop at Chopard—and I bought it. Reward thyself. Every day is an essential gift-giving day to oneself, no?

The Workout: I train religiously with Mark Campbell—I follow him to every gym he goes to. We do a lot of weights, but we also do a lot of calisthenics, and then I run. I run six, sometimes seven days a week. It’s my only form of stress reduction. If I don’t do it, I am cranky.