“I used to steal my mom’s perfume all the time,” tennis pro Coco Gauff tells ESSENCE exclusively. Back in October, the champion—who’s officially the highest paid Black female athlete—was announced the new U.S. ambassador of Miu Miu Beauty’s Miutine eau de parfum. This leap into Miu Miu Beauty’s stratosphere follows Gauff’s Miu Miu partnership, a Miu Miu x New Balance collaboration, earlier this year.
While shooting her first Miu Miu fashion campaign on a tennis court in Florida hit close to home. “it’s even more special to do something off-court to showcase a little bit of a different side of me.” Additionally, when it came to this fragrance partnership, she says, “Miutine is a representation of me and the season that I’m in right now.”
The first time she wore Miutine’s cheeky, wild strawberry notes, the scent took her back to when she used to sneak her mother’s fragrances as a kid. “She prefers more stronger perfumes that I wouldn’t necessarily wear,” she says, noting her mother’s favorites felt too “mature.” However, “I remember there was one that was super light,” which her mother gifted to the young Gauff. “When I smelled Miutine, it reminded me of the first real fragrance that I actually loved.”
The perfume is housed in a timeless matelassébottle with a black-over-white Miu Miu logo around the neck. Pulling off the upward-standing circular cap, the aroma—which lives in the Chypre family—is revealed. “It’s confident, but effortless and has a little bit of sweetness to it, which I like,” she says about the brown sugar, vanilla, and strawberry notes. Meanwhile, sophisticated oak moss and patchouli oil adds depth to the base, which sprouts into the heart note: gardenia.
“I find myself reaching for Miutine the most whenever I’m about to go out to dinner with friends,” she says. But, she also uses the fragrance at a rather unusual time of her day. “I’m one of those people who puts on perfume before they go to sleep,” she shares. “For some reason it just calms me.”
While the fragrance is a big part of her night time ritual, it’s also the finishing touch to her on-court beauty (which is otherwise centered around sunscreen and skincare). “Sunscreen is a big one, and I’m one of those people that wash my face literally as soon as I finish practice,” Gauff says. “Then, obviously fragrance. Before I go on court, I won’t spray as many squirts, but just enough so I can smell it for myself.”
She says it’s also one of the reasons she feels so confident on the court, in addition to a “killer outfit”—like her Miu Miu x New Balance sets—and a good training session. “When I feel good internally, I view myself differently,” she says. “Some moments I’ll wake up and don’t feel as pretty. So, I try to make sure I take care of myself, my spirit, my soul, so I can feel confident inwardly and outwardly.”
While she’s currently on a break for the holidays, what’s ahead is her first tournament of the season in January. Until then, she’s taking intimate moments to check-in with herself: from resetting her mind with skincare, journaling, or finding time to reflect. “Sometimes when you’re always on the go, you forget to take moments of solitude,” she says. “I just try to make sure I find time for that each day.”