Just shy of a year after the release of her debut fragrance, XO Khloé, Khloé Kardashian is back with her sophomore effort, a lavender-inspired scent called Almost Always. (The fragrance also has notes of magnolia, star jasmine, orange blossom petals, palo santo, skin sensual woods, solar musks and a “kiss of vanilla,” as the brand puts it.)
For her second fragrance, Kardashian “really wanted lavender” to be a part of it, inspired by her nightly practice of spraying her kids’ beds with the fragrance. The color also ended up in the packaging, which is a lavender crystal bottle; her smell testers were, perhaps a little bit surprisingly, her 7-year-old daughter True Thompson and her nearly 9-year-old niece Dream Kardashian.
“Making a fragrance is one of the scariest f—king things on the entire planet,” Kardashian says. After its release, XO Khloé became “genuinely my signature scent”—one she gave her all to, she says on Zoom. After her first fragrance was commercially successful, “it’s very intimidating and scary, and especially if one does really well, you now have this marker and you want the other one to meet that marker or surpass it,” she says. “So it’s very intimidating, it’s scary, but in a really beautiful, cool way.”
“I think you put more and more pressure on yourself to make sure it’s just as good as the last, at least,” Kardashian adds.
It took “a few hundred modifications” to get Almost Always just right, but “I think with all the modifications and everyone maybe being annoyed with how long it takes me to get to the finish line, it does pay off at the end,” she says.
Perhaps the best endorsement is Kardashian herself, who says she’s always wearing either XO Khloé or Almost Always, describing the new fragrance as “a little more romantic and sexy” than its predecessor.
“If you see me on the street and you ask me what I’m wearing, I can say it’s either one of my fragrances,” Kardashian says. “I want it to be a scent that I am genuinely living in and wearing.”
“Almost Always is enough. And so are you”
When Kardashian originally pitched the name Almost Always, “the team thought it sounded more negative, and I was so taken aback by that because to me, Almost Always is such a positive phrase,” she says. “I think it’s a really whimsical, beautiful, romantic phrase, and I really loved it.”
Eventually, Kardashian wrote out in detail what the name meant to her, “and then everyone was sort of persuaded in my way, because it’s really beautiful,” she says. “It’s about showing up as best you can, but sometimes we get there and sometimes we don’t—but we almost always will continue and try and give our best. And I just think that’s the beauty of life. So it’s maybe a little corny or cheesy, but I also think that’s very me.”
To hear Kardashian describe it further, Almost Always signifies that perfection isn’t the goal—but presence is. “It means you’re trying,” according to Kardashian. “It means you’re human. You don’t have to get it right every time. You are not defined by the one time you couldn’t, you are shaped by the many times you did. Almost Always is enough. And so are you.”
Kardashian partnered with Luxe Brands on both of her fragrances, and the company’s chief marketing officer and chief strategy officer Noreen Dodge says that, when it comes to Kardashian’s growing fragrance empire, “we are building this franchise for the long-term, anchored by an exciting and innovative growth plan.” In addition to the release of Almost Always in November, there will be the launch of a new Hair Mist under the XO Khloé collection, as well.
“The results of XO Khloé have far exceeded our expectations,” Luxe Brands’ CEO Tony Bajaj says. “The success has given us the confidence to roll out multiple new products, ensuring this isn’t just a one-time success but a lasting fragrance empire built for years to come.”
“Every single thing I’m doing, I absolutely love”
Kardashian turned 40 in June of 2024, and since then has launched not just her growing fragrance portfolio but also a podcast, “Khloé in Wonderland,” and the protein popcorn brand Khloud by Khloé Kardashian. She continues to star in The Kardashians on Hulu alongside her family; front Good American, the clothing brand she co-founded in 2016; and be a full-time mom to the aforementioned True and 3-year-old Tatum Thompson. One venture we can decidedly not expect Kardashian to delve into—at least not yet? A beauty brand beyond fragrance. “I think my sisters have it covered,” she says, referring to Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS Beauty and Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics. Referring to her fragrances, she adds, “I love where I am and I don’t want to overdo it.”
“I started when I was turning 40 intentionally trying to do things that were pushing me a little bit more and finding my rhythm on my own again—but I didn’t realize everything would happen all at once,” says Kardashian, who turned 41 this summer. “But I feel very blessed. I come from a place of gratitude.”
“I genuinely feel so grateful to be here and grateful to be having these experiences, and every single thing I’m doing, I absolutely love,” she says.
Though a makeup or skincare brand might not be in her future, Kardashian says she loves a beauty treatment—from lasers to salmon sperm facials to beef tallow, she’s doing it all.
“I will try probably any beauty treatment under the sun,” Kardashian says. “Especially if it’s new and it’s trending, I’ll be like, ‘Yes, sign me up.’”
In addition to being part of her mom’s fragrance focus group, True is beginning to get into beauty herself, Kardashian says. She likes to experiment with blush and short press-on nails, and “she likes to wash her face and put sunscreen on every day,” Kardashian says. “She likes a routine. And I love that. I love a routine.”
“She’s really good about hygiene and taking care of herself and me teaching her how to do that has been really fun,” Kardashian continues, adding, “She’s really exploring with the beauty stuff, but she’s very demure about it. She’s not a wild beauty girl, and I really love that.”
Of True and her close-in-age cousins—like Kim’s daughter Chicago West and Kylie’s daughter Stormi Webster, who, like True, are both 7 (and all of whom just might inherit their mother’s respective beauty empires someday)—“I love seeing these little humans that were once toddlers now grow up, and they’re like little young ladies,” Kardashian says.
After all, Almost Always has already passed the young ladies’ smell test—so now, it seems, it’s primed and ready for the world to smell. The fragrance is set to preview on the Ulta Beauty app on November 3 and will officially launch online on November 5 before becoming available in Ulta Beauty stores in the U.S. on November 9. A European launch at Douglas will follow later in the month.