If you walked into a Macy’s or a Sephora in late 2006, you probably remember the gold-capped bottle sitting on the counter. It looked like a vintage citrine stone. At the time, celebrity scents were basically a sugary arms race. Britney Spears had Fantasy. Paris Hilton had... well, everything. Most of them smelled like a cupcake exploded in a fruit bowl.
Then came Hilary Duff With Love fragrance. It was weird. It was spicy. Honestly, it was way too sophisticated for a 19-year-old pop star to be releasing, but that’s exactly why we’re still talking about it twenty years later.
The Mangosteen Risk
Most celebrity perfumes back then used the same "safe" notes: jasmine, vanilla, maybe some generic berry. Hilary Duff didn't do that. She teamed up with Elizabeth Arden and two heavy-hitter perfumers, Rodrigo Flores-Roux and Stephen Nilsen. If those names sound familiar, it's because they’ve worked on everything from Tom Ford to Clinique.
They didn't just slap her name on a bottle. Hilary reportedly smelled over 100 single notes before narrowing the list down to 10. The standout? Mangosteen.
It’s a tropical fruit, but not the "tropical" you’re thinking of—not coconut and pineapple. It’s tart and slightly floral. They paired it with exotic spices and chai latte notes. Think about that for a second. In an era of bubblegum pop, Hilary Duff released a perfume that smelled like an expensive tea shop in an old wood-paneled library.
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What’s Actually Inside the Bottle?
The composition of With Love is layered in a way that feels more like niche perfumery than a mass-market celebrity release.
- Top Notes: Spices and Mangosteen. It hits you with a sharp, fizzy sweetness that immediately settles into something warmer.
- The Heart: This is where the Cocobolo wood comes in. It’s a rare, dense wood that gives the scent a "heavy" feel. Not heavy as in suffocating, but heavy as in high-quality.
- The Base: Amber milk, musk, and a tiny hint of incense.
The result is what fragrance nerds call a "Linear Oriental." It doesn't change drastically as you wear it, which is actually great because that creamy, spicy dry-down is the best part.
The Tragedy of Discontinuation
Why did it disappear? That’s the question that haunts fragrance forums. Elizabeth Arden eventually pulled the plug as the "Duff era" shifted. While it was a top seller in its first year, sales eventually slowed down as the market became oversaturated.
Today, finding a bottle of Hilary Duff With Love fragrance is like hunting for a rare Pokémon. You can occasionally find them on eBay or Vinted, but you’re going to pay a premium. We’re talking $150 to $200 for a bottle that used to cost $35 at Walmart.
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Even worse, perfumes have a shelf life. Because this scent is so heavy on resins and spices, older bottles can sometimes "turn" and smell a bit like vinegar if they weren't stored in a cool, dark place. It's a gamble.
The Search for a Dupe
Since you can't just pop down to the mall and grab a bottle anymore, the "With Love" community has spent years trying to find a replacement. Some people swear by Versace Crystal Noir, but honestly? It's not quite it. Crystal Noir is heavier on the ginger and cardamom; it lacks that specific mangosteen tang.
Others point toward:
- Nest Vanilla Bourbon: It captures that cozy, ambery "vibe," though it's missing the woodiness.
- The Maker Paradiso: This one actually uses mangosteen, making it one of the closer relatives to the original Duff formula.
- Biosilk Honey Jasmine: Believe it or not, this hair care line has a scent profile that many fans claim triggers the exact same nostalgia as With Love.
Why It Still Matters
It’s easy to dismiss celebrity perfumes as cash grabs. Most of them are. But every once in a while, a star actually cares about the product. Hilary Duff was clearly one of them. She wanted something that felt "grown-up" because her fans were growing up with her.
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It was a bridge between the Lizzie McGuire days and the more mature, indie-pop direction she was heading with her Dignity album. In fact, the music video for the song "With Love" was basically just a giant, high-budget commercial for the perfume. It featured a mysterious elevator encounter and a lot of gold lighting. It was peak 2000s glamour.
How to Shop for It Now
If you’re desperate to smell this again, don’t just buy the first bottle you see on a resale site. Look for "New Old Stock" (NOS). Ask the seller if the juice is still clear or if it has turned dark brown—darkening is normal for ambery scents, but if it looks like soy sauce, the top notes are likely fried.
Check for the gift sets. Sometimes you can find the With Love body lotion or the rollerballs for cheaper than the full-sized faceted bottle. The lotion actually holds the scent surprisingly well and is often less "shifty" than the alcohol-based spray after two decades of sitting in someone's closet.
Moving Forward with Your Collection
If you can't find a vintage bottle of Hilary Duff With Love fragrance, look for scents featuring Cocobolo or Amber Milk. These are the "secret" ingredients that gave the perfume its creamy, woody backbone. While the celebrity perfume market has moved on to "clean girl" scents and skin musks, the spicy-sweet complexity of With Love remains a benchmark for what a celebrity collaboration can actually achieve when the artist is actually in the room.
To keep your current fragrance collection from meeting the same fate as these discontinued gems, always store your bottles away from bathroom humidity and direct sunlight. Heat is the enemy of perfume. If you're lucky enough to own a bottle of With Love, use it sparingly—or better yet, use it and enjoy it before the chemistry inevitably changes.