Long gone are the days of 'The Simple Life' where Nicole Richie paraded around with best pal Paris Hilton. Today, as well as being a mother, she is a successful designer; her jewellery line House of Harlow and fashion line Winter Kate quickly won over critics.

Ultimately Richie wants to impact every area of our lives - everything from fashion and fragrance to homeware and haircare. ‘It’s really about curating a world that I hope women will want to be a part of, and nothing brings that to life like a fragrance.’

‘This will be a lifestyle brand. I would love to get into home furnishings and flatware. But I tend to move slower than I’m often asked to — and the reason I do that is that I pretty much do everything myself. I am not going to throw my name on something that I’m not 100 percent in.’

Her eponymous fragrance is inspired by the layers of scents her mother wore. ‘I have a very traditional Southern mom — you never left the house without lotion,” Richie told WWD. “Over her lotion went oil and perfume — she was very put together from head to toe. It wasn’t just a one-dimensional smell — there were many different layers.’

Her fragrance is fruity at first - blackberry and Seville orange, moving into warmer amber, Morocccan rose and lily of the valley, before leaving a lingering aroma of sensual cashmere wood, sandalwood, patchouli and vanilla absolute on the skin. Despite the almost-hippy sounding fragrance that fits well with her boho-esque fashion designs the bottle is Art Deco-inspired, while the outer box takes inspiration from the Art Nouveau period. I wanted it to represent different layers of a woman’ Richie said. 'We’re in an interesting time right now where women aren’t just one thing — there are many different parts to a woman. So I wanted to create a very intricate bottle that was still elegant, but not so in-your-face girly at the same time.'

The fragrance, which is slated to launch this September, is accompanied by an advertising campaign shot by Anthony Mandler. ‘Anthony knows how to shoot something and make it be feminine and sexy, but not so in-your-face girly.’

As well as the print campaign, social media will play a major part, ‘It’s impossible to launch anything without the Internet at this point,’ said Richie.

And don't think the star will be resting on her laurels, her second scent is planned for August next year and she is already thinking of other beauty ventures, ‘I’m not great with makeup, so it wouldn’t make sense for me to do a makeup line at the moment, but hair is something where I know the world very well, and so I probably will be focusing on that sometime soon,’ she said.