Gwen Stefani's perfume L

Gwen Stefani has already proved that she’s very good with her fashion label, L.A.M.B., which has surpassed $100 million in sales since its launch. That’s a lot of cash for simple music fans to cough up for her take on clothing, handbags, watches, shoes and, coming in 2008, eyewear, denim and lingerie.

In other words, Gwen Stefani has taste, talent and a business insight that won’t take no for an answer, and it’s these qualities that justify her incursion into the fragrance game. The first impression of L is an animal-print box with a black and white striped lining. Open it up and the square bottle is Rasta red, yellow and green, accented by a turquoise actuator with a gold cap carved from L.A.M.B.’s interlocking Ls.

Of course, what really counts is the fragrance itself: a sweet and light scent that doesn’t run you over. “I think it’s the combination of the masculine and the feminine and all the senses,” Stefani explains. “I always feel the same inspiration: a bit of that chilled-out girl, a little Rasta girl, a little English girl and the Orange County beachy girl.” The top notes are a mix of hyacinth, white freesia and pear, with mid-notes of sweet pea, rose and lily of the valley, and base notes of peach skin and musk.

From concept to finishing point, L took two years to hit stores. In the heady pace of fashion and merchandising, one can be forgiven for asking, what took so long? “I wasn’t really ready. For years, people have asked me to do campaigns for different things, and I write music, so to do a celebrity fragrance wasn’t really exciting to me,” she says. “But to have L.A.M.B. get four years down the road and to be able to do a fragrance is such a milestone.”

“I love designing and I want to do it for the rest of my life, but I also love doing music,” she says. “I was trying to be smart and do something I could do later in life. That’s why I called it L.A.M.B. I didn’t call it ‘Gwen Stefani’s Face—Wear It.’ That’s embarrassing! I wanted it to be something that just grows and becomes its own thing, and someday, hopefully, it will be that.”