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Hilary Duff has exceptional taste. The actress’s decor aesthetic tends to run towards modern classics, as do her jewelry picks. During her interview with House Beautiful, Duff was wearing a vintage looking, crescent moon necklace that gave Stevie Nicks vibes. “I love her. Love her!” Duff said, when we noted the homage to the folk goddess style icon—then she recommended that we be sure to see Stereophonic, a musical about Fleetwood Mac, as soon as it hits Broadway.
Duff’s love of timeless style led her to the first serious piece of expensive furniture she bought: A credenza from 1st Dibs that’s still sitting in her entryway. “I was so nervous,” she recalls. “I kept calling my mom, ‘Can I do this? Am I old enough to do this?’ And that’s something that will be around forever.”
Though years have gone by since she consistently called her mother for purchasing support, her tastes have remained the same. Duff’s latest home decor splurge is a chunky, ’70s-inspired rippled glass coffee table by Courtney Applebaum that’s currently residing in her living room. “My dirty rotten kids put their feet all over it and it’s already scratched, but it’s beautiful,” she says.
If it sounds like there’s a budding interior designer within Duff, that’s a fair assessment. “I love home decor,” she says. “I tend to buy things that I’m like, ‘would my 60-year-old self still use and love this?’, whether it’s jewelry or a piece of furniture.” In fact, it was Duff’s love of timeless decor that led to her latest business venture with the all-natural home fragrance company Below 60°, which, she says, is all about “setting a tone” for a home.
“I grew up with other plug-ins—that was a huge part of our house—and I love this modern, clean take,” explains Duff, who joined Below 60° early on as the Chief Brand Director. Its name, Below 60° comes from the 60th parallel south, a land-less strip of the earth that’s 60 degrees below the equator and is known to be the cleanest pocket of air on the planet.
Putting her design chops to work, Duff herself was instrumental in the streamlined look of the plug-in warmer. “It used to stand out really far from the wall, and I was like, mm, I don’t like that,” she recalls.
Not only is the wall attachment more sophisticated, but the essential-oil cartridges are more nuanced than your mom’s plug-ins, says Duff. “They’re more fragrance leaning, with many notes blended together,” she explains. “Even though these are natural, they’re more complex and balanced.” If you’re into cozying up in front of the fire, you’ll want to plug-in Vanilla Buys a Timeshare in Paradise. If a bright sunny day is more your happy place, then try Duff’s own favorite, If Citrus Were a Feeling. And if you just like a clean smell, it’s Mint Disco on Ice, which Duff says, “is very chill, kind of cooling, fresh—I have it going in my 11-year-old’s closet with all of his shoes.”
And while she does envision scented candles in the company’s future, Duff likes the way plug-ins “constantly set the tone [for a house] as opposed to going around, lighting candles, and waiting for that to happen.” She adds, “I have a 130 pound dog that has a really wild tail and I’m always like, ‘Oh my God, just please don’t light that tail on fire.’
What else is in the company’s future? In the short term, new scents. “I’m already sampling and playing with 12 other ones,” says Duff. And further down the road, an even stronger commitment to sustainability. “I think eventually when our company is a little bit bigger, we’ll find ways for [consumers] to send the pods back and have that kind of system going on like people do with the Nespresso pods, to make the least imprint possible,” Duff says. Already, the package the plug in itself comes in is made of recyclable cardboard.
And while it sounds like Duff will still love each of the fragrances when she’s a 60-year-0ld woman, Below 60° home fragrances are less of an investment when it comes to setting a mood in your home. At $30 for the starter-kit bundle, there’s no need to call your mother.
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