Even though Mariah Carey has a new fragrance, she never was the type to spray on a scent before she left the house. In fact, Carey says she never really wore perfumes until she fell in love with her own creation, "M."

"This is the first fragrance that I wear," Carey told The Associated Press in an interview Monday. "I'm not really a perfume person at all ... Things that are too strong and overwhelming, that's what I was always not a fan of."

But when Elizabeth Arden approached the superstar to create her own perfume, it piqued her interest — mainly because the cosmetics company didn't want to use just her name, but wanted her input in the creation of the scent, which she describes as light, sensual and memorable.

"They were welcoming in my involvement just in every detail, and that was what was the most exciting thing to me," said Carey.

Carey says the fragrance, which comes in a purple bottle with her signature butterfly icon on top, was based on some of her favorite things. One is a Moroccan incense; another is a flower called the Living Tahitian Tiare. But another scent mixed into the fragrance is unexpected: toasted marshmallows.

Carey worked on "M" while on tour and working on her latest album, and said she spent as much time on launching the fragrance as she did working on her music career: "I'm obsessed with it!"

But now she's back to putting most of her focus on the new record, due out early next year. The as-yet-untitled album is the follow-up to her multiplatinum comeback disc, The Emancipation of Mimi, which earned her three Grammys.

"It's hard for me to sit here and talk about it without sounding like I'm bragging if I'm in love with it, but I'm in love with this album," she says. "I think that having the success with the last record allowed me to have more freedom. ... and just make records that I like. It's kind of a really fun record."

(Agencies via China Daily October 23, 2007)