- Austin Butler stars in YSL Beauty's MYSLF Eau de Toilette Intense campaign, titled "Dancing With MYSLF," filmed in Mexico City and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Romain Gavras.
- The campaign film is set to a remix of Billy Idol's "Dancing With Myself," following Butler through a playful, dance-filled day: rooftops, rain-soaked streets, and sunset hills, a deliberate departure from typical serious luxury fragrance visuals.
- Butler has fronted the MYSLF franchise continuously since 2023, also headlining the MYSLF Le Parfum (2024) and MYSLF ABSOLU (August 2025) campaigns; he also holds a separate global ambassador role with Cartier.
- Career-wise, Butler recently signed to star as Sonny Crockett opposite Michael B. Jordan in Miami Vice '85, directed by Joseph Kosinski and set for an August 2027 IMAX release.
Austin Butler is back in the YSL chair. The Elvis star is the face of YSL Beauty’s newest fragrance, MYSLF Eau de Toilette Intense: a darker, warmer, more skin-close evolution of the original MYSLF scent, built around orange blossom, bergamot, and patchouli woods.
The campaign, titled Dancing With MYSLF, was shot in Mexico City under the direction of Romain Gavras, the French filmmaker behind music videos for M.I.A., Kanye West, and Jay-Z.
Set to a remix of Billy Idol’s “Dancing With Myself,” the film follows Butler through a sun-drenched day: dressing post-workout, cruising to a dinner party, and dancing solo on rain-soaked streets and rooftops.
The result trades in the brooding, cinematic energy typical of luxury fragrance campaigns for something looser and more joyful, Butler’s idea.
Butler has been the face of the MYSLF line since its 2023 launch, extending the partnership through the MYSLF Le Parfum and MYSLF ABSOLU campaigns.
YSL Beauty has a long history of bold ambassador casting: Dua Lipa fronted the brand’s LOVESHINE Nude campaign, while Lenny Kravitz leads the Y fragrance line, and Lil Nas X and Troye Sivan have served as brand ambassadors for the house’s beauty range.
Off set, Butler is gearing up for Miami Vice ’85, a major Universal Pictures IMAX production co-starring Michael B. Jordan and directed by Joseph Kosinski, slated for 2027.
The campaign launch comes as Butler, also a Cartier global ambassador, continues to position himself as one of Hollywood’s most bankable brand faces.
This is a play that’s working across categories, much like Tom Holland’s recent spring campaign for Vuori showed how A-list actors are reshaping brand partnership expectations.
Takeaways
Austin Butler isn’t just lending his face to YSL, he’s become the load-bearing pillar of an entire fragrance franchise. Three consecutive campaign cycles (MYSLF, Le Parfum, ABSOLU, and now Intense) is a rare level of brand loyalty in celebrity beauty deals, where faces typically rotate every year or two.
YSL is clearly betting that Butler’s evolving cool-guy mystique, now boosted by the buzz around Miami Vice ’85, keeps the MYSLF line culturally relevant with both millennial and Gen Z audiences.
The playful “Dancing With MYSLF” creative direction is also a signal worth noting: luxury fragrance is quietly moving away from moody, aspirational distance toward relatable joy and authenticity.
Butler dancing solo through Mexico City feels less like a cologne ad and more like a lifestyle film, and that intentional blurring is exactly what brands need to cut through a scroll-heavy world.
Is Austin Butler building a luxury brand empire that could outlast his acting career peaks? Does the shift to playful, dance-forward campaign storytelling signal a new era for luxury fragrance marketing overall?
